A  SKETCH 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


SPEECHES 


OF 


JOSEPH  E.  BROWN 


HERBERT  FIELDER 


SPRINGFIELD,  MASS.: 

PRESS    OF    SPRINGFIELD    PRINTING    COMPANY. 
1883. 


I   7.5 


Copyright,  1883. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
1 

25 
91 

108 
158 


INTRODUCTION,        ......... 

CHAPTER    I.     My  Contemporaries.     1857,       .... 

II.     Governor  Joseph  E.  Brown's  Early  Life,  . 
u        III.     Government  of  Georgia  under  Joseph  E.  Brown, 
"         TV.     State  Geologist  and  Chemist,     .... 

"  V.     Secession  of  Cotton  Growing  States  and  Organi 

zation  of  the  Confederacy,  .         .         .         .170 

"         VI.     First  Year  in  the  Field, 202 

"       VII.     Defence  of  Georgia  by  State  Forces,  .         .       243 

"  VIII.  Government  of  Georgia  in  Relation  to  the  War,  256 
"  IX.  Governor  Brown  and  the  Confederate  Military,  275 
"  X.  Correspondence  of  Governor  Brown  and  James 

A.  Seddon,  Secretary  of  War,  1864,    .         .       318 
"         XI.     Correspondence    of   President  Davis   and  Gov 
ernor  Brown  upon  Conscription,          .         .       355 
"       XII.     Correspondence  of  Governor  Brown  and  A.  Ful- 

larton,  British  Consul  at  Savannah,  .  .  398 
"  XIII.  Reconstruction  of  Georgia,  .  .  .  .410 
"  XIV.  Administration  of  Governor  Bullock,  .  .  459 
"  XV.  A  Summary  of  Governor  Brown's  Character,  .  487 
"  XVI.  Supplement  Prepared  for  the  Publishers,  Bring 
ing  the  Narrative  of  Events  to  September, 

1883, 495 

APPENDIX  : 

Speeches  of  Senator  Brown :  The  Mexican  War  Pensions,  593. — The  Edu 
cational  Fund,  605.— The  Indian  Question,  615. — The  Funding  Bill, 
625. — Reply  to  Senator  Mahone  of  Virginia,  630. — A  Free  Ballot  and  a 
Fair  Count,  642.— The  Silver  Bill,  660.— The  Mormon  Question,  678.— 
The  Chinese  Bill,  690.— The  Tariff  Commission  Bill,  704.— Civil  Ser 
vice  Reform,  714. — Rights  of  the  Citizens  of  the  late  Confederate 
States  to  Proceeds  of  Cotton  Seized  by  U.  S.  Government,  725. — The 
Tariff  and  the  Internal  Revenue  System,  742. — Unconstitutionality  of 
the  Test  Oath,  756.— Our  Country,  772. 


Errata  and  Explanations. 


Chapter  I,  page  25, "  My  Contemporaries/'  was  written 
by  the  author  at  various  times  during  his  professional 
life,  and  contains  his  opinions  and  estimates  of  the  men 
at  the  time  he  wrote. 

Page  4,  llth  line,  after  Nathaniel  Green  Foster,  read 
"  the  Madison  District." 

Page  53,  10th  line,  "James  I.  Gresham"  should  be 
"  John  J.  Gresham." 

Page  52,  16th  line,  «  Barney  "  should  be  «  Burney." 

Page  53,  4th  line  from  bottom, "  H.  S.  M'  Kay  "  should 
be"H.  K.  McCay." 

Page  115,  llth  line,  "correction"  should  be  "convic 
tion." 

Page  156,  20th  line,  the  year  "  1875  "  should  be  "  1785." 

Page  283,  7th  line  from  bottom,  after  words  "habeas 
corpus,"  insert  "  generally  throughout  the  realm." 

Page  432,  3d  line  from  bottom,  "  John  Pope  "  should 
be  "  Meade." 

Page  456,  llth  line  from  bottom,  "  Garrett  "  should  be 
"  Garnett." 


INTRODUCTION. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  GEORGIA  IN  1880. 

This  State,  in  extent  of  area,  geological  formation,  and 
diversity  of  mineral  resources;  in  abundance  and  variety 
of  timber  ;  in  water  and  water-power  ;  diversity  and  fer 
tility  of  soil ;  capabilities  of  immense  and  varied  vegetable 
productions  ;  in  climate,  adapted  to  the  comfort  and  health 
of  a  multitudinous  population;  in  adaptation  to  manu 
factures,  to  rail,  river,  canal,  and  ocean  carriage  and 
transportation  ;  its  facilities  for  the  growth  as  well  as 
maintenance  of  a  numerous,  powerful,  great,  and  happy 
population, — in  everything  except  the  present  possession 
of  enough  of  people  and  money,  and  aside  from  all  polit 
ical  considerations,  is  an  empire  within  itself. 

If  she  were  a  separate  body,  standing  on  two  pillars  of 
land  and  water,  the  Atlantic  coast  and  the  "Land  of 
Flowers  "  indicative  of  her  varied  capabilities,  we  could 
easily  point  out,  to  the  enquiring  beholder,  the  peculiar 
facilities  of  the  belts  that  form  the  surface  from  base  to 
summit. 

At  the  broad  bottom,  we  have  her  level  low  lands, 
where  the  accumulated  columns  of  her  rivers  move  slowly 
to  the  Gulf  and  Ocean,  and  where  their  tributaries  are 
skirted  with  green  hammocks  and  dark  loam,  the  region 
dotted  with  open  ponds,  and  those  of  deposit  and  thick 
growth,  the  main  picture  being  the  green  carpet,  with 
its  floral  decorations,  perfumed  by  fragrant  odors.  This 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

level  belt  has  its  inexhaustible  wealth  of  timber,  abounds 
with  self-sustaining  cattle,  sheep  and  hogs.  The  people 
are  plain,  frugally  clad,  honest,  hospitable  and  brave, 
producing  support  with  but  little  labor  and  exertion.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  draw  a  statistical  account  of  the 
capabilities  of  this  belt  alone,  if  it  were  only  settled 
by  a  population  sufficiently  dense,  permeated  by  rail 
roads,  and  spotted  over  with  diversified  manufactories — 
its  cotton,  wool,  and  silk  ;  its  cane  and  melons  ;  its  grapes 
and  cereals ;  its  peas,  roots,  timber,  and  oils ;  its  animals 
of  burden  and  food;  its  vegetable  and  medicinal  produc 
tions,  and  the  magnificence  of  its  floral  beauty. 

Higher  up,  the  broad  belt  occupied,  before  their  eman 
cipation,  in  great  part  by  slaves,  and  their  owners  and 
managers,  and  since  by  a  population  which  in  some  dis 
tricts  is  composed  of  a  majority  of  colored  free  people. 
This  is  the  region  that,  from  its  early  settlement,  was  in 
great  part  devoted  to  the  growth  of  cotton  ;  and  from 
which,  annually,  has  been  brought  to  market  so  much  of 
that  leading  staple  which  has  swelled  the  aggregate 
exportable  value  of  American  products.  But,  withal,  a 
vast  region  not  surpassed  in  the  aggregate  by  any  of 
equal  extent  in  natural  fertility  and  adaptation  to  the 
majority  of  agricultural  and  horticultural  products  that 
are  needed  for  the  necessary  use,  the  comfort,  and  even 
luxury  of  mankind. 

Higher  still,  we  have  the  belt  of  middle  Georgia,  a  gen 
eral  term  that  describes  a  section  in  some  parts  level,  in 
others  broken  and  undulating,  vast  in  extent,  diversified 
in  soil,  and  of  capabilities  that  are  immense.  Here  are 
numerous  springs,  rills,  rivulets,  branches,  and  creeks. 
The  rivers  flow  rapidly  over  granite  and  pebbly  beds, 
leaping  from  higher  to  lower  surface,  as  if  to  supply 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

motive  power  to  machinery  prior  to  man's  invention  of 
the  use  of  condensed  steam.  Here  are  the  rocks  and 
gravel,  the  loam  and  the  clay.  Here  the  cereals  impart 
to  the  picture  a  more  golden  hue,  as  they  mingle  with 
the  cotton,  the  roots,  the  fruits,  and  vines.  This  is  a  land 
highly  favored  by  nature,  and  to  it  have  adhered  a  pop 
ulation  of  former  slaves,  slaveholders,  and  non-slave 
holders,  a  people  worthy  of  this  heaven-favored  country, 
in  every  respect  except  in  numbers. 

Still  higher,  we  have  the  broad  belt  of  upper  Georgia, 
stretching  from  the  east  over  the  freestone  to  the  west 
over  the  limestone,  resembling  the  middle  belt  in  many 
places,  in  surface,  water,  and  geological  formations,  with  a 
still  deeper  golden  hue,  from  preponderance  of  cereal 
crops.  And  not  very  unlike  to  it  in  the  character, 
habits,  and  modes  of  life  of  the  people,  but  with  greatly 
diminished  mixture  of  the  colored  race.  This  vast  re 
gion  is  more  variegated  as  to  fertile  and  barren  lands,  but 
far  exceeds  all  the  rest  in  abundance  and  variety  of  the 
mines  imbedded  beneath  its  surface.  4 

Thus  stands  the  grand  old  State,  arable,  watered,  tim 
bered,  peopled  in  every  district,  with  immense  capabilities 
in  the  production  of  nearly  all  that  man  needs  of  food, 
raiment,  medicine,  laden  along  her  surface  with  vines 
and  fruits,  with  her  skirts  and  graceful  drapery  trimmed 
with  every  variety  of  flowers,  from  the  gorgeous  magno 
lia  to  the  bridal- wreath  spirea.  She  stands  in  magnifi 
cence  peerless  among  the  nations ;  but  in  modesty,  as  if 
a  maiden  decked  and  attired  for  the  altar,  before  their 
assembled  court.  Her  wealth  is  of  the  mountain  chain, 
all  studded  with  stones  and  precious  metals.  By  her 
peaks  and  slopes  she  makes  her  obeisance — so  genial  and 
inviting  is  she  to  all  the  civilized  world.  She  bows  to 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

the  east  to  catch  the  light  as  it  comes  on  Aurora's 
beams;  and  to  the  west  to  bid  adieu  to  the  King  of  Day 
and  receive  the  kiss  of  his  last  retiring  ray ;  to  the  North 
Star,  and  her  twinkling  wintry  comrades;  and  to  the 
Queen  of  Night,  amid  her  virgin  throng  of  southern 
stars ;  lofty  in  her  height,  magnificent  in  her  propor 
tions,  she  catches  the  dews  from  the  clouds ;  she  bows 
lowly  in  commiseration  and  sympathy  with  laboring  man, 
and  sheds  her  tears  to  cool  his  parching  fields  ;  these  she 
mingles  with  the  floods  distilled  from  the  clouds,  and  the 
fountains  she  sends  forth  from  every  undulation  of  her 
bosom,  and  propels  them,  in  silvery  columns,  along  their 
winding  ways,  over  cascades  and  through  deep  valleys, 
with  converging  channels  and  concentrating  waves,  to 
unite  with  the  great  waters  of  Gulf  and  Ocean. 

AREA. 

The  State  extends  from  thirty-one  and  a  half  to  thirty- 
five  degrees  of  north  latitude,  having  an  average  length 
north  and  south  of  three  hundred  miles,  and  breadth 
east  and  west  of  about  two  hundred  miles.  It  contains 
58,000  square  miles,  being  about  37,120,000  acres  of 
land. 

POPULATION. 

By  the  census  of  1870  there  were  638,926  white,  and 
595,192  colored,  making  the  aggregate  1,184,109  people. 
By  the  census  of  1880  the  whites  are  816,906,  the  colored 
725,133,  making  the  aggregate  1,542,180. 

SUBDIVISIONS. 

There  are  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  counties,  vary 
ing  in  size,  shape,  population,  productions,  and  wealth. 
These  are  subdivided  into  militia  districts,  designed  orig- 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

inally  for  the  convenience  of  military  organization, 
which  have  also  been  adopted  as  jurisdictions  for  courts 
of  justices  of  the  peace. 

The  judicial  division  of  the  State  is  into  circuits,  form 
ing  jurisdictions  for  the  Superior  Courts,  the  highest  tri 
bunal  of  original  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction  in  the 
State,  of  which  there  are  twenty-one,  each  having  a  judge 
and  solicitor  elective  by  the  Legislature. 

There  are  ten  political  districts,  the  people  of  each  of 
which  elect  a  representative  in  Congress.  And  forty- 
four  senatorial  districts,  each  electing  a  senator  in  the 
State  Legislature,  the  representatives  being  elected 
by  counties. 

BOUNDARY. 

Commencing  on  the  south-east  at  Tiger  island,  at  the 
mouth  of  Sfc  Mary's  river,  the  State  has  an  ocean 
front  on  the  Atlantic  north  to  Tybee  island  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Savannah  river,  along  the  eastern  border  of  the  coun 
ties  of  Camden,  Glynn,  Mclntosh,  Liberty,  Bryan  and 
Chatham.  Thence  that  river  and  her  eastern  tributary, 
flowing  south-east,  divide  this  state  «from  South  Carolina, 
to  the  south  line  of  North  Carolina  along  the  eastern 
border  of  the  counties  of  Chatham,  Effingham,  Burke,  Rich 
mond,  Columbia,  Lincoln,  Elbert,  Hart,  Franklin,  Haber- 
sham,  and  Rabun,  to  the  north-east  corner.  Thence  a 
dry  line  west,  along  the  northern  border  of  the  counties 
of  Rabun,  Towns,  and  part  of  Fannin,  adjoining  North 
Carolina,  and  thence  along  the  balance  of  Fannin  and 
the  counties  of  Murray,  Whitfield,  Catoosa,  Walker  and 
Dade  adjoining  Tennessee,  to  the  north-west  corner  near 
the  Tennessee  river.;  thence  a  dry  line  south  along  the 
western  border  of  the  counties  of  Dade,  Walker,  Chat- 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

tooga,  Floyd,  Polk,  Haralson,  Carroll,  Heard  and  Troup , 
to  the  west  bank  of  the  Chattahoochee  river  ;  thence  south 
along  that  bank  and  the  west  border  of  the  counties  of 
Harris,  Muscogee,  Chattahoochee,  Stewart,  Quitman,  Clay, 
Early,  and  a  part  of  Decatur,  all  adjoining  Alabama ;  and 
thence  the  balance  of  said  county  adjoining  Florida  to 
the  south-west  corner  at  the  confluence  of  the  Flint  with 
the  Chattahoochee  river.  Thence  east  a  dry  line  along 
the  southern  border  of  the  counties  of  Decatur,  Thomas, 
Brooks,  Loundes,  Echols  and  Clynch  to  the  St.  Mary's 
river ;  thence  along  the  irregular  course  of  that  stream  on 
the  counties  of  Charlton  and  Camden,  to  the  Atlantic 
ocean, — all  adjoining  Florida. 

RIVERS. 

The  Savannah  is  navigable  for  steamers  from  the  At 
lantic  to  Augusta ;  and  far  above  that  city  for  flat  boats. 
The  Chattahoochee,  from  its  termination  in  the  Appalachi- 
cola  in  Florida  to  the  rapids  at  the  city  of  Columbus. 
The  Altamaha,  from  the  Atlantic  to  its  beginning  at  the 
confluence  of  Ocmulgee  and  Oconee :  the  former,  to 
Hawkinsville,  and  the  latter,  to  the  bridge  of  the  Central 
Eailroad  in  Washington.  The  St.  Mary's,  Satilla,  and 
Ogeechee,  for  less  distances  and  smaller  vessels,  as  are  the 
Ohoopee  and  Ocholochnee. 

The  streams  flowing  northward  across  the  Tennessee 
line,  the  Hiwassee,  Notley,  Tocoa  and  Chickamauga  riv 
ers,  are  not  navigable  in  this  State.  The  Oostenaula  is 
navigable  for  small  boats  about  one  hundred  miles  above 
the  city  of  Rome,  the  point  of  its  confluence  with  the 
Eowah,  forming  the  Coosa,  which,  in  its  flow  to  Alabama, 
is  navigable  about  forty  miles  in  this  State. 

Beside  those  mentioned,  the  State  is  permeated  in  all 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

parts  by  smaller  rivers,  large  and  small  creeks  and  their 
tributary  branches  and  brooks,  affording  pure  water  in 
abundance  for  all  the  uses  of  man  and  the  lower  animals. 
Among  the  rivers  not  already  named,  there  are  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  State  among  the  mountains,  Tallulah, 
Chestatee,  Ellijay,  Coosawattee  and  Connasauga:  south 
of  the  mountains  in  upper  Georgia,  Broad  and  Little  riv 
ers  tributary  to  the  Savannah  and  Talapoosa  flowing  into 
Alabama.  In  middle  Georgia,  Ulcofauhatchee,  called  Al- 
cova,  South  and  Yellow  rivers  tributary  to  Ocmulgee, 
Appalachee  and  Little  rivers  tributary  to  Oconee,  and,  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  State,  Little  Allapaha,  Suwa- 
nee,  and  Canouchee  rivers. 
• 

WATER  POWER. 

These  streams,  passing  from  higher  to  lower  lands, 
abound  with  falls,  many  of  them  beautiful,  and  a  few'  that 
are  of  striking  grandeur  and  awe.  The  water  powers 
furnished  are  multitudinous,  and  diversified  by  the  heights 
and  by  the  differences  in  volume  of  water — varying  from 
one  horse  to  twenty  thousand  horse  power. 

ALTITUDE  AND  SURFACE. 

The  average  elevation  of  the  State  above  the  level  of 
the  sea  ts  about  650  feet.  The  eastern  portion  of  north 
Georgia  is  about  1,500  feet,  having  mountain  chains  3,000 
feet,  with  peaks  nearly  5,000  feet  high.  The  western 
part  of  the  same  belt  is  about  750  feet,  with  mountain 
chains  2,000  feet  high,  some  of  which  are  fertile,  and  are 
generally  interspersed  with  extensive  and  fertile,  as  well 
as  beautiful  valleys,  while  the  eastern  is  more  generally 
hilly,  with  fewer  valleys. 

The  belt  of  middle  Georgia  above  the  points  of  river 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

navigation  is  generally  from  500  to  1,000  feet,  the  aver 
age  altitude  being  about  750  feet.  This  belt  has  no 
mountains,  except  perhaps  the  majestic  Stone  Mountain 
towering  up  in  the  midst  of  a  comparatively  level  section. 
It  has  no  extended  plains  or  valleys,  but  is  generally  un 
dulating,  and  in  some  places  quite  broken  and  hilly.  The 
lower  belt,  being  by  far  the  largest,  has  an  altitude  of 
from  200  to  300  feet.  It  is  generally  level,  though  in 
some  places  exceedingly  uneven  and  broken  by  steep, 
low  hills  and  narrow  valleys  and  ravines.  The  streams 
flow  more  slowly,  have  scarcely  any  high  lands  and  hills 
skirting  them,  as  in  the  up  country,  and  more  extensive 
swamps  and  low  marshes.  And  the  face  of  the  country, 
instead  of  being  varied  as  in  the  northern  part  by  moun 
tains,  is  interspersed  often  with  small  ponds,  some  of  them 
open  and  clear,  others  surrounded  by  dense  undergrowth  : 
and  by  beautiful  lakes,  many  of  them  transparent. 

The  State  has  three  general  slopes  subdivided  by  many 
small  ones.  The  first  and  major  one  is  the  Atlantic, 
south-east  of  the  Appalachian  chain  of  mountains,  and  the 
Chattahoochee  ridges  dividing  it  north-east  to  south-west, 
above  the  middle.  The  next  in  size,  the  Gulf  slope,  south 
of  that  chain  and  west  of  the  Ridges.  The  other,  the 
Tennessee  slope,  north  of  those  mountains.  All  are  indi 
cated  by  the  rise  and  flow  of  the  water  courses,^nd  are 
marked  by  a  diversity  of  climate,  soil,  timber,  and  mineral 
deposits. 

CLIMATE. 

The  southern  half  of  the  State  is  marked  by  equanimity  : 
mildness  in  winter,  and  regular  warm  days  and  nights  in 
summer.  The  northern,  by  greater  diversity  and  change 
of  temperature ;  the  winters  are  colder  and  have  more 
sudden  and  extreme  changes  from  mild  to  severe  cold. 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

The  summer  is  delightful  for  the  cool  and  bracing  atmos 
phere  at  night,  and,  in  the  higher  portions,  freedom  from 
oppressive  heat  by  day.  The  temperature  varies  much 
also  between  the  mountains  and  valleys.  The  wfiole 
northern  belt  abounds  in  springs  so  cold  that  water  needs 
no  ice  to  adapt  it  to  use  for  drinking. 

SOIL,  PRODUCTIONS    AND   HEALTH. 

The  tide-water  lands  on  the  south-east  are  devoted  to 
rice,  and  furnish  most  of  the  product  of  that  grain  which 
the  State  sends  to  market.  It  is,  however,  grown  mostly 
for  home  consumption,  to  a  considerable  extent  on  the 
low  lands  of  the  interior. 

The  vast  area  of  lower  Georgia,  generally  sparse  of 
population,  produces  corn,  oats,  barley  rye,  rice  (wet  or 
dry  culture),  peas,  ground  peas,  turnips,  potatoes,  sugar 
cane,  cotton,  tobacco,  vegetables,  fruits,  berries,  and  mel 
ons.  The  soil  is  light,  soft  and  of  easy  cultivation.  Most 
of  the  habitations  are  of  sparse  dimensions,  made  of  rough 
timber  from  adjacent  forests,  and  built  at  but  trifling 
expense.  The  people  away  from  the  streams,  swamps, 
marshes,  and  hammocks  are  as  free  from  disease  as  those 
of  any  part  of  the  continent ;  but  in  such  localities  they 
are  more  or  less  exposed  to  malarial  diseases.  The  native 
grasses  afford  permanent  pasturage  to  sustain  well  in  sum 
mer,  but  poorly  in  winter,  cattle  and  sheep.  Hence  beef 
and  wool  enter  largely  into  home  consumption  and  furnish 
profitable  commerce  to  many  of  the  people. 

The  middle  belt  of  rolling  and  sometimes  hilly  surface 
is  of  red  gray,  and  in  some  places  mulatto  soil,  all  with 
clay  foundation ;  and,  except  sugar-cane,  is  productive  of 
all  the  crops  mentioned  in  the  low  country,  and  is  well 
adapted  also  to  wheat.  In  fact,  nearly  all  of  the  market 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

crops  of  the  continent  will  grow  here,  though  all  are  not 
cultivated. 

The  population  is  more  dense  than  in  lower  Georgia, 
thofcgh  sparse  here  compared  with  many  other  States  of 
the  Union.  The  dwellings,  not  universally,  but  generally, 
are  more  commodious  and  comfortable.  The  white  peo 
ple  are  healthful,  active,  industrious,  and  generally  intelli 
gent.  There  is  a  larger  population  of  colored  people  than 
in  the  sparsely  settled  portions  of  lower  Georgia. 

The  same  description  of  peoples  applies  to  the  wealthier 
and  more  densely  populated  neighborhoods  of  the  low 
country ;  and  to  the  northern  belt,  where  similar  crops 
are  grown  with  less  proportion  of  cotton  and  colored  peo 
ple,  as  to  the  major  part  of  it,  with  the  addition  of  grasses, 
including  clover  for  hay ;  and  where  the  soil  is  better 
adapted  for  the  growth  of  tobacco,  not  extensively  grown 
in  any  part  of  the  State. 

TIMBER. 

The  extensive  southern  belt  abounds  with  pine,  which 
is  of  the  finest  quality  and  inexhaustible  quantity.  The 
lakes,  many  of  the  ponds,  and  the  water  courses  are  often 
skirted  with  live  oak,  and  other  species  of  oak,  and  with 
evergreen  trees  in  great  variety.  These  tracts,  not  ex 
tensive  in  width,  are  called  hammocks ;  and  where  the 
land  is  so  low  as  to  retain  the  water  amid  the  trees  and 
undergrowth  they  are  called  swamps,  some  of  which  are 
dense  and  extensive. 

The  timber  of  middle  and  many  parts  of  upper  Georgia 
was  extensively  destroyed  for  farming  purposes ;  but  still 
in  many  places  the  supply  is  abundant.  The  native  for 
ests  were  set  with  pine  in  many  places  mixed  with  oak  in 
every  variety,  dogwood,  hickory,  poplar,  chestnut,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  ]  1 

every  variety  of  gum,  cedar,  spruce  pine,  walnut,  ash, 
elm,  black-jack,  and  sycamore  ;  and  in  many  localities  the 
pine  and  other  growths  mentioned  are  wanting  The 
timber  of  Georgia  seems  to  be  an  inexhaustible  source  of 
wealth. 

METALS    AND    MINERALS. 

Granite  and  limestone  are  so  extensive  as  to  be  inex 
haustible  in  different  parts  of  the  State,  while  they  are 
not  found  in  others.  The  variety  is  extensive  of  rocks 
and  stones,  in  color,  hardness,  durability  and  uses  to  which 
they  may  be  applied,  to  be  found  in  different  localities, 
including  marble  of  several  grades  and  kinds.  In  some 
localities  are  inexhaustible  marl  beds,  and  in  others  quar 
ries  of  slate  of  the  finest  quality.  Gold  is  extensively  dis 
tributed  across  the  upper  part  of  the  State,  north-east  and 
south-west ;  and  valuable  mines  of  copper  have  been  dis 
covered  in  many  places  in  the  same  region.  There  are 
numerous  other  mineral  deposits  of  great  value  and  im 
portance,  as  well  as  mineral  and  medicinal  waters  in  limit 
less  variety  and  abundant  quantity. 

But  the  two  deposits  of  value,  and  apparently  the  most 
profuse  from  the  Creator,  are  iron  and  coal.  It  may  be 
said  that,  so  far  as  relates  to  soil,  climate,  water,  adapta 
tion  to  the  growth  of  all  crops,  timber,  and  mineral  de 
posits,  no  part  of  the  globe  is  better  fitted  than  the 
State  of  Georgia,  if  shut  out  from  all  the  world,  to  main 
tain  a  great  population  for  an  indefinite  period,  provided 
there  were  in  operation  manufactories  sufficient  to  con 
vert  all  her  raw  material  into  commodities  for  use. 

Upon  these  natural  advantages  a  reasonable  degree  of 
improvement  has  already  been  made,  placing  this  State 
far  in  advance  of  some,  but  still  leaving  her  much  to  ac 
complish  hereafter  in  order  to  be  abreast  with  many  other 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

countries  and  States  of  the  Union.    Among  those  improve 
ments  we  refer  to  our 

SYSTEM   OF   RAILROADS. 

The  following  railroads  are  in  operation : 

From  Savannah  to  Isle  of  Hope,  9  miles ;  thence  to  Mont 
gomery,  4  miles. 

From  Savannah  to  Bainbridge  237  miles;  on  this  line, 
branch  to  Live  Oak,  Florida,  by  Atlantic  and  Gulf 
Boad,  in  this  State,30  miles ;  branch  from  Thomasville 
by  South  Georgia  and  Florida  Eailroad  to  Albany,  60 
miles. 

From  Savannah  to  Atlanta,  the  Central  Railroad,  via  Ma- 
con,  295  miles ;  on  this  line,  branch  from  Millen  to 
Augusta,  53  miles ;  from  Tennille  to  Sandersville,  3 
miles;  from  Gordon  to  Eatonton,  39  miles;  Barnes- 
ville  to  Thomaston,  16  miles ;  Griffin  to  Carrollton,  60 
miles. 

From  Macon  to  Eufaula,  on  west  bank  of  Chattahoochee, 
in  Alabama,  the  Southwestern  Railroad,  140  miles ; 
on  this  line,  from  Fort  Valley  to  Perry,  1 1  miles ; 
Fort  Valley  to  Columbus,  71  miles;  Smithville  via 
Albany  to  Arlington,  60  miles;  Cuthbert  to  Fort 
Gaines,  22  miles. 

From  Brunswick  to  Macon,  Macon  and  Brunswick  Rail 
road,  186  miles;  on  this  line,  branch  from  Eastman 
to  Ocmulgee  River,  Cochran  to  Hawkinsville  10  miles. 

From  Brunswick  to  Albany,  Brunswick  and  Albany  Rail 
road,  172  miles. 

From  Augusta  to  Atlanta,  Georgia  Railroad,  171  miles; 
on  this  line,  branches  Barnett  to  Washington,  18 
miles ;  Union  Point  to  Athens,  39  miles ;  Carnac  to 
Macon,  Macon  and  Augusta  Railroad,  74  miles. 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

From  Columbus  to  Kingston,  North  and  South  Railroad, 

20  miles. 
From  Atlanta   to  West  Point,  Atlanta   and  West  Point 

Railroad,  87  miles. 
From  Atlanta  to  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  Atlanta  and  Richmond 

Air  Line  Railroad,  in  this  State,  100  miles ;  on  this 

line  from  Lula  to  Athens,  North-Eastern  Railroad, 

40  miles;  branch  from  Tocoa  City  to  Elberton,  51 

miles. 
From  Atlanta  to  Chattanooga,  Tennessee,  Western  and 

Atlantic  Railroad,  138  miles. 

From  Marietta  to  Canton,  narrow  gauge,  24  miles. 
From  Cartersville  to  Cedar  Town,  narrow  gauge,  35  miles. 
From  Kingston  to  Rome,  20  miles. 
From  Dalton  to  Bristol,  East  Tennessee  Railroad,  in  this 

State,  18  miles. 
From  Dalton  to  Selma,  Alabama,  via  Rome  in  this  State, 

57  miles;    by  Chattanooga    and  Alabama  Railroad, 

Chattanooga  to  Selrna,  in  this  State,  25  miles. 
The  aggregate  of  these  roads  is  2,440  miles.  The  main 
lines  mentioned  connect  with  other  lines  beyond  the  State 
extending  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  affording  to  the 
people  markets  within  practicable  distances  from  their 
homes  and  places  of  business  and  industry. 

TELEGRAPH    LINES 

Are  in  operation  along  the  lines  of  most  of  the  rail 
roads  above  described. 

CITIES    AND    TOWNS. 

Since  the  commencement  and  completion  of  the  rail 
roads  of  the  State,  the  number,  prosperity  and  growth  of 
towns  and  cities  have  greatly  increased.  These  are 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

marts  of  commerce,  sites  of  churches  of  different  orders  ; 
common  and  high  schools  for  both  races  and  sexes,  and 
some  of  them  have  flourishing  colleges.  They  are  gen 
erally  healthful,  and  the  people  happy  and  prosperous. 
Many  of  them  are  centers  of  intelligence,  refinement, 
moral  and  social  worth,  as  well  as  Christianity. 

The  principal  cities  are  Savannah,  situate  on  the 
Savannah  river,  about  twenty  miles  from  its  mouth,  with 
a  population  of  33,248. 

Augusta,  at  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the 
same  stream,  with  a  population  of  22,301. 

Macon,  on  the  Ocmulgee  river,  in  the  central  part  of 
the  State,  with  a  population  of  34,000  within  the  city, 
and  11,000  in  suburban  villages  and  settlements,  making 
25,000. 

Columbus,  at  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  Chat- 
tahoochee  river.  Population  within  city  10,137,  and 
suburban  villages  8,000  :  total  18,137.  Atlanta  made 
site  of  State  Capital  in  1868,  37,825:  Athens  on  Oconee 
river,  north-east  part  of  State,  site  of  University  of 
Georgia,  8,052.  Home  at  confluence  of  Etowah  and 
Oostenaula  rivers. 

Brunswick  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  2,900;  Darien,  1,544. 
On  Western  and  Atlantic  railroad, Marietta,  2,229 ;  Carters- 
ville,  2,037;  Dalton  2,516.  On  Air  Line  railroad,  Gaines 
ville,  2,450.  On  Georgia  railroad,  Washington,  2,203; 
Greensboro',  1,600;  Madison,  2,500 ;  Covington,  1,470; 
Conyers,  1,400 ;  Social  Circle,  800 ;  Stone  Mountain, 
1,800.  On  Macon  and  Augusta  railroad,  Milledgeville, 
3,998;  Sparta,  900.  On  Central  railroad,  Sandersville, 
1,322;  Eatonton,  1,371;  Waynesboro,  1,015;  Forsyth,  ' 
2,000;  Barnesville,  1,983;  Griffin,  4,500 ;  Thornaston, 
900.  On  Macon  and  Brunswick  railroad,  Hawkinsville, 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

2,100  ;  Eastman,  on  Albany  and  Gulf  railroad,  500  ;  Jessup, 
600  ;  Blackshear,  778  ;  Valdosta  1,516  ;  Quitman,  1,525  ; 
Thomasville,  2,556  ;  Bainbridge  at  terminus  on  Flint  river, 
1,444  ;  on  Southwestern  and  branches,  Fort  valley,  1,278  ; 
Perry,  709  ;  Oglethorpe,  442  ;  Americus,  4,800 ;  Albany, 
3,000;  Dawson,  1,684;  Cuthbert,  2,115;  Fort  Gaines, 
1,100.  On  Atlanta  and  West  Point  railroad,  Fairburn, 
563;  Newnan,  3,000;  La  Grange,  2,375;  West  Point, 
1,972  ;  Camilla  on  South  Georgia  and  Florida  railroad,700  ; 
Carrollton  at  terminus  of  North  Alabama  railroad,  956 ; 
Cedar  Town  at  terminus  of  Cherokee  Narrow  Guage, 
1,635 ;  Cave  Spring  on  Rome  and  Selma  railroad,  850 ; 
Talbotton,  1,008  ;  Oxford,  site  of  Emory  college,  1,000. 

There  are  numerous  other  railroad  towns,  county  sites 
and  villages,  generally  smaller  than  those  mentioned. 

MANUFACTORIES. 

The  manufacture  of  cotton,  the  principal  market  prod 
uct,  converting  the  raw  material  into  fabrics,  was  begun 
in  the  vicinity  of  Athens,  utilizing  the  water  power  of 
the  Oconee  river,  upwards  of  fifty  years  ago.  The  success 
ful  experiments  in  Clark  county  were  followed  by  similar 
enterprises  in  Green,  Richmond,  Morgan,  Newton,  Bald 
win,  Cobb,  Hancock,  Putnam,  Troup,  Chattanooga,  Upson, 
Warren,  Chatham,  Bibb,  Decatur,  Early,Harris,  Muscogee; 
the  most  extensive  are  at  Augusta,  Columbus,  and  Ros- 
well  in  Cobb  county.  They  increased  in  number  and 
extent,  and  now  there  are  in  the  State  thirty-seven  cot 
ton  and  fourteen  wool  factories. 

The  progress  of  iron  manufacture  has  been  more 
rapid,  having  begun  at  a  much  later  period.  There  are 
twenty -eight  manufactories  and  "foundries  in  North-west 
ern  Georgia,  some  of  them  very  extensive,  and  in  some 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

instances  supplied  by  coke  of  the  best  quality,  produced 
from  the  native  coal.  There  are  seven  paper  factories, 
flour  and  corn  mills  in  endless  variety  in  every  part 
of  the  State,  and  a  large  number  of  mills  for  pounding 
rocks  that  contain  the  precious  metal.  Numerous  dis 
tilleries  of  liquors  and  of  turpentine,  and  several  extensive 
manufactories  of  commercial  manures;  others  for  locomo 
tives  and  cars ;  numerous  establishments  for  making  wag 
ons,  carriages,  agricultural  implements,  boots,  shoes,  and 
building  material ;  doors,  windows,  sash,  blinds,  brick  and 
roofing  ;  with  mills  in  great  abundance  for  cutting  lumber 
from  the  forest.  At  Columbus  the  Chattahoochee  river  is 
used  to  move  the  immense  machinery.  At  Augusta,  the 
water  of  the  Savannah  river  is  utilized  by  a  canal  nine 
miles  long,  which  is  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  wide, 
with  a  depth  of  eleven  feet  of  water;  and  through  this, 
the  flat  boats  for  which  the  river  is  navigable  one  hundred 
miles  above  Augusta  avoid  the  shoals  above,  and  find  easy 
access  to  the  city. 

RELIGION   AND    CHURCHES. 

The  Protestant  Christians  are  by  far  the  most  numer 
ous  professors  of  religion,  but  are  divided  into  sects  or 
denominations,  the  principal  and  most  numerous  of  which 
are  the  Baptist,  Methodist  and  Presbyterian,  and  each 
of  these  have  subdivisions. 

The  Baptists  have  a  membership  of  about  112,000 
whites  and  98,000  colored,  with  2,600  church  organiza 
tions  and  edifices.  They  have  an  organization  co-exten 
sive  with  the  State  called  a  convention,  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty  smaller  ecclesiastical  divisions  of  advisory 
bodies  called  associations. 

The  Methodists  have  a  membership  of  about  100,000 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

whites  and  70,000  colored.  The  principal  division  of 
which,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South,  has  two 
jurisdictions  called  Annual  Conferences,  which  are  di 
vided  into  districts,  circuits,  missions  and  stations.  Other 
Methodist  organizations  have  similar  subordinate  juris 
dictions. 

The  Presbyterians  have  a  membership  of  about  9,000 
whites  and  1,000  blacks.  They  have  a  State  jurisdiction 
called  a  synod,  which  is  subdivided  into  presbyteries. 

The  colored  memberships  are  generally  in  separate 
organizations  from  the  whites  of  the  same  sects,  a  dis 
tinction  which  is  still  more  strictly  preserved  in  all  the 
schools  in  the  State,  and  is  preferred  by  both  races. 

There  are  a  few  churches  of  Congregationalists,  Lu 
therans,  Unitarians,  and  Universalists. 

The  Christian  Church  has  about  fifty  church  organ 
izations  and  edifices,  with  upwards  of  5,000  member 
ship. 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  has  a  membership  of 
about  4,500,  with  about  thirty  churches.  The  aggregate 
Christian  membership  of  the  State  is  about  400,000  souls. 

The  -Israelites  have  numerous  local  organizations  that 
are  without  edifices  or  stated  worship,  but  have  six  syna 
gogues  and  a  membership  of  about  5,000. 

The  styles  of  the  church  edifices  vary  much,  and  conform 
to  the  situations  and  circumstances  of  the  people  where 
they  are  located.  There  are  comparatively  few  elegant 
buildings  in  the  country,  away  from  the  towns  and  cities. 
Many  of  them  are  neat  and  comfortable,  but  in  many 
places  they  are  small,  of  cheap  and  rude  structure,  and 
wanting  in  comfort  as  well  as  ornament ;  and  such  is  the 
case  with  many  in  the  cities,  towns  and  villages.  But  a 
large  proportion  of  those  in  the  cities  and  towns  are 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

highly  creditable,  and  many  of  them  handsome.     There 
are  a  few  that  for  this  country  are  splendid  edifices. 

Pulpit  eloquence  and  church  music  are  largely  culti 
vated,  and  in  many  places  both  have  attained  a  high 
standard  of  excellence. 

CEMETERIES. 

In  nothing  has  the  civilization  of  the  State  shown 
more  evidence  of  advancement  than  the  improvements 
that  have  been  made  in  latter  years  of  the  resting-places 
of  the  dead.  The  primitive  custom  of  burying  in  the 
church-yards  in  town  and  country,  is  in  many  places 
adhered  to,  but  generally  with  increased  care  of  the 
graves.  But,  in  most  of  the  towns  and  in  all  the  cities, 
separate  places  are  set  apart  for  public  cemeteries.  Many 
of  these,  by  the  natural  growth  and  transplanted  ever 
green  trees,  shrubbery,  and  flowers,  with  the  variegated 
structures  over  and  around  the  dead,  are  made  lovely 
and  beautiful.  At  the  wealthy  and  populous  cities  of 
Augusta,  Savannah,  Macon,  Atlanta,  Columbus,  Eome, 
Athens,  they  are  strikingly  beautiful,  while  the  cemeteries 
in  many  of  the  larger  towns  are  attractive  ornaments. 
The  Confederate  and  State  soldiers  who  died  under  cir 
cumstances  that  enabled  their  friends  to  inter  them,  or  in 
the  numerous  hospitals  located  in  the  State,  are  distribu 
ted  in  the  cemeteries  and  church-yards  and  private  grave 
yards  all  over  the  State.  Those  buried  on  and  near 
battle-fields  have  generally  been  collected  in  Confederate 
cemeteries  at  Kesaca,  Marietta  and  Atlanta. 

The  Federal  soldiers  who  died  in  our  prisons  and  hospi 
tals,  and  on  the  battle  fields  in  the  State,  who  were  not 
carried  to  other  States,  have  generally  been  collected 
in  national  cemeteries  at  Andersonville  and  Marietta. 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

PUBLIC    CETARITY. 

In  many  of  the  counties  of  the  interior  of  the  State, 
provision  is  made  by  the  erection  of  poor-houses,  estab 
lishment  of  poor-farms,  or  by  disbursing  the  funds  col 
lected  by  taxation  through  the  county  officers  to  support 
the  few  really  indigent  people.  The  number  found  in 
actual  want  and  unable  to  subsist  without  public  aid  is 
small  in  every  part  of  the  State. 

The  old  cities,  particularly  Savannah,  have  charitable 
institutions,  many  of  which  are  under  the  auspices  of 
voluntary  associations.  In  many  places  the  Protestant 
as  well  as  the  Catholic  churches  have  voluntary  and 
relief  societies.  Suffering  from  destitution  and  want, 
and  aside  from  disease,  is  of  rare  occurrence  in  town  or 
county. 

There  are  three  classes  of  unfortunates  for  which  the 
State  has  made  liberal  appropriations,  and  established 
near  Milledgeville  an  asylum  for  the  treatment  and  care 
of  lunatics,  at  Macon  an  academy  for  the  education  of 
the  blind,  and  at  Cave  Spring  an  institution  for  the  edu 
cation  of  deaf  mutes,  all  under  successful  operation  for 
many  years,  and  dispensing,  in  large  measure,  the  bless 
ings  designed  by  the  State. 

Destitute  orphans  have  not  shared  the  State's  liberal 
ity,  but  those  of  the  Catholic  people  have  long  been  pro 
vided  for  by  an  asylum  located  at  Savannah.  The  two 
Georgia  conferences  of  Methodists  have  each  established 
an  orphans'  home  without  reference  to  the  religious  faith 
of  their  parents.  The  north  Georgia,  near  Decatur,  and 
the  south  Georgia  conference,  near  Macon.  Both  are  doing 
well,  but  as  yet  are  of  limited  capacity  and  accommoda 
tions. 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

SCHOOLS    AND    COLLEGES. 

There  are  upward  of  160,000  pupils,  large  and  small, 
taught  weekly  in  Sunday-schools,  which  are  almost 
entirely  under  the  care  and  control  of  the  different 
churches.  They  come  from  all  grades  and  classes  of  peo 
ple,  and  represent  every  variety  of  wealth  and  poverty, 
intelligence  and  ignorance  among  the  growing  generation, 
upon  all  of  whom  the  beneficial  effects,  in  mind  and 
morals,  and  often  in  religion,  are  perceived.  Sabbath- 
school  system  is  on  the  increase.  The  methods  of  popu 
lar  education,  aside  from  that  of  Sunday-schools,  have 
undergone  important  changes  within  the  last  thirty  years. 
There  is  a  much  larger  proportion  of  people  taught  let 
ters.  The  proportion  of  collegiate  over  academic  instruc 
tion  in  males  and  females  has  greatly  increased.  The 
poor-school  system,  which  by  taxation  and  otherwise  dis 
pensed  limited  benefits  to  children  classified  as  poor,  and 
which  classification  rendered  the  system  to  an  extent 
unpopular,  has  for  the  last  twelve  years  been  superseded 
by  a  system  of  common  schools  open  to  all  children  of 
given  ages,  and  of  both  races,  without  regard  to  pecuniary 
circumstances.  Under  the  former  system  the  main  part 
of  the  education  of  children  and  youths  was  paid  for  by 
parents  and  guardians.  And  such  is,  to  a  great  extent, 
still  true. 

The  State  constitution,  which  requires  separate  schools 
for  the  white  and  colored  races,  limits  the  system  to  the 
elementary  branches  of  an  English  education.  The  State's 
appropriation  of  $300,000  annually,  alone  is  sufficient  to 
keep  the  children  taught,  from  180,000  to  190,000,  in  the 
schools  but  a  short  period  of  the  year,  and  necessarily 
in  many  instances  under  very  inferior  and  often  unfaith- 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

ful  instructors.  Still  there  is  some  degree  of  elementary 
progress  toward  the  training  of  mind  flowing  from  the 
system.  And  its  benefits  are  enlarged  in  every  locality 
where  local  appropriations  by  counties  or  cities  are  made, 
and  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  such  supplement  of 
the  State  school  fund. 

Still  the  system  generally  over  the  State  does  not  meet 
the  demands  of  popular  education,  and  schools  of  all 
grades  are  maintained  by  the  people  as  formerly.  All 
the  towns  and  villages  maintain  good  schools  for  the 
whites,  and  many  of  them  also  for  the  blacks,  the  expenses 
of  which  are  paid  by  the  patrons  and  employers.  But 
there  are  fewer  country  schools  than  formerly  ;  and  a 
large  proportion  of  those  seeking  even  academic  education 
who  reside  on  farms,  distant  from  the  towns,  are  required 
to  incur  the  expense  of  boarding  in  addition  to  tuition. 

In  addition  to  the  numerous  academies,  male  and 
female  and  mixed,  and  of  the  respective  races  separate 
from  each  other,  there  are  numerous  chartered  colleges, 
most  of  them  in  successful  operation.  Georgia  was  the 
first  State  in  the  world  to  charter  and  put  in  operation  a 
college  for  the  graduation  of  females.  The  Southern 
female  college  was  chartered  at  Macon  in  1836,  and  after 
wards  changed  to  Wesleyan  female  college.  This  exam 
ple  has  been  followed  by  all  the  States,  and  by  numerous 
like  charters  and  institutions  established  under  them  in 
this  State.  But  this,  the  oldest,  is  the  most  extensive  in 
appointments  for  varied  instruction,  and  has  much  the 
largest  patronage  of  any  similar  school  in  the  state.  But 
many  of  the  others  have  ample  faculty,  buildings,  and 
arrangements  for  high  grade  of  education,  and  have  large 
patronage. 

The  Georgia  female  college,  and  Madison  female  col- 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

lege  are  located  at  Madison  ;  the  Southern  female  college 
and  La  Grange  female  college,  at  La  Grange  ;  the  South 
ern  Masonic  female  college,  at  Covington  ;  Furlow  Masonic 
female  college,  at  Americus ;  Andrew  female  college,  at 
Cuthbert ;  Young  female  college,  at  Thomasville ;  Monroe 
female  college,  at  Forsyth ;  Houston  female  college  at 
Perry;  Lucy  Cobb  female  college  at  Athens;  College 
Temple  (female  college),  at  Newnan  ;  Columbus  female 
college,  at  Columbus  ;  Le  Yert  female  college,  at  Talbot- 
ton  ;  West  Point  female  college,  at  West  Point ;  Conyers 
female  college,  at  Conyers;  Gainesville  female  college,  at 
Gainesville  ;  Cherokee  Baptist  female  college,  and  Rome 
female  college,  at  Rome ;  Dal  ton  female  college,  at  Dai- 
ton  ;  Griffin  female  college,  at  Griffin  ;  Georgia  Baptist 
seminary,  at  Gainesville.  Gordon  institute  is  a  flour 
ishing  college  for  males  and  females  located  at  Barnes- 
ville. 

The  University  of  Georgia,  formerly  Franklin  college, 
the  oldest  male  college  in  the  state,  located  at  Athens  ; 
Mercer  university,  located  first  at  Penfield,  Green  county, 
and  afterwards  at  Macon  ;  Oxford,  located  at  Oxford, 
Newton  county ;  Bowden  college,  located  at  Bowden, 
Carroll  county ;  and  Pio-Nino,  located  near  Macon,  are 
the  five  male  colleges  for  the  white  race.  The  Atlanta 
university,  located  at  Atlanta,  is  a  flourishing  college  for 
the  males  and  females  of  the  colored  race.  The  Georgia 
medical  college  at  Augusta,  the  Atlanta  medical  college  at 
Atlanta,  and  the  Savannah  medical  college  at  Savannah 
are  popular  institutions  for  the  graduation  of  physicians. 
The  Lumpkin  law  school,  connected  with  the  university 
of  Georgia  for  the  graduation  of  attorneys-at-law. 

There  are  in  addition  to  these,  several  commercial  and 
business  colleges,  and  branch  colleges  of  the  University 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

of  Georgia  at  Dahlonega,  Milledgeville,  Thomasville  and 
Cuthbert. 

PRINTING    AND   PUBLICATIONS. 

There  are  fourteen  daily  newspapers.  Two  in  each  of 
the  cities  of  Savannah,  Augusta,  Macon,  Columbus, 
Griffin  and  Atlanta ;  one  in  Rome,  and  one  in  Albany ; 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty  weekly  papers,  varying 
largely  in  size  as  well  as  patronage,  distributed  over  the 
state,  in  eighty-five  of  the  larger  towns,  cities,  and  villages. 
They  are  in  matter  and  aims  diversified  and  miscellane 
ous,  most  of  them  more  or  less  political ;  some  devoted 
mainly  to  religion,  some  to  agriculture,  others,  literary. 
But  all  devoted  to  progress  and  improvement,  and  as  a 
system  constitute  one  of  the  most  efficient,  extensive, 
and  cheap  methods  of  popular  education.  Most  of  them 
have  job  offices  connected  with  them,  which  make  print 
ing,  aside  from  publication,  a  lucrative  business  in  many 
places.  There  are  publishing  houses  in  Savannah,  Macon, 
and  Atlanta,  and  in  each  a  medical  journal. 

SOCIETIES. 

The  agriculturists  have  a  State  agricultural  society 
composed  of  representatives  of  the  numerous  county 
societies,  holding  semi-annual  conventions  in  different 
sections  of  the  State.  There  is  also  a  State  horticultural 
society,  and  a  central  organization  composed  of  represen 
tatives  of  local  societies  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry, 
called  the  State  Grange.  The  ritual  of  this  order  is  secret. 
There  are  numerous  local  literary  societies  in  addition  to 
the  Georgia  Historical  Society  located  at  Savannah. 

The  social  and  benevolent  orders  are  numerous,  having 
local  societies  and  state  organizations,  whose  existence 


24  INTRODUCTION. 

and  aims  are  public,  but  having  secret  rituals  and  exclu 
sive  meetings.  Principal  among  them  are  Masons,  Odd 
Fellows,  Good  Templars,  Sons  of  Malta,  Knights  of  Honor, 
and  Knights  of  Pythias,  having  numerous  local  lodges  or 
societies,  representatives  of  which  constitute  the  Grand 
or  State  Lodges.  There  are  also  State  associations  of  the 
press,  of  teachers,  and  of  physicians,  having  annual  meet 
ings.  The  North  Georgia  Fair  and  Stock  Association  is 
located  at  Atlanta,  and  a  State  fair  is  held  annually,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  State  agricultural  society,  alternately 
at  Macon  and  Atlanta.  Besides  there  are  many  fair 
grounds  well  improved  and  extensively  patronized  under 
societies  and  associations  in  every  part  of  the  State,  loca 
ted  at  the  central  towns.  There  is  also  a  State  horticul 
tural  society. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Mr  CONTEMPORARIES. — 1857. 

Georgia,  the  state  of  my  nativity  and  ancestry,  is  great 
in  physical  resources  of  wealth,  and  in  capabilities  of  de 
velopment  and  improvement  in  mind  and  morals;  and 
therefore,  in  the  means  of  rearing  and  maintaining  a  popu 
lation,  great  in  number  and  power ;  and  deserves  more 
prominence  and  distinction  than  she  has,  for  the  high 
grade  of  true  merit  she  has  already  reached  in  her  public 
officers,  and  men  of  leading  minds  in  science,  literature, 
the  church,  and  learned  professions  of  law  and  physic. 
The  deplorable  want  of  tangible  and  convenient  historic 
description  and  record  is  a  crying  evil  at  this  period  when 
I,  one  of  her  humble  citizens,  reach  the  period  of  observa 
tion  and  meditation  upon  men  and  things  around  me. 
Hence,  I  begin,  in  this  crude  method,  to  lay  up  in  store 
my  own  conclusions  of  the  men  among  whom,  and  of  the 
times  in  which,  I  live. 

The  literature  of  this,  as  of  every  past  age,  must  in 
great  part  be  the  product  of  private  fortune,  prompted 
and  carried  on  at  the  behest  of  individual  ambition  and 
by  individual  enterprise.  Literary  persons,  who  have  no 
exchequer  except  what  the  world  returns  for  their  valua 
ble  contributions,  live  and  die  poor  as  to  all  that  money 
can  purchase.  The  abundance  of  luxury  and  ease  which 
gold  can,  and  usually  does,  provide  for  its  owners  is  not 
favorable  to  the  toil  and  labor  that  a  pure  and  exalted 
literature  requires.  The  hope  of  their  comforts  may  stimu 
late  the  pursuit,  but  their  possession  supplants  the  desire 


26  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

for  purely  intellectual  pleasures.  I  have,  therefore,  rea 
son  to  rejoice  in  the  possession  of  at  least  one  of  the  pre 
requisites  to  literary  success — a  want  of  surplus  money — 
but  prize  as  much  a  sufficient  worldly  estate  to  maintain 
my  personal  independence,  which  is  essential  to  truth  and 
fairness. 

The  grade  and  power  of  mind,  as  well  as  the  passions, 
emotions,  tastes  and  sensibilities  of  authors,  in  a  great 
degree,  prompt,  mould  and  modify  the  literature  of  the 
times  in  which  they  write,  causing  it  to  brighten  and 
sparkle  under  the  magic  touch  of  genius,  or  to  descend 
into  barrenness  under  dull  and  venal  thinkers  and  writers. 
It  softens  by  the  recurring  emotions  of  charity  and  philan 
thropy,  and  becomes  caustic  and  pungent  when  prompted 
or  guided  by  malice,  envy,  misanthropy,  or  ambition  dis 
appointed  from  any  cause. 

I  have  lived  thirty  years — long  enough  to  have  high 
hopes,  but  fortunately  not  enough  to  poison  my  pen  by 
the  asperities  consequent  on  the  envy  of  my  few  disap 
pointments — yet,  nevertheless,  have  witnessed  far  more 
of  selfishness  among  men  of  education  and  cultivation, 
not  prompted  by  poverty  or  want,  than  I  formerly  sup 
posed  could  possibly  exist  among  the  men  who  are  leaders 
in  the  churches,  in  the  professions,  in  social  and  political 
circles  and  among  those  holding  public  offices. 

Some  of  the  contemporaries  of  whom  I  write  have 
already  died ;  some  are  old,  have  performed  life's  public 
task  and  folded  the  drapery  of  its  honors  and  rewards 
around  them  and  retired  to  private  life  to  await  the  sum 
mons  for  exit  from  time ;  some  are  in  the  midst  of  full 
harvest  labor  of  what  they  have  sown  in  youth  and  early- 
manhood  ;  others  are  laboring  in  the  early  field — the  vir 
gin  soil  of  life — with  minds  and  hearts  full-strung  to  the 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  27 

work  before  them.  It  is  of  my  seniors  in  age  and  merit 
that  I  write,  and  will  doubtless  omit  many  of  equal  merit 
with  those  who  are  mentioned  by  name.  Georgia  is  great 
in  area  as  well  as  men,  and  I  do  not  profess  to  know  all 
who  are  distinguished  or  deserve  to  be. 

There  is  probably  no  standard  more  difficult  to  be  well 
understood,  much  less  to  be  fully  and  satisfactorily  de 
scribed,  than  that  of  man's  greatness.  It  has  been  writ 
ten  and  spoken  of,  represented  in  marble  and  on  canvas. 
It  has  deluged  the  reading  world  with  words,  figures  and 
tropes,  with  triumphs  and  tragedies,  until  we  are  left  in 
uncertainty  and  doubt,  not  to  say  ignorance,  of  what  it  is 
or  has  been  in  any  age  of  the  world.  We  have  liberty  to 
erect  ideal  statures  of  strength,  power  and  beauty,  and  to 
compare  men,  alive  and  dead,  with  those  idealities.  We 
may  describe  actions  we  regard  as  grand  and  momentous, 
and  pronounce  judgment  of  greatness  upon  the  actors  and 
authors;  but  others,  viewing  the  transactions  with  different 
understanding,  and  with  different  shades  of  the  light  of 
truth,  may  regard  the  actions  unimportant,  and  the 
achievements  of  men,  made  notorious  by  them,  the  results 
of  chance  and  of  accidental  circumstances. 

No  matter  what  endowments  any  given  man  may  have 
had  by  nature,  or  what  education  and  training  he  may 
undergo,  no  meed  of  greatness  will  ever  be  awarded  to 
him  by  mankind  until  he  is  placed  in  such  position,  and 
at  such  period,  and  under  such  emergencies  as  cause  great 
events  to  transpire,  or  great  results  to  flow  from  his  ac 
tions,  either  in  reality  or  in  the  opinion  of  those  who  are 
interested  in  or  affected  by  those  events  or  results.  It 
often  transpires  that  greatness  is  attributed  to  a  leader  or 
a  projector  on  one  side  when,  in  truth,  success  is  the  result 
of  weakness  and  want  of  capacity  on  the  part  of  the  op- 


28  MY  CONTEMPORAKIES.— 1857. 

posing  parties  or  forces.  The  reputation  for  greatness 
often  arises  to  individuals  for  the  success  of  plans  and 
movements  which  result  from  and  are  necessary  sequences 
of  appliances  and  surroundings ;  and  not  unfrequently  the 
thinking  powers,  knowledge,  and  skill  of  subalterns  are 
attributed  to  him  who  fortunately  is  the  head  and  leader 
at  the  time. 

On  the  other  hand,  men  in  place  and  power  are  often 
censured  for  failures  which  result  from  circumstances  be 
yond  the  control  of  any  one  man  or  mind.  They  are  con 
demned  for  not  doing  what  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  to 
do  with  the  aid  and  support  at  command.  Events  and 
circumstances  have  often  summoned  men  who  held  power 
and  responsible  positions  to  the  discharge  of  duties  for 
which  they  were  not  qualified ;  and  men  of  great  capaci 
ties  have  lived  and  died  without  distinction  for  want  of 
position  and  power  and  great  emergencies  to  call  forth 
their  efforts. 

But  one  man  ever  achieved  what  Alexander  did ;  and 
but  one  man  ever  held  at  the  outset  of  his  career  such 
power  in  the  face  of  only  such  opposition  as  Philip  left 
to  his  son.  There  was  never  but  one  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 
but  also  never  but  one  Republican  France  struggling 
against  the  domination  of  the  monarchies  of  Europe. 
There  was  never  but  one  Lord  Nelson,  and  never  but  one 
opportunity  to  make  another  that  could  have  immortal 
ized  genius  as.  the  commander  of  the  British  navies  was 
immortalized.  England  may  subsist  a  thousand  years  and 
rear  a  thousand  men  every  way  his  equal  in  military  skill 
and  power  before  she  will  have  the  opportunity  to  glorify 
another  as  Wellington  was  glorified.  Virginia  may  propa 
gate  her  crop  of  men  of  the  blood  of  Randolph  and  Lee, 
and  of  Jefferson  and  Washington,  for  centuries  to  come, 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  29 

and  never  present   another  Father   of  his   Country,  or 
Author  of  The  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  three  great  statesmen  coming  from  the  East,  the 
West  and  the  South — all  of  whom  have  now  gone  to  their 
long  homes — Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun,  unrivalled  in  the 
estimate  placed  on  them  by  the  American  people,  may 
have  now  living  many  equals  in  all  the  essential  elements 
of  true  greatness  who  have  no  field  in  which  to  operate, 
and  no  emergency  of  circumstances  to  call  them  out  and 
to  develop  their  powers  of  thought  and  of  speech ;  who, 
when  they  die,  will  pass  quietly  into  unmarked  graves 
and  leave  no  biographers  to  portray  their  merits. 

Greece  had  but  one  Demosthenes ;  but,  in  all  her  length 
ened  and  unrivalled  career  of  glory  in  the  arts  of  peace 
and  war,  she  perhaps  had  no  period  or  situation  that  could 
have  so  distinguished  another.  Rome  had  but  one  Cicero, 
and  but  one  Golden  Age  to  gild  his  fame  to  the  cycles 
of  hoary  Time. 

The  splendors  of  Eaphael  and  Angelo  dazzle  the  world 
in  their  own  and  following  ages ;  but  it  is  probable  that 
at  no  stage  of  civilization  would  the  taste  #nd  passion  of 
Italy,  or  any  other  country,  for  the  art  that  so  immortal 
ized  them,  have  crowned  even  their  equals,  if  they  had 
been  found,  with  wreaths  of  glory  so  bright  and  so  en 
during. 

The  lessons  taught  in  profane  and  sacred  history,  in  the 
display  of  notably  vicious  men,  are  full  of  instruction  on 
human  meanness  and  depravity.  Historic  development 
of  forbidding  circumstances,  and  with  worldly  power  and 
prominence  to  render  crime  illustrious,  find  their  coun 
terparts  in  a  thousand  forms  in  every  country  and  age, 
without  their  attending  importance  to  make  notorious  and 
perpetuate  them. 


30  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

There  was  only  one  Job,  subjected  to  the  extreme  trials 
that  exhaust  human  patience  without  yielding,  whose  life 
is  reported  in  the  Divine  Oracles;  but  millions  have  died 
unheralded  who  exemplified  his  virtues.  There  was  only 
one  Judas  who  ever  had  the  opportunity  to  betray  the 
most  priceless  of  all  trusts — the  Saviour  of  the  world.  But 
the  earth  has  since  been  cursed  by  millions  ready  to  be 
tray,  for  no  higher  reward  than  Judas  got,  every  truth 
and  virtue  that  Christ  came  to  inculcate  and  establish. 

It  is  by  comparison  that  we  may  approximate  the  true 
standard  and  grade  of  individuals.  We  compare  stars  with 
stars  in  order  to  classify  them  and  determine  their  magni 
tude.  This  is  to  the  astronomer  a  practical  undertaking,  be 
cause  the  stars  change  not ;  nor  do  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  are  seen  expand  or  diminish  them.  But  men 
in  different  situations  at  the  same  time,  and  in  the  same 
country,  and  men  of  different  countries  and  ages  have  to 
be  seen  in  the  changing  light  of  their  peculiar  situations, 
and  of  circumstances  that  surround  them,  in  order  to  form 
any  just  opinion  of  their  capacities  for  great  actions  and 
achievements^  Every  country,  and  every  age,  has  a  his 
tory  written  or  a  tradition  received  in  lieu  of  historic  rec 
ord.  Providence  has  so  graded  gifts  to  man,  and  so  ap 
portioned  them  among  the  countries  and  the  succeeding 
ages,  that  no  period  or  clime  is  bereft  of  men  so  endowed 
or  surrounded  as  to  have  attracted  the  attention  of  their 
contemporaries ;  some  for  distinguishing  virtues,  and  oth 
ers  for  notable  vices,  but  of  acknowledged  genius  or 
mental  power. 

America,  from  the  time  of  her  earliest  settlements, 
through  the  stages  of  rapid  progress  and  development,  has 
shared  very  largely  in  the  munificence  of  the  Creator, 
both  in  mind  and  heart.  The  circumstances  have  been 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  31 

favorable  to  the  production,  growth,  development  and 
display  of  men  of  talents  and  of  genius,  though  not  often 
on  a  large  scale.  She  has  been  fruitful  of  men  of  virtue  and 
of  vice.  She  has  been  also,  in  a  marked  degree,  self-reli 
ant  ;  cultivated  the  spirit  of  national,  political  and  social 
independence;  been  proud (  and  exultant,  as  well  as  con 
scious  of  envy,  on  account  of  all  she  has  achieved  ;  and  by 
no  means  illiberal  in  adulation  and  praise  of  her  men  of 
merit. 

Georgia,  one  of  the  old  thirteen  colonies  that  became 
States,  shared  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  of  revolution  ; 
with  her  sparse  population  and  limited  resources,  contrib- 
iited  to  the  extent  of  her  capacities  in  all  the  labors  and 
trials  and  dangers  of  the  war  that  ended  in  American  po 
litical  and  civil  independence.  She  was  in  sympathy  and 
accord  with  all  the  republican  ideas  that  gave  shape  and 
form  and  limitation  to  the  united  government  of  revolted 
and  independent  sovereign  States.  She  felt  the  common 
danger,  had  a  common  treasure  in  the  national  freedom 
achieved,  in  the  principles  of  political  equality  and  of  self- 
government,  in  all  that  is  established  and  secured  in  the 
Federal  Constitution,  to  the  Government,  to  the  respect 
ive  States,  and  to  the  people  at  large.  Hence  her  public 
men  were  intensely  interested  and  active  in  the  move 
ments  of  the  General  Government,  as  the  action  of  Con 
gress  and  the  executive  affected  or  tended  to  affect  this 
State  ;  and  in  all  the  issues  which  grew  out  of  national 
legislation  and  administration,  and  developed  the  antago 
nistic  parties  in  the  Union. 

The  public  men  of  the  period  following  that  of  the  Revo 
lution  and  the  early  administrations  have  passed  off  the 
stage  of  action ;  and  with  them  have  been  buried  the  is 
sues  upon  measures  of  policy  and  of  administration  of  that 


32  MY  CONTEMPOBAKIES.— 1857. 

period;  and  place  has  been  given  to  other  issues  and 
other  men  to  divide  and  contend  about  them.  Success 
and  defeat  have  chased  each  other  in  the  ebbs  and  flows 
of  the  tides  of  passion  and  prejudice;  of  intelligence  and 
ignorance ;  the  popularity  and  odium  of  leaders  and  par 
ties  have  changed  often  in  leadership,  and  sometimes  in 
names. 

The  feelings,  opinions  and  principles  of  men  are  modi 
fied  much  in  and  by  changes  of  place  and  position ;  and 
by  the  use  of  power  on  the  one  hand,  and  being  the  sub 
jects  of  it  on  the  other.  Men  in  power  and  with  legal  au 
thority  over  men  love  its  use ;  and  incline  to  construe  the 
grants  of  power  inorganic  and  statute  law  or  from  custom 
liberally  toward  its  use  and  enlargement.  Men  out  of 
power  and  its  subjects,  to  be  ruled  by  others,  are  jealous 
of  it,  and  of  the  men  who  wield  it  over  them;  and,  as  a 
sequence,  they  favor  a  strict  construction  of  the  grants  of 
power,  and  are  generally  found  to  be  active  and  often 
clamorous  for  the  vindication  of  all  legal  and  constitu 
tional  maxims  that  look  to  the  securing  of  popular 
rights. 

The  public  men  of  Georgia,  whose  lives  I  have  had  the 
opportunity  to  study  and  comprehend,  have  partaken  of 
the  common  passions  and  frailties  of  men  of  other  States 
and  sections,  have  been  patriotic  and  unselfish  enough  to 
vindicate  the  true  principles  of  Republican  Government; 
and  selfish  enough  to  use  all  the  advantages  resulting  from 
such  patriotic  public  service  to  gain  and  hold  positions  of 
power,  honor  and  profit.  Vice,  selfishness  and  perfidy,  nor 
patriotism,  philanthropy  and  virtue,  constitute  the  crown 
of  either  of  the  political  parties  of  this  or  any  past  pe 
riod  of  the  State,  but  are  largely  distributed  to  both ;  and 
it  is  this  general  truth  that  renders  individual  history  of 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  33 

men,  as  connected  with  transpiring  events,  the  most  at 
tractive  and  valuable  dress  for  the  records  of  a  country. 

The  results  of  personal  ambition  and  individual  antago 
nisms  in  the  development  and  career. of  parties  in  the 
Union  have  been  reproduced  on  a  smaller  scale  by  the 
quest  for  places  of  honor  and  profit,  and  consequent  quar 
rels  of  the  early  political  leaders  of  this  State.  The  is 
sues  passed  away  with  them;  but  the  seeds  sown  still 
yield  fruit  in  the  divisions  and  strife  of  men  of  ability,  in 
tegrity,  and  patriotism.  The  dead  men  are  not  here  to  an 
swer  for  their  motives,  nor  will  the  living  be  to  reply  to 
what  may  here  be  said  of  them  ;  still,  the  truth  of  history 
is  of  more  value  to  mankind  than  the  fame  of  any  indi 
vidual  leader  of  the  people,  especially  if  based  on  fiction 
or  misunderstood  pretensions  to  greatness. 

We  are  at  a  period,  already,  when  unbiased  intelligence 
can  discern  the  purity  of  purpose  and  devotion  to  the 
public  good  of  the  leaders  of  our  local  parties,  and  of  the 
good  people  who  espoused  their  respective  causes.  But 
time  will  be  slow  in  the  process,  if  indeed  there  shall  ever 
be  satisfactory  development  of  faultless  reasons  for  the 
extremes  to  which  they  allowed  themselves  to  go. 

While  the  ambition  of  priests  and  clergymen,  in  extreme 
zeal  for  the  cause  of  religion  as  understood  by  them  and 
for  the  prerogatives  of  official  power,  has  deluged  the 
world  with  religious  sects,  that  of  political  leaders  has 
brought  upon  the  country  heartless  divisions  among  good 
people,  aiming  at  the  same  general  objects — good  govern 
ment  and  the  protection  of  life,  liberty,  and  property. 

It  is,  therefore,  no  violation  of  the  facts  and  truths  of 
our  State  history  to  say  that  the  parties  who  have  had 
their  day  upon  the  stage  in  great  part  were  the  har 
vest  of  seed  sown  by  party  leaders,  and  were  watered  and 

3 


34  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.-— 1857. 

matured  by  their  personal  aspirations,  conflicts,  and  quar 
rels.  Our  descendants  will  never  be  able  to  discern  why 
a  quarrel  and  duel  between  two  public  men  should  for 
years  divide  and  support  a  feud  between  the  people  of  a 
State. 

There  never  has  been  a  time  in  this  State  when  her 
people  generally,  and  with  rare  exceptions,  were  not  thor 
oughly  devoted  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  independence ; 
never  a  time  since  the  leaders  of  the  United  States  gov 
ernment  sprang  divisions  on  strict  and  latitudinous  con 
struction  ;  and  upon  the  question,  on  one  side,  of  a  strong 
central  government ;  on  the  other,  strong  checks  on 
Federal  power  and  assumptions  of  power,  and  a  strict 
guard  over  the  reserved  rights  of  the  State  and  the  peo 
ple — in  a  word,  since  there  was  a  Republican  party 
making  popular  rights  the  leading  idea,  and  a  Federal 
party  making  a  strong  central  government  the  para 
mount  aim — that  the  people  of  this  state  were  not  thor 
oughly  republican,  independent  of  all  local  divisions  and 
parties.  The  Nullification,  the  State  rights,  the  Troup, 
the  Whig  parties,  have  ever  been  sound  union  parties  on 
a  proper  and  secure  basis  and  well  defined  security  to 
constitutional  rights.  The  Republican,  the  Union,  the 
Clark,  and  Democratic  have  always  been  devoted  to  State 
rights,  as  both  parties  understood  their  elementary  prin 
ciples.  Their  divisions  on  men  have  generally  been  the 
results  of  passion ;  and  those  upon  issues  'of  policy  often 
resulted  from  the  bent  of  parties  already  organized  to 
follow  chosen  men  as  leaders. 

While  this  is  true,  we  cannot  be  indifferent  to  the 
masterly  powers,  the  moral  courage,  and  personal  great 
ness  of  the  men  our  fathers  followed  and  honored.  The 
hearts  swells  with  admiration  as  their  characters  are 


MY  CONTEMPORAKIES.— 1857.  35 

brought  to  us  in  authenticated  tradition  and  in  sparsely 
written  history.  It  is  cause  of  regret  that  neither  is  full 
nor  infallible.  The  contests  between  the  adherents  of 
Gov.  John  Clark  and  Gov.  George  M.  Troup,  growing  out 
of  temporary  differences  between  people  of  the  same  aim 
and  common  destiny,  are  still  in  the  memory  of  the  old 
men  of  the  State ;  and  the  complexion  of  their  politics 
and  the  status  of  their  political  alignments  have  often 
been  produced  by  the  prejudices  engendered  in  those 
heated  contests.  They  have  been  repeated  and  repro 
duced  with  changes  of  leaders  and  issues,  and  the  efflux 
of  time  to  the  present.  It  has  never  been  accepted  as  a 
mark  of  a  bad  man  that  his  party  suffered  defeat  under 
his  lead.  Eacers  have  always  been  fruitful  of  excuses 
for  the  failure  of  a  favorite  steed,  in  the  condition  of  the 
track,  the  mistakes  of  the  rider,  the  health  and  keeping 
of  the  horse,  and  have  been  ready  and  anxious  to  risk 
the  purse  upon  him  in  a  second  trial.  So  it  has  ever 
been  with  the  people  and  the  candidates  of  the  Whig 
and  Democratic  parties  of  this  State.  I  well  remember 
the  exultations  of  the  Democrats,  and  mortification  of  the 
Whigs,  when  Charles  J.  McDonald  was  elected  over  their 
idol  and  model  leader,  Charles  Dougherty,  for  governor, 
and  later  over  William  C.  Dawson.  And  when  the  rejoic 
ing  was  at  the  highest  tide  in  the  Whig  camp,  when 
George  W.  Crawford  defeated  the  noble  old  Roman,  Mark 
A.  Cooper,  in  1843,  and  the  sterling  and  solid  Mathew 
Hall  McAlister  in  1845.  And  again,  1847,  the  tide  of 
victory  was  turned  to  the  Democrats  in  the  triumph  of 
their  graceful  and  gifted  leader,  George  W.  Towns,  over 
Gen.  Duncan  L.  Clinch ;  and  in  1849  over  the  gifted, 
able,  and  accomplished  Edward  Young  Hill.  But  these, 
like  the  contests. of  Gilmer  and  Joel  Crawford,  Lumpkin, 


36  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

and  Schley,  resulted  from  the  ebbs  and  flows  of  the  tide 
of  fortune  of  parties  closely  matched  in  leadership  and 
in  numerical  strength.  The  beaten  leaders  were  wounded 
and  not  slain ;  defeated  and  not  conquered ;  not  dis 
graced  or  disqualified  from  entering  the  recurring  con 
flicts  between  the  contending  hosts. 

Many  of  the  leaders  and  ambitious  aspirants  have 
changed  party  alignments  and  associations.  Such  changes 
have  been  attributed  by  the  parties  they  left  to  resent 
ments  and  disappointments,  and  to  hopes  of  better  suc 
cess  in  the  ranks  of  the  party  to  which  they  had  been 
opposed  of  becoming  leaders  and  obtaining  office,,  But 
such  changes  have  usually  taken  place  upon  the  change 
of  issues,  or  the  action  of  parties  upon  public  measures, 
affording  plausible  and  reasonable  grounds  for  what  were 
commonly  denominated  political  somersaults.  And  they 
have  been  generally  attended  with  warm  reception  by 
the  party  to  which  they  acceded.  Parties  were  never 
otherwise  than  so  in  need  of  as  to  desire  and  give  encour 
agement  to  new  recruits,  and  to  be  able  to  see  the  most 
patriotic  motives  on  their  part;  while  the  party  losing  the 
leader  professed  to  find  out  then  that  he  had  always  been 
selfish  and  actuated  by  motives  of  personal  ambition. 

One  of  the  most  potent  agencies  that  have  tended  to 
make  Georgia  a  great  State  was,  that,  on  all  the  issues  of 
the  past,  the  parties  seeking  to  gain  or  hold  power  have 
been  so  equally  divided  as  to  keep  the  leaders,  and  the 
party  press,  perpetually  vigilant  and  active.  The  policy 
of  putting  forward  the  ablest  and  best  men  for  public 
Honors  was  dictated  by  the  exigencies,  and  the  require 
ment  for  men  of  ability  and  spotless  reputation  as  stand 
ard  bearers  and  leaders.  The  espionage  or  guard  over 
the  public  officers  by  political  opponents  has  always  been 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  37 

a  security  against  their  wilful  or  negligent  dereliction 
in  official  duties.  The  parties  were  usually  led  by  men 
of  ability,  fair  fame,  and  ambition  on  either  side,  feeling 
that  they  were  the  custodians  of  the  honor  and  reputa 
tion  of  their  respective  organizations.  The  leaders  were 
followed  and  supported  by  people  of  a  common  blood 
and  heritage,  who  felt  the  sacred  duty  and  trust  of  ever 
seconding  and  sustaining  their  leaders.  The  natural  re 
sult,  among  people  who  have  a  rich  country,  ease  and 
exemption  from  toil,  with  leisure  to  devote  to  the  matters 
of  government,  has  been  to  make  them  intelligent  in  poli 
tics,  and  jealous  of  the  fame  of  their  leaders,  and  to  erect 
a  high  standard  of  patriotism,  and  of  official  and  per 
sonal  integrity. 

One  of  the  striking  evidences  of  popular  virtue  is  that, 
from  my  earliest  recollection,  the  most  effective  weapon 
with  which  to  strike  the  enemy  in  a  party  contest  has 
been  to  assail  the  candidate  with  whatsoever  imparts 
personal  dishonor,  dereliction  of  official  duty,  or  infidelity 
to  any  trust,  provided  the  charges  were  true.  But  if 
false,  they  were  the  most  powerful  agencies  of  solidifying 
the  party,  and  making  its  members  active,  and  recoiled 
terribly  upon  the  accusing  party. 

The  active  and  controlling  men  are  large  parts  of  the 
sum  total  of  the  period,  that  must  in  some  form,  and  to 
some  extent,  truly  or  erroneously,  go  into  its  history. 
But  confidence  falters  in  contemplation  of  the  attempt  to 
daguerreotype  them,  and  to  draw  a  picture  to  be  seen 
after  the  objects  have  perished  with  the  author  and  the 
heat  and  passion  that  are  now  realized  shall  have  passed 
out  of  the  sight  and  memory  of  men. 

The  State  has  a  brilliant  array  of  men  in  office.  James 
M.  Wayne,  associate  justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  the 


38  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

United  States,  one  of  the  men  of  large  brain  and  good 
balance  of  mind  of  the  old  class  of  men  still  on  duty; 
John  C.  Nicholl,  justice  of  the  United  States  district  of 
Georgia,  holding  the  circuit  and  district  courts  of  the 
southern  district  of  Georgia  at  Savannah ;  and  the  court 
of  the  northern  district  of  Georgia,  in  which  the  juris 
diction  of  the  circuit  and  district  courts  are  blended,  at 
Marietta.  Both  are  men  of  learning  and  probity,  and 
have  the  full  confidence  of  the  lawyers  and  people. 

Joseph  Henry  Lumpkin,  Charles  J.  McDonald,  and 
Henry  L.  Benning,  judges  of  the  supreme  court  of  the 
State.  There  are  several  superior  court  judges,  who  are 
perhaps  inferior  to  them  only  in  position,  William  B. 
Fleming,  of  Savannah,  William  W.  Holt,  of  Augusta ; 
the  bold,  impetuous,  and  eloquent  advocate  without  supe 
rior,  the  fearless,  political  speaker,  and  able  jurist, 
Thomas  W.  Thomas,  of  Elberton ;  Orville  A.  Bull,  of  La- 
Grange,  who  is  a  staid  and  steady,  and  sterling  man,  as 
well  as  cautious  and  well-balanced  jurist;  James  H. 
Stark,  of  Griffin,  who  came  afoot  to  Georgia  as  a  school 
teacher,  and  worked  his  way  up  to  the  level  of  the  ablest 
and  clearest-headed  judges  of  the  State.  He  is  a  man  of 
terseness  and  brevity,  and  without  eloquence,  with  a 
large  heart  and  unbounded  charity,  of  perennial  humor 
and  wit,  whom  it  is  easy  to  love  as  a  friend ;  Robert  V. 
Hardeman,  of  Clinton,  a  ruddy,  bland,  well-rounded,  and 
somewhat  ponderous  man,  whose  body  moves  slowly,  and 
mind  in  like  manner,  but  with  great  certainty  and  relia 
bility,  and  a  man  whose  integrity  is  so  long  settled  as  to 
never  be  mentioned ;  Turner  H.  Trippe,  of  Cassville,  who 
has  been  recalled  to  the  bench  in  his  advanced  life,  hav 
ing  served  in  that  capacity  many  years  ago  ;  James 
Jackson,  of  Athens,  somewhat  young,  but  honored  and 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  39 

true  representative  of  a  historic  family ;  Joseph  E.  Brown, 
of  Canton,  Dennis  Fletcher  Hammond,  of  Newnan,  Alex. 
A.  Allen,  of  Bainbridge,  Peter  E.  Love,  of  Thomasville, 
A.  E.  Cochran,  of  Brunswick,  David  Kiddoo,  of  Cuthbert, 
Abner  P.  Powers,  of  Macon,  and  Edmond  H.  Worrell,  of 
Talbotton. 

David  J.  Bailey,  of  Griffin,  a  man  of  vigorous  and  bold 
mind,  as  lawyer  and  politician,  and  of  tall  and  manly 
form,  who  has  served  with  distinction  in  Congress,  is  the 
president  of  the  State  senate,  and  William  H.  Stiles  who 
also  represented  the  State  in  Congress  with  distinction, 
and  the  government  of  the  United  States  as  minister  to 
Austria  under  President  Polk,  a  man  of  elegance  and 
polish,  and  a  gifted  orator,  has  accepted  the  honorable 
service  of  representative  of  Chatham  county,  in  the  Leg 
islature,  and  is  speaker  of  the  House.  Herchel  V.  John 
son  is  governor,  and  in  the  full  splendor  of  mental  and 
physical  manhood. 

It  is  noteworthy  truth,  that  either  but  few  men  of  fee 
ble  constitution,  or  short-lived  tendencies,  are  called  to 
high  stations  of  honor  in  this  State,  or  that  such  places 
tend  to  the  promotion  of  longevity.  All  the  governors 
who  have  been  in  office  since  John  Clark  retired  in  1823? 
are  still  in  life  except  George  W.  Towns  who  was  some 
what  frail,  with  all  his  grace  of  person,  and  John  Forsyth, 
whose  physical  frame,  and  form  and  development,  made 
him  a  marked  man  in  any  presence,  and  without  superiors. 

George  M.  Troup,  whose  life  is  a  part  of  the  history  of 
this  State  for  many  years,  is  seventy-six  years  old,  a  large 
slaveholder  on  his  plantations,  with  all  the  ease  that 
wealth  can  purchase  for  the  old,  and  all  the  freedom  and 
independence  of  thought  and  speech  that  result  from  the 
remaining  vigor  of  his  strong  and  fearless  mind. 


40  MY  CONTEMPOK ARIES.— 1857. 

Wilson  Lumpkin,  aged  seventy-four,  William  Schley, 
aged  seventy-one,  and  George  R.  Gilmer,  sixty-six,  all 
men  of  above  average  native  capacity,  and  of  large  expe 
rience  in  public  service,  and  of  unquestioned  probity 
and. patriotism,  are  in  the  ease  and  comfort  of  home  in 
private  life,  enjoying  the  reward  of  conscious  public  vir 
tue  and  fidelity,  and  of  duty  well  and  faithfully  per 
formed.  George  W.  Crawford,  one  of  the  most  successful 
and  popular  of  the  modern  governors,  and  one  of  the  best 
of  the  old  Whigs,  lives  in  the  ease  of  his  private  fortune, 
and  declines  the  public  honors  in  the  gift,  of  his  party. 
He  is  fifty  nine  years  old,  and  well  preserved.  Charles 
J.  McDonald,  after  retiring  from  the  executive  office,  pur 
sued  his  law  practice  with  success,  and  now  discharges  the 
arduous  labors  of  justice  of  the  supreme  court;  and  no 
judge  of  that  court  since  its  organization,  twelve  years 
ago,  has  died. 

Howell  Cobb,  one  of  the  marked  men  of  the  State  and 
of  the  Union,  is  still  a  comparatively  young  man.  He 
was  speaker  in  Congress  before  he  was  governor,  and  -on 
his  defeat  for  United  States  senator  retired  to  private  life 
until  the  next  election  for  Congress  in  his  district,  when 
he  accepted  service  in  that  body.  He  is  supposed  to  be 
on  the  high  road  to  the  presidency  of  the  United  States 
by  those  who  best  comprehend  his  rare  combination  of 
mental  powers  and  popular  manners,  his  deep  and  un 
swerving  patriotism,  integrity  and  fidelity,  with  a  large 
measure  of  ambition  for  that  extraordinary  distinction. 

In  Congress  the  array  is  exceptionally  brilliant — Robert 
Toombs,  one  of  the  old  Whig  leaders,  is  a  Democratic 
senator,  with  Alfred  Iverson,  an  old  Democrat. 

In  addition  to  Howell  Cobb,  who  has  returned  to  the 
House,  we  have  one  of  the  brightest  intellects  of  the 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  41 

Union,  who  has  been  constantly  a  member  since  1842, 
Alexander  Hamilton  Stephens.  Hiram  Warner,  who  had 
served  in  early  life  in  the  Legislature,  three  terms  as  judge 
of  the  superior  court  and  one  as  justice  of  the  supreme 
court,  after  several  years'  retirement,  represents  his  district 
as  an  old  line  Democrat.  John  Henry  Lumpkin,  the 
nephew  of  Wilson  and  Joseph  Henry,  who  is  an  old  Demo 
cratic  leader  of  Cherokee,  Georgia,  has  been  solicitor, 
judge,  and  had  large  experience  in  Congress,  with  fair 
abilities  and  great  personal  fidelity  and  popularity.  Na 
thaniel  Green  Foster,  a  man  of  splendid  form  and  person, 
an  able  lawyer  and  Baptist  preacher,  and  James  L.  Seward, 
an  able  lawyer,  represent  the  Savannah  district.  Robert 
P.  Trippe,  one  of  the  favorite  Whig  leaders  of  middle 
Georgia,  represents  the  Macon  district.  The  Columbus 
district,  where  there  are  so  many  men  of  ability  and  dis 
tinction,  is  represented  by  the  elegant,  polished,  and  gifted 
young  Martin  J.  Crawford,  whose  name  and  kindred  are 
largely  blended  in  the  State's  history. 

Since  the  earliest  of  my  recollection  there  has  been  an 
array  of  men  of  both  parties  in  this  State  among  whom 
it  was  an  honor  to  be  prominent  and  distinguished,  some 
of  whom  have  died,  but  very  many  still  live. 

I  was  an  enthusiastic  listener,  not  long  since,  to  that 
man  who  among  the  living  is  as  generally  beloved  as  any, 
Joseph  Henry  Lumpkin,  describing  to  me  the  men  promi 
nent  in  his  part  of  the  State  in  former  years.  He  had 
exalted  opinions  of  many  of  them,  but  among  them  all 
William  H.  Crawford  was  the  Ajax  in  mind,  and  a  man 
of  true  nobility  of  character  with  all  his  powers. 

His  language  was, "  He  stood  a  full  head  and  shoulders 
above  all  the  men  of  his  day  in  this  State."  He  has  now 
been  dead  twenty-three  years,  and  if  his  great  spirit  ob- 


42  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

serves  the  affairs  of  the  country  he  so  loved  in  life,  no 
doubt  he  has  joy  in  the  height  and  grandeur  to  which  his 
surviving  admirer  has  risen.  Lumpkin  is  in  the  full  de 
velopment  of  his  physical  and  almost  godlike  manhood 
and  intellectual  vigor.  He  is  not  a  politician  from  taste, 
though  a  decided  Whig.  He  is  a  Christian  and  philan 
thropist  and  a  scholar  of  large  attainments,  and  an  orator 
of  great  and  almost  magic  power  that  distinguished  him 
from  his  early  youth.  Standing  aloof  from  political  pur 
suits,  extensive  practice  matured  him  as  a  lawyer  and 
made  him  famous  as  advocate.  Close  application  and 
labor  on  the  supreme  court  bench,  have  ripened  him 
into  an  able  and  profound  judge.  His  uniform  purity  and 
virtue  in  public  and  private  have  securely  established  him 
in  the  confidence  of  lawyers  and  people  of  all  parties ; 
and  the  tribute  of  no  one  man  could  be  of  more  value 
than  that  he  freely  and  sincerely  pays  to  the  personal 
friend  and  political  idol  of  his  youth  and  young  manhood. 
But  his  senior  brother,  Wilson  Lumpkin,  who  has  main 
tained  in  public  office  in  both  Houses  of  the  State  Legis 
lature  and  of  Congress,  as  governor  for  two  terms,  and  in 
all  places  of  public  trust  the  unbroken  confidence  of  his 
party  and  the  respect  and  esteem  of  all  good  people  in 
public  and  in  private,  is  a  severe  and  sterling  Democrat. 
He  admired  John  M.  Dooly,  had  stronger  faith  in  his 
political  wisdom  and  integrity.  John  M.  Dooly  was,  from 
tradition  and  description  by  those  who  have  seen  him,  a 
widely  different  man  from  Wilson  Lumpkin  whom  I  have 
seen  and  talked  with  often.  Lumpkin  is  a  plain-spoken, 
candid,  old  ruddy  man  with  white  luxuriant  hair,  a  man 
of  labor  and  toil,  of  truth  without  fiction  or  poetry,  who 
won  his  way  to  public  confidence  and  position  and  held 
them  by  common  sense,  common  honesty,  industry,  and 


MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— 1857.  43 

integrity.  Dooly  was  a  man  of  electricity  in  body  and 
mind,  whose  large,  piercing  black  eye  spoke  itself  in  vol 
umes  of  convincing  power  in  harmony  with  his  severe 
reason  and  logic. 

Many  of  the  old  men  regard  Thomas  W.  Cobb,  some 
Duncan  G.  Campbell,  some  Eli  S.  Shorter  and  some  John 
Forsyth,  as  the  greatest  man  of  that  period.  The  last 
named  seems  to  deserve  special  mention  in  connection 
with  William  H.  Crawford,  on  account  of  their  respective 
long  and  brilliant  career  and  opposing  political  opinions. 
They  lived  in  a  section  of  the  Union  not  favorable  to  the 
highest  national  honor  on  account  of  political  weakness ; 
but  it  is  doubtful  if  these  men  had  many,  if  any,  superiors 
in  the  Union  in  intellectual  power  or  personal  presence 
and  magnetic  influence  over  men.  Both  were  of  the 
highest  type  of  physical  development  in  the  New  World ; 
both  ambitious,  daring,  and  brave.  Forsyth  was  a  little 
younger  than  Crawford  and  survived  him  from  1834  to 
1841.  They  both  came  when  young  from  Virginia, 
where  heroes  and  statesmen  were  born,  and  transmitted 
the  blood  royal  of  republican  liberty  to  their  descend 
ants.  Crawford  was  in  the  Senate,  and  Forsyth  in  the 
House  of  Congress  from  this  State  in  the  early  years  of 
the  century.  Both  have  been  distinguished  in  the  Senate 
and  House  at  different  periods  and  as  cabinet  officers  and 
as  foreign  ministers,  Crawford  in  France,  and  Forsyth  in 
Spain. 

Crawford  the  defeated  candidate  for  president  of  the 
United  States,  in  shattered  health,  the  idol  of  his  country 
men,  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  as  judge  of  his  circuit. 
Forsyth  had  been  a  United  States  senator  as  early  as  1818, 
governor  as  early  as  1827,  and  afterward  returned  to  the 
Senate.  Both  died  with  the  full  confidence  of  their 


44  MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— 1857. 

countrymen,  and  the  halo  of  public  honors  that  has 
gathered  around  their  long,  historic,  and  brilliant  exer 
cise  of  the  masterly  powers  with  which  nature  had  en 
dowed  them  is  a  part  of  the  treasure  the  living  have  in 
the  lives  of  the  dead. 

A  few  years  later,  and  coming  near  to  the  present,  other 
leaders  became  prominent  and  powerful,  were  loved  and 
honored  by  the  people,  and  have  passed  away.  Charles 
Dougherty,  John  McPherson  Berrien,  Andrew  J.  Miller, 
and  James  A.  Meriwether  of  the  Whigs ;  Walter  T.  Col- 
quitt,  Hugh  A.  Haralson,  Joseph  Jackson  and  George  W. 
Towns  of  the  Democrats.  With  the  men  of  the  middle  sec 
tion  of  the  State,  Dooly,  Harris,  Cobb,  and  Crawford  lived 
and  have  been  succeeded  by  Lumpkin,  Junius  Hillyer, 
Howell  Cobb,  Hope  Hull,  William  C.  Dawson,  and  Francis 
II.  Cone.  Charles  Dougherty  was  an  idol  with  the  bar  and 
people.  No  standard  is  regarded  as  too  high  by  which  to 
measure  the  powder  of  his  mind  or  the  magnitude  of  his 
heart,  and  none  too  gentle  or  too  pure  by  which  to  test 
his  priceless  social  virtues.  He  gave  his  counsel  and  ad 
vice  like  the  sun  gives  his  light  and  heat ;  all  could  feel 
their  warmth  and  see  their  wisdom.  Nature  made  him 
great,  but  the  whig  party  failed  to  invest  him  with  politi 
cal  power.  But  his  defeat  only  kept,  as  similar  fortune 
has  kept  many  of  our  best  men  who  are  fit  as  he  was  for 
any  station,  in  the  shades  of  private  life. 

His  heart  was  in  full  accord  with  his  mind ;  and  his 
moral  courage  was  equal  to  any  emergency  He  differed 
from  Berrien,  Dawson,  Jenkins,  Toombs,  Stephens  and 
other  leaders  of  his  party,  in  1850,  as  to  the  true  course 
for  the  South,  on  account  of  anti-slavery  aggressions  on 
the  part  of  the  North ;  and  like  a  few  others  of  the  old 
Whigs  younger  in  years,  such  as  Lucius  J.  Gartrell,  Wat- 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  45 

son  G.  Harris,  James  L.  Seward,  and  James  N.  Ramsey, 
took  open  position  with  the  Southern  Rights  Democrats 
of  the  State. 

John  McPherson  Berrien  began  the  public  service  when 
young ;  died  old  after  he  had  been  in  it  nearly  half  a  cen 
tury,  and  without  a  spot  or  stain  upon  his  escutcheon. 

He  was  long  engaged  as  solicitor,  and  afterwards  judge 
of  the  eastern  circuit ;  member  of  the  Legislature ;  attor 
ney  general  of  the  United  States ;  and  for  many  years, 
at  different  periods  in  the  United  States  Senate ;  and  dur 
ing  all  his  life  as  an  eminent  practitioner  of  the  law.  In 
all  he  wras  distinguished  for  his  stability,  dignity,  urbanity, 
method  and  caution ;  and  for  the  highest  grade  of  foren 
sic  and  parliamentary  ability  ;  and  for  devotion  to  his  set 
tled  convictions  of  right.  He  was  ten  years  the  senior  of 
his  neighbor  and  personal  and  political  friend,  Judge  Wil 
liam  Law:  who  has  been  less  in  political  life;  but  has 
much  of  the  suavity  and  polish,  dignity  and  probity,  so 
j  ustly  and  universally  awarded  the  lamented  senator,  and 
is  scarcely,  if  at  all,  his  inferior  as  a  lawyer  and  jurist. 

The  most  remarkable  democratic  leader  of  the  genera 
tion  thus  passed,  and  passing  away  in  this  State,  was  the 
contemporary,  and,  for  a  period,  the  rival  of  Judge  Berrien 
for  political  championship  in  the  Senate :  Walter  T.  Col- 
quitt.  As  a  member  of  the  House  and  Senate,  judge  of 
the  superior  court,  minister  of  the  Gospel,  practitioner 
and  advocate  as  a  lawyer  and  political  stump  orator,  his 
name  is  a  household  word,  from  the  time  of  my  earliest 
memory.  His  contemporaries  at  the  bar  ascribe  to  him  as 
an  advocate  powers  that  were  marvellous,  not  to  say,  irre 
sistible.  His  style  of  oratory  on  the  stump,  where  I  fre 
quently  heard  him,  had  no  model,  or  successful  imitator 
in  the  men  of  the  period.  Many  men  have  strong  passion 


46  MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— 1857. 

and  power  of  delivery ;  and  can  create  intense  excitement 
in  large  crowds  of  assembled  masses  in  open  air.  But 
none  were  his  equal  in  all  the  elements  of  a  magic-work 
ing  orator  :  intensity  of  his  own  excitement  and  physical 
action,  the  music  and  harmony  of  a  powerful  voice  under 
the  command  of  a  powerful  mind  and  body.  And  none 
approximated  him  when  the  magic  of  his  almost  resistless 
eloquence  gave  place,  often  suddenly,  to  his  humor,  un 
bounded  in  current;  and  his  wit,  that  flared  as  quickly 
and  brightly  as  the  lightning ;  and  was  as  terrible  on  his 
foes  as  the  thunderbolt  itself. 

But  his  ardent  love  of  truth  made  him  too  ardent  a  de 
fender  of  right  for  the  political  times  of  his  latter  days. 
It  made  him  a  "  Southern  Rights  Man,"  a  "  Fire  Eater  " 
as  they  were  called,  who  made  the  cause  of  the  South,  in 
the  attempt  to  stay  the  tide  of  Northern  anti-slavery  ag 
gressions,  paramount  to  parties.  His  strong  enunciation 
in  public  and  private,  upon  the  magnitude  of  the  impend 
ing  struggle  which  seemed  to  him  imminent,  now  so  hap 
pily  postponed,  made  him,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  an  ex 
tremist,  and  sectionalist,  looking  to  the  dreaded  calamity 
of  disunion  and  revolution.  And  such  views  in  reference 
to  him,  by  the  people,  for  the  vindication  of  whose  rights 
he  was,  in  their  judgment,  too  ardent,  disarmed  him  in 
his  latter  days  of  much  of  the  power  he  could  have  other 
wise  possessed  over  the  popular  will. 

Hugh  A.  Haralson  was  not  so  brilliant  or  eloquent  as 
Colquitt,  Cobb  and  Johnson  ;  but  was  a  man  of  fine  pres 
ence  and  bearing.  His  personal  integrity  and  fidelity  to 
the  people  who  honored  him,  close  attention  to  official 
duty,  gave  him  a  strong  hold  on  the  affections  of  the  peo 
ple  of  western  Georgia  ;  and  made  him  a  powerful  Dem 
ocratic  leader.  He  was  one  of  the  few  men  whose  terms 


MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— 1857.  47 

of  public  office  did  not  fluctuate  with  the  ebbing  and  flow 
ing  of  the  closely  matched  parties  of  his  district. 

One  of  the  best  men  of  the  period  was  a  man  whose 
services  were  confined  to  his  own  State :  the  lamented 
Andrew  J.  Miller,  of  Augusta.  Not  ambitious,  but  devoted 
to  the  public  good  ;  modest,  yet  bold  and  fearless ;  an  hon 
est  man  loving  the  right,  he  was  ever  firm  in  maintaining 
it.  He  was  not  eloquent,  but  able ;  not  haughty,  but 
proud  in  the  dignity  of  a  true  and  noble  man,  conscious 
of  the  rectitude  of  his  purposes  and  fearless  of  criticism 
or  censure.  Mr.  Miller  had  but  few  superiors,  but  the 
friends  of  both,  as  well  as  political  opponents,  did  not 
hesitate  to  rank  above  him,  his  neighbor  and  lifelong 
personal  and  political  friend, — Charles  J.  Jenkins. 

Mr.  Jenkins  is  one  of  the  truly  great,  as  well  as  noble 
men  of  the  age.  Not  the  equal  of  Stephens,  Toombs,  and 
his  successful  rival,  Johnson,  in  impassioned  eloquence,  in 
the  capacity  to  move,  stir  and  enthuse  great  multitudes 
of  mixed  people,  his  style,  manner  and  bearing  are  more 
suited  to  leadership  of  intellectual  assemblies.  He  is  not 
the  inferior  of  these  in  correctness,  depth  and  vigor  of 
thought.  His  style  is  as  faultless,  and  his  sentences  as 
perfect.  He  speaks  after  deliberation,  and  never  has  to 
take  back,  modify  or  explain,  in  order  to  keep  pace  with 
other  men  or  to  drift  with  the  popular  current. 

James  A.  Meriwether,  another  Whig  leader,  has  also 
lately  gone,  of  whose  mental  powers  a  higher  estimate  is 
due  than  many  of  his  associates  and  friends  were  willing 
to  award  him.  He  had  been  a  Whig  member  of  Congress 
and  served  with  distinction ;  had  graced  the  bar  and  bench, 
and  was  at  the  time  of  his  death  an  honored  Representa 
tive  of  Putnam  county,  and  speaker  of  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  of  the  State  Legislature. 


48  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

The  Warren  Brothers. — These  distinguished  lawyers 
and  prominent  members  of  the  old  Whig  party  in  south 
ern  Georgia  are  natives  of  Burke  county.  Lott  was  born 
in  October,  1798,  and  Eli  in  February,  1801.  The  father, 
Joseph  Warren,  removed  to  Lawrence  county,  where  he 
and  the  mother  died  while  Lott  and  Eli  were  two  of  a 
large  family  of  children,  and  were  raised  in  Wilkinson 
county,  by  their  brother-in-law,  Reverend  Charles  Cul- 
pepper,  who  educated  them  in  the  country  schools, 
neither  ever  having  been  at  school  in  a  town  or  village. 
Lott  came  to  the  bar  at  Dublin  about  1820,  was  after 
wards  solicitor  general  and  State  senator.  In  1828  was 
elected  judge  of  the  southern  circuit,  as  a  Troup  man, 
was  afterwards  beaten  for  the  office  by  Honorable  Moses 
Fort,  a  Clark  man,  and  removed  to  Americus,  where  he 
practised  a  number  of  years  and  removed  to  Albany ;  was 
elected  to  Congress  in  1838  and  1840,  and  was  twice 
elected  judge  of  the  southern  circuit,  and  his  administra 
tion  is  remarked  for  ability  and  integrity.  He  is,  more 
over,  a  Baptist  minister  of  pure  and  spotless  character. 
He,  like  his  brother  Eli,  never  drank  intoxicating  liquors, 
never  chewed  or  smoked  tobacco.  Eli,  when  a  youth, 
spent  two  years  in  Mississippi ;  but  returned  to  Georgia 
and,  in  the  office  of  his  brother,  studied  law  and  was  ad 
mitted  to  the  bar  in  1823.  He  served  many  years  as  a 
member  of  the  Legislature  of  Lawrence  county,  in  the 
House  and  Senate  ;  and  was  often  elected  without  oppo 
sition.  He  now  resides  at  the  beautiful  town  of  Perry, 
in  Houston  county,  and  practises  law. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  State  has  produced  such  an  array 
of  intellectual  men  as  Georgia  at  this  period.  In  truth, 
the  number  is  such,  of  men  whose  endowments  would 
have  made  them  noted  in  other  times,  that  abilities  alone, 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  49 

without  attending  propitious  circumstances,  are  not  suf 
ficient  to  secure  more  than  ordinary  local  distinction. 
The  general  diffusion  of  education,  and  the  manifest  re 
wards  of  superior  intellectuality  have  summoned  the  mil 
lion  to  the  competition,  while  many  have  been  aroused 
to  effort  by  the  demands  of  poverty,  or  the  urgent  claims 
of  business  in  their  respective  trades,  avocations,  and  po 
sitions  in  life. 

There  are  comparatively  few  who  have  been  devoted 
to  literature,  or  to  study  and  learning,  except  as  they 
seemed  necessary  in  and  ancillary  to  their  success  in 
other  pursuits. 

We  have  had  and  now  have  many  preachers  in  the  or 
thodox  churches  in  this  State,  of  pulpit  eloquence  that 
would  have  distinguished  them  in  this  or  any  country  in 
Europe  a  century  or  two  ago,  who  have  been  known  only 
to  a  limited  extent  beyond  the  circle  of  pastoral  duties. 
The  State  has  given  many  able  preachers  to  the  church, 
such,  for  instance,  as  Lovic  Pierce,  James  0.  Andrew,  Jesse 
Mercer,  John  E.  Dawson,  Alonzo  Church,  S.  K.  Talrnage, 
Stephen  Elliott,  Ignatius  Few,  John  Colinsworth,  Charles 
D.  Malory,  Vincent  Thornton,  William  Arnold,  Andrew 
Hammel,  Isaac  Waddell,  Asa  Chandler,  Billington  M.  San 
ders,  Cyrus  White,  James  Henderson,  Joel  Colley,  Wil 
liam  Moseley,  A.  B.  Longstreet,  John  Walker  Glenn,  Jo 
seph  S.  Baker,  Adam  T.  Holmes,  Allen  Turner,  Samuel 
Anthony,  Jesse  H.  Campbell,  Jonathan  Davis,  Alexander 
Means,  George  F.  Pierce,  Henry  H.  Tucker,  Jesse  Boring, 
William  J.  Parks,  William  T.  Brantley,  Charles  M.  Irvine, 
James  E.  Evans,  Russell  Renneau,  Caleb  Key,  Armenius 
Wright,  Shaler  G.  Hillyer,  Alfred  T.  Mann,  Patrick  H. 
Mell,  E.  H.  Myers,  Nathaniel  Macon  Crawford,  John  Jones, 
John  S.  Wilson,  Edward  Neufville,  Henry  Kollock,  John 


50  MY  CONTEMPOKARIES.— 1857. 

P.  Duncan,  Eustace  Spear,  Isaac  Axson, Hoyt,  C.  W. 

Lane. 

Preachers,  like  lawyers,  differ  from  each  other  in  men 
tal  and  physical  constitution,  in  temper,  manner,  and 
doubtless  in  depth,  stability,  and  sincerity  of  piety  their 
chief  qualification  for  their  sacred  mission.  Those  who 
have  distinguished  themselves,  and  accomplished  great 
good,  have  differed  widely  in  early  advantages  of  educa 
tion,  and  in  their  progress  in  and  cultivation  of  general 
learning ;  as  in  the  above  short  list,  which  contains  some 
of  the  most  learned,  as  well  as  a  few  whose  learning  was 
limited  almost  to  the  text  and  commentaries  of  standard 
authors  on  the  Bible.  They  also  differ  widely  as  to  their 
methods  of  preserving,  to  transmit  to  future  generations, 
the  benefits  of  their  study  and  labor.  Some  will  live  in 
their  sermons  and  theological  disquisitions  ;  while  others, 
dealing  alone  in,  and  producing  powerful  effect  by  extem 
poraneous  logic,  pathos  and  eloquence,  will  live  only  in 
vague  tradition,  and  that  but  for  a  brief  period  of  the 
world's  rapid  march  and  change. 

It  is  a  period  of  silent  revolution  in  the  methods  of 
propagating  religion  and  gaining  members  to  the  Chris 
tian  churches.  Instead  of  appealing  to  the  middle  aged 
and  the  old,  and  relying  on  persons  of  mature  mind  and 
age  to  keep  the  ranks  of  the  laity  filled,  and  to  supply 
the  places  of  departing  and  retiring  clergy,  it  is  found 
that  the  children  are  more  easily  inducted,  and  more  to 
be  relied  on  for  increasing  the  membership.  Instead  of 
converting  people  who  are  hardened  in  sin  and  inured 
to  vice,  the  leading  minds  of  the  churches  have  directed 
their  policy  more  to  early  training,  and  to  bringing  up 
people  to  be  religious  from  childhood.  Hence  the  Sab 
bath  school  system  has  become  popular  and  in  general 


MY  CONTEMPORAKIES.— 1857.  51 

use  Men  of  ability  and  eloquence,  instead  of  preaching 
to  large  crowds  at  camp  and  mass  religious  meetings,  who 
are  not  often  accustomed  to  hear  eloquent  discourses,  now, 
on  account  of  the  increase  of  preachers  and  local  churches, 
preach  more  often  in  church  edifices  and  to  regular  con 
gregations  and  organized  churches ;  and  hence  it  is  more 
difficult  to  become  widely  known,  even  if  there  were 
fewer  eloquent  pulpit  orators. 

It  is  not  so  with  lawyers  and  politicians.  The  contests 
over  life,  liberty,  and  property  draw  the  people  to  the  fo 
rum  of  public  justice,  and  the  antagonisms  of  opposing 
parties  arouse  the  masses,  and  draw  the  people  together 
to  hear  their  chosen  speakers  and  leaders.  Political  lit 
erature  and  news  are  far  more  attractive  to  the  great  ma 
jority  of  men  than  that  of  art,  science,  or  the  Bible. 

It  attracts  attention  that  a  large  volume  of  legal  talent 
in  this  State  is  in  brothers,  such  as  Alexander  H.  and  Lin- 
ton  Stephens,Charles  and  William  Dougherty  of  this  State, 
and  Robert  Dougherty  of  Alabama  ;  Howell  and  Thomas 
R.  R.  Cobb,  Eli  and  Lott  Warren  of  Southern  Georgia ; 
Daniel  and  Alexander  McDougald  of  Columbus;  Edward 
Y.  of  Lagrange,  and  Joshua  Hill  of  Madison  ;  Nathaniel 
and  Albert  Foster  of  Madison,  Ebenezer  D.  and  Charles 
G.  of  Newnan,  and  William  McKinley  of  Milledgeville ; 
John  I.  of  Newton,  and  Stuart  Floyd  of  Morgan  county, 
Edmond  H.  of  Talbot,  and  Bedford  S.  Worrell  of  Stewart 
county,  John  Worrell  of  Sumter  county ;  Obadiah  C.  of 
Upson,  and  William  Gibson  of  Warren  county ;  Seaborn 
Jones  of  Muscogee,  and  John  A.  Jones  of  Polk  county; 
Augustus  II.  Hansell  of  Pulaski,  and  Andrew  J.  Hansell 
of  Cobb  county  ;  William  F.  of  Coweta,  and  Gilbert  J. 
Wright  of  Carroll  county  ;  William  W.  and  Henry  F. 
Merrell  of  Carroll  county ;  Philemon  and  Edward  D. 


52  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

Tracy  of  Macon  ;  William  and  Charles  D.  Phillips  of  Cobb 
county ;  Eugenius  L.  and  Marcellus  Douglass  of  Randolph 
county ;  Richard  F.  Lyon  and  John  Lyon  of  Dougherty 
county ;  Eugenius  A.  and  James  A.  Nesbit  of  Macon ; 
William  K.  De  Graffenreid  of  Macon,  and  Benjamin  B.  De 
Graffenreid  of  Milledgeville ;  Samuel  Hall  and  Robert  S. 
Hall  of  Macon  county  ;  John  McPherson  Berrien  of  Sa 
vannah,  Thomas  M.  Berrien  of  Waynesboro,  and  I.  W.  M. 
Berrien  of  Rome  ;  George  S.  and  John  W.  Owens,  Savan 
nah  ;  Joseph  E.  and  James  R.  Brown,  Cherokee  county ; 
Lucius  J.  Gartrell  of  Fulton,  and  John  0.  Gartrell  of  Cobb 
county ;  George  N.  of  Cobb,  and  Paul  Lester  of  Forsyth 
county ;  John  R.  and  Thomas  W.  Alexander,  Rome ; 
George  D.  of  Cobb,  and  John  H.  Rice  of  Cass  county  ; 
Hiram  and  Obadiah  Warner  of  Meriwether  county  ;  John 
W.  Barney  of  Jasper,  and  Thomas  I.  Barney  of  Morgan 
county ;  Henry  H.  and  William  Gumming  of  Augusta  ; 
George,  John,  and  William  R.  Schley  of  Augusta ;  I.  T. 
and  R.  I.  Bacon  of  Lagrange ;  Samuel  C.  of  Sumter,  and 
William  D.  Elam  of  Marion  county.  A  large  number  of 
whom  have  been  prominent  in  the  legal  profession,  and 
many  of  them  in  the  politics  of  the  State.  But  it  only 
presents  a  partial  list  of  the  prominent  and  gifted  men  of 
this  period. 

Barnard  Hill  of  Talbot ;  David  Irwin  of  Cobb  ;  Warren 
Akin  of  Cass ;  Charles  Murphy  of  DeKalb  ;  William  H. 
Dabney  of  Gordon  ;  Nathan  L.  Hutchings  of  Gwinnett ; 
Junius  Wingfield  of  Putnam  ;  James  M.  Calhoun  and  John 
Collier  of  Fulton  ;  David  H.  Vason  and  Henry  Morgan 
of  Dougherty ;  Augustus  Reese,  Thomas  P.  Saffold  and 
Isham  Fannin  of  Morgan ;  William  M.  Reese  of  Wilkes  ; 
Edward  H.  Pottle  of  Warren ;  Isaac  E.  Bower  of  Baker ; 
William  C.  Perkins  of  Randolph ;  Eldridge  G.  Cabaniss 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  53 

and  James  S.  Pinchard  of  Monroe  ;  David  W.  Lewis  of 
Hancock  ;  W.  H.  Dabney,  of  Gordon ;  Thomas  Chandler, 
of  Carroll  county, — are  among  the  stable  men  of  fair 
ability  without  brilliancy,  and  take  high  rank  in  their  sec 
tions  of  the  State. 

Among  the  older  class  of  able  men  are  William  Ezzard 
and  Amos  W.  Hammond  of  Atlanta;  Iverson  L  Harris 
and  Augustus  II.  Kenan  of  Milledgeville  ;  Washington 
Poe,  Absalom  H.  Chappell,  Samuel  Terry  Bailey,  John 
Rutherford,  James  I.  Gresham,  Henry  G.Lamar  of  Macon  ; 
Junius  Hillyer  of  Athens  ;  William  T.  Gould,  Ebenezer 
Starnes,  John  Millege  of  Augusta  ;  William  S.  Rockwell, 
William  B.  Flemming,  the  lamented  Robert  M.  Charlton, 
William  Law,  Levi  S.  De  Lyon  of  Savannah;  Thomas 
Butler  King  of  Glynn  county. 

Among  the  brilliant  men  in  middle  age  are  John  E. 
Ward,  Francis  S.  Bartow,  Henry  R.  Jackson,  Alexander 
R  Lawton  of  Savannah  ;  John  W.  H.  Underwood,  Augus 
tus  R.  Wright  of  Rome ;  William  Hope  Hull,  and  Cincin- 
natus  Peeples  of  Athens ;  Luther  J.  Glenn,  Lucius  J.  Gar- 
trell,  Basil  H.  Overby  of  Atlanta ;  William  W.  Clark,  John 
A.  Tucker  and  Burwell  K.  Harrison  of  Stewart  county  ; 
Robert  McMillan  of  Habersham  county ;  Thomas  W. 
Thomas  of  Elbert  county. 

Among  the  able  and  prominent  men  of  middle  age  are 
Edward  J.  Harden,  Thos  E.  Lloyd,  Henry  Williams  of 
Savannah ;  Robert  P.  Trippe  of  Monroe;  Lucius  H.  Feather- 
stone  of  Heard  county;  Blount  C.  Ferrell  of  Troup  county; 
Eobert  J.  Cowart  of  Atlanta ;  Elijah  W.  Chastain  of  Gil- 
mer ;  H.  S.  M'Kay  of  Sumter  county  ;  Samuel  Y.  Jamison 
of  Union  county;  Richard  M.  Johnson  of  Hancock  ;  James 
Milner  of  Cass  county;  Andrew  H.  H.  Dawson,  J.  M. 
Lovell  of  Savajmah ;  Richard  Simms  and  Joseph  Law  of 


54  MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— -1857. 

Bainbridge  ;  Samuel  S.  Stafford  of  Early  county,  Amos  T. 
Akerman,  Robert  Hester  of  Elbert  county ;  Mial  M.  Tid- 
well  of  Fayette  county ;  Thomas  Morris  of  Franklin,  Ben 
jamin  Oliver  of  Heard  county;  James  P.  Simmons  of  Gwin- 
nett  county ;  Andrew  J.  Hansell  of  Cobb  county ;  James 
A.  Pringle  of  Houston ;  Samuel  P.  Thoward  of  Jackson 
county ;  George  A.  Hall,  Obadiah  Warner  of  Meriwether 
county;  Hartford  Green  of  Pike  county  ;  Leonard  T.  Doy- 
lall  of  Griffin;  Robert  S.  Burch,  A.  T.  Mclntyre  of  Thomas 
county ;  John  B.  Morgan  of  Troup  county ;  Noel  B.  Night 
of  Cobb  county ;  Porter  Ingram  of  Harris. 

Among  the  prominent  younger  men  my  seniors,  some 
of  whom  are  able  and  brilliant,  are  Logan  E.  Bleckley 
of  Atlanta ;  Hugh  Buchanan  of  Coweta ;  James  M.  Smith 
of  Upson ;  Levi  B.  Smith  of  Talbot ;  William  A  Harris  of 
Worth ;  Willis  A.  Hawkins  of  Sumter ;  John  L.  Harris  of 
Glynn ;  Ambrose  R.  Wright  of  Jefferson ;  William  T.  Wof- 
ford  ofCass;  Edward  Dale  Chisolm  of  Polk;  Thomas  Harde- 
man,  Jr.  and  Alexander  M.  Spear  of  Bibb ;  James  N,  Ram 
sey  and  James  M.  Mobley  of  Harris  county ;  Alfred  H. 
Colquitt  of  Baker ;  Benjamin  H.  Bighan  of  Troup ;  Joel 
A.  Billups  of  Morgan  ;  Leander  W.  Crook  of  Chattooga  ; 
Ruf  us  W.  McCane  of  Spalding ;  W.  S.  Wallace  of  Taylor ; 
George  T.  Bartlett  of  Jasper ;  Alexander  Pope  of  Wilkes ; 
James  R.  Lyon  of  Butts ;  Miles  W.  Lewis  of  Green;  Richard 
H.  Clark  of  Baker ;  Samuel  Hall  of  Macon  ;  John  A.  Jones, 
Jr.,  Beverly  E.  Thornton  of  Muscogee;  John  Jinks 
Jones  of  Burke  county ;  Charles  W.  Mabry  of  Heard 
county ;  Daniel  S.  Printup  of  Floyd  county ;  Osborne  A. 
Lochrane  of  Bibb  county. 

There  are  many  men  who  have  attained  political  dis 
tinction  who  are  not  lawyers,  among  them  the  learned 
and  eloquent  Dr.  Homer  V.  M.  Miller  of  Rome,  a  man 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  55 

long  distinguished  as  the  Demosthenes  of  the  mountains, 
who  has  never  been  elected  to  a  public  office  ;  the  brilliant 
and  eloquent  James  Watson  Harris  of  Cass  county ;  Gen. 
William  B.  Wofford  of  Habersham;  Thomas  Stocks  of 
Green  ;  Gen.  Peter  Cone  of  Bullock ;  Joseph  Dunnegan  of 
Hall ;  Dr.  George  D.  Phillips  of  Habersham  ;  James  Gard 
ner  and  Thomas  C.  Howard,  who  retired  from  the  law 
practice  early  to  enter  upon  the  brilliant  career  of  polit 
ical  editors ;  Theodore  L.  Guerry  of  Randolph  ;  and  John 
D.  Stell  of  Fayette  county ;  Simpson  Fouche  of  Floyd 
county ;  Mark  A.  Cooper  of  Cass  county. 

These  lists  do  not  embrace  by  far  all,  but  present  a  fair 
representation  of  the  prominent  Georgians  of  the  period, 
extending  as  it  does  from  the  old  and  retiring,  down  to 
many  not  much  older  than  myself  whose  race  of  life  is 
still  to  run. 

There  are  two  men  now  in  advanced  life,  about  whom  a 
separate  volume  might  be  written,  more  important  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  State  than  any  of  our  politicians,  who 
long  ago  retired  from  law  and  politics  to  carry  forward  to 
its  grand  success  the  great  railway  improvement  of  the 
State ;  these  are  Richard  R.  Cuyler  of  Savannah  and 
John  P.  King  of  Augusta. 

If  each  individual  mentioned  were  the  subject  of  a  truth 
ful  sketch,  there  would  be  manifest  the  greatest  possible 
diversity  of  talents  and  capabilities,  of  learning,  of  habits 
of  industry  and  application,  of  style  and  manner,  of  culture 
and  taste,  as  well  as  moral  character.  Many  of  them  are 
church  members,  and  some  are  consistently  religious ; 
others  far  less  consistent  in  practice.  Many  Who  do  not 
profess  to  be  religious  and  are  not  church  members  are 
stable  in  morals,  and  noted  for  purity  of  character  in 
public  and  private.  Some  are  addicted  to  drunkenness, 


56  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

some  to  gaming,  and  some  to  other  sensual  vices;  but 
the  array  of  personal  integrity,  honor,  morality,  and 
purity  of  private  character,  is  lovely  to  contemplate  by 
all  who  are  interested  in  the  preservation  of  the  glory 
of  the  present  and  transmitting  it  to  future  generations. 

I  present  five  men  together  whom  I  closely  noticed 
because  of  their  eccentricities  as  well  as  power  and  influ 
ence,  and  their  striking  diversity  of  character :  Owen  H. 
Kenan,  John  A.  Jones,  Thomas  A.  Latham,  John  Kay, 
and  William  H.  Underwood.  None  of  them  are  noted 
for  piety,  or  the  use  of  religious  pretension  for  worldly 
aims.  Jones,  Kenan$  and  Latham  defy  the  Church  and 
society  in  some  of  its  forms  and  requirements.  Like 
many  of  our  public  men  they  suffer  the  misfortune  of 
being  addicted  to  profane  swearing  in  public  and  private, 
a  mode  of  parlance  and  emphasis  that,  like  that  of  drink 
ing  in  high  life,  has  to  be  tolerated  on  account  of  the 
respectability  and  number  of  men  of  wealth  and  social 
power  who  follow  it ;  but  which  lowers  the  dignity  and 
weakens  the  influence  of  many  of  the  able  men  of  the 
State. 

Kenan  was  prominent  as  a  lawyer  and  judge,  out 
spoken,  impulsive,  and  ardent  in  everything  in  which  he 
engaged,  exacting  and  dictatorial,  as  well  as  honest  and 
brave.  A  man  of  tall  and  large  frame,  commanding  man 
ner  and  air,  and  severe  rough  features;  wore  a  double- 
breasted  coat  buttoned  around  his  chest,  and  a  heavy 
watch-chain  and  seal,  and  the  balance  of  his  toilet  in  neg 
ligence.  He  is  the  subject  of  many  anecdotes  and  narra 
tives  among  the  old  lawyers.  The  latter  years  of  his 
life  have  been  on  a  rich  farm  in  Murray  county,  sur 
rounded  by  wealth  and  ease. 

Jones,  who  also  has  retired  from  practice  on  his  estate 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  57 

in  Polk  county,  is  stout  and  vigorous  and  hale  at  three 
score  and  ten,  or  thereabouts,  and  has  all  the  fire  and 
courage  of  a  man  of  forty.  Though  not  regarded  as  the 
equal  in  law  learning  and  power  as  an  advocate  with  his 
brother  Seaborn,  he  has  been  when  pursuing  the  practice  an 
able  lawyer,  and  was  for  a  short  time  judge  of  his  circuit. 
He  is  a  severe  advocate,  a  generous  and  confiding  friend, 
and  a  vindictive  foe ;  has  reduced  Jefferson's  theory  of 
State  rights  and  sovereignty  to  extreme  radical  ideas  and 
is  an  intolerant  partisan.  He  was  for  several  years 
prominent  as  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  is  the  au 
thor  of  the  Bill  of  1847  establishing  or  allowing  a  short 
form  of  pleading  which  dispenses,  in  great  part,  with 
legal  knowledge  and  skill  in  the  pleader,  the  labor  of 
drafting,  and  has  therefore  come  into  common  use  in  our 
courts. 

His  hatred  to  the  people  of  the  North  and  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  knows  no  bounds,  and  he 
lives  in  hope  of  the  political  separation  and  independence 
of  the  slaveholding  States — wears  his  hair  and  beard 
long,  and  openly  and  often  swears  never  to  shave  until 
the  State  of  Georgia  shall  have  seceded  from  the  Union. 

Thomas  A.  Latham,  of  Campbell  county,  is  a  man  of 
more  general  and  pleasurable  observation  and  remark, 
whom  everybody  who  knows  him,  in  defiance  of  the 
ordinary  basis  of  full  trust  and  confidence,  naturally  and 
voluntarily  likes  and  derives  amusement  and  pleasure 
from  because  he  is  ready  to  do  good  and  be  kind  to  all, 
and  can  be  provoked  to  hurt  or  harm  none  save  those 
who  are  so  unwise  as  to  assail  him  or  depredate  upon  his 
rights.  He  is  in  excess  of  six  feet  in  height  when  at  ease, 
and  a  good  deal  so  when  aroused,  and  is  of  form  and  size 
to  match.  Body,  head,  and  features  large,  the  skin  that 


58  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

shows  age,  as  well  as  gray  hairs,  is  of  coarse  cellular  tis 
sue.  He  stands  with  his  body  much  in  advance  of  his 
lower  limbs  and  feet,  which  are  also  large.  lie  adheres 
to  the  old  method  of  tying  his  huge  cravat  and  to  the 
gorgeous  ruffle  bosom  shirt,  to  the  double-breasted,  long 
swallow-tail  coat,  and  allows  on  big  occasions  the  expan 
sive  bandanna  handkerchief  to  hang  out  gorgeously  from 
the  rear  pocket.  When  quiet  he  is  almost  as  still  as  a 
tombstone,  when  aroused  he  is  almost  a  volcano  in  human 
form.  The  current  of  his  affections  is  like  a  river  in 
its  flow,  and  that  of  his  invective  and  resentment  like  the 
lava  from  Vesuvius. 

He  prides  himself  in  being  from  old  Virginia  and  in 
all  the  amenities  of  the  primitive  stock  of  gentlemen 
when  he  is  amiable,  gentle,  and  kind,  but  defies  all  forms 
and  ceremonies  when  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion,  or 
the  fury  of  intoxication,  disengage  the  sleeping  elements 
of  the  antagonist.  We  regard  him  as  a  careless  practi 
tioner,  but  in  the  cases  in  which  he  prepares  he  is  power 
ful  and  terrible.  His  voice  is  strong  like  his  body,  his 
speeches  are  loud ;  his  capacity  to  unsettle  the  dignity  of 
a  court-room  by  ridicule  and  anecdote  and  physical  per 
formance  to  suit  are  unsurpassed,  and  he  carries  this  rare 
faculty  into  the  walks  of  private  life — often  sits  in  appar 
ently  profound  abstraction,  undisturbing  as  a  statue  but  a 
close  listener  to  the  running  conversation  of  the  company, 
and,  when  the  subject  has  been  worn  threadbare  or  takes 
an  unsatisfactory  turn,  suddenly  flares  his  sententious  wit 
and  ridicule,  or  his  commendation  and  applause,  like  a 
shooting  meteor  that  startles,  delighting  or  discomfiting, 
and  often  breaks  it  up  into  a  storm  of  merriment  and 
laughter.  All  his  instincts  and  emotions,  as  well  as  his 
education  and  practices,  are  democratic.  In  private  in- 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  59 

terview  he  is  gentle,  mild,  generous,  and  confiding;  in 
debate,  public  or  private,  never  fails  to  become  boisterous 
in  tone  and  manner  in  praise  of  his  own  and  denunciation 
of  the  opposing  party. 

John  Ray  of  Coweta  county,  is  of  Irish  birth  and 
brogue ;  has  a  well-rounded,  though  not  tall  body  j  large 
head,  round  full  features,  and  prominent,  full  dark  rolling 
eyes.  For  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  been  promi 
nent  as  a  lawyer,  advocate,  and  democratic  orator  in 
western  Georgia.  Honorable,  honest,  consequential  in 
air  and  manner ;  sensitive  and  brave,  suspicious  of  foes, 
and  confiding  with  friends;  the  theme  and  occasion  of 
many  bar  anecdotes,  which  his  brethren  seldom  venture 
to  narrate  in  his  presence.  He  now  retires  in  the  feeble 
health  of  advanced  age,  in  ease  and  wealth. 

William  H.  Underwood,  differs  from  them  all.  He  was 
naturally  of  well- formed  body,  and  head,  and  face, — the 
former  somewhat  sunken,  and  the  latter  wrinkled  by  age 
before  I  ever  saw  him.  He  was  of  early,  severe  study 
and  extensive  learning,  and  memory  tenacious  to  old  age. 
He  was  a  lawyer  by  life-long  practice,  except  when  he 
performed  the  duties  of  judge  in  early  life.  He  came  to 
Cherokee,  Ga.,  long  before  my  day  here,  from  Elbert 
county,  where  he  was  accustomed  to  meet  Dooley,  Thomas 
W.  Cobb,  Jeptha  V.  Harris,  William  H.  Crawford,  Dun 
can  G.  Campbell,  Tait  and  Blackburn,  and  other  great 
lawyers  of  the  early  part  of  the  century. 

His  observation  was  close,  and  his  criticism  incisive. 
He  detected  faults  in  all  men,  and  their  faults  made 
stronger  impressions  than  their  virtues  on  his  mind,  that 
revelled  in  its  own  freedom,  and  defied  the  opinions  of 
those  of  weaker  mould.  He  despised  two  classes,  and 
could  scent  their  qualities  in  more  men  than  it  was  popu- 


60  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

lar  to  avow  and  publish.  One  hypocrites  in  religion,  the 
other  demagogues  in  politics. 

He  never  was  a  democrat  as  the  word  is  now  inter 
preted,  or  a  republican  as  it  was  understood  in  his  early 
life.  He  has  always  believed  in  a  strong  general  govern 
ment  ;  had  a  contempt  for  clamors  of  State  rights  in  all 
their  forms,  and  was  one  of  the  few  avowed  federalists 
of  this  State,  and  was  the  tool  or  slave  of  no  party.  He 
was  a  whig,  because  the  whigs  were  opposed  to  the 
democrats ;  not  that  he  loved  whigs,  but  hated  the  demo 
crats,  as  a  party,  and,  condemned  the  political  ideas  that 
were  the  basis  of  their  organization,  and  popular  element 
of  success.  He  had  profound  respect  for  leaders  he 
believed  to  be  able  and  patriotic  and  honest,  who  were 
few  in  number. 

His  cynic  wit,  so  proverbial,  and  so  dreaded  by  court, 
bar,  and  social  companions,  was  the  natural  result  of  his 
order  of  mind,  his  education  and  methods  of  study,  his 
life  and  honest  opinions  of  men  and  things.  And  it  came 
unbidden  and  welling  up  like  the  water  from  a  fountain 
acted  on  by  the  law  of  gravity.  If  it  pleased  others  he 
was  happy ;  if  it  hurt  others  it  wounded  him  in  turn. 

I,  like  others,  long  stood  aloof  in  fear  of  the  bristles 
that  pointed  gangrene  at  my  feeble  powers  and  efforts. 
But  I  lived  to  get  beyond  the  icicles  and  crust  he  pre 
sented  to  the  world,  and  to  find  that  in  the  rear  of  it  all 
there  was  the  big,  warm  heart  of  a  noble  old  man,  who 
would  do  all  the  world  good,  if  in  his  power. 

William  Dougherty  and  Henry  L.  Benning  are  men  of 
the  Columbus  bar,  whose  fame  rests,  the  first  on  his 
achievements  and  powers  as  a  lawyer,  the  other,  as  law 
yer  and  judge  of  the  State  supreme  court.  Dougherty  is 
of  the  splendid  physique  of  his  deceased  brother  Charles ; 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  61 

and,  having  passed  the  first  half  century  of  life,  is  so  fresh 
in  body  and  mind  as  to  bid  fair  to  live  another  fifty 
years.  He,  like  Benning,  is  moral  arid  temperate  in  eat 
ing,  and  abstains  from  liquors  and  tobacco,  and  like  him, 
intemperate  in  labor.  There  are  but  few  with  whom  to 
compare  him  in  order  to' fix  his  standard  of  ability.  He 
is  genial  in  social  life,  stutters  slightly  and  occasionally, 
though  fluent  in  conversation,  and  is  full  of  heart-stirring 
and  mirth-provoking  anecdote.  He  is  powerful,  logical, 
brief  and  bold  in  argument,  and  almost  irresistible  before 
court  or  jury.  He  is  withal  an  enemy,  and  the  subject 
of  enmity,  because  he  has  long  been  the  hero  of  a  financial 
warfare  against  the  stockholders  of  certain  banks  that 
failed,  with  a  large  number  of  their  bills  in  circulation  in 
the  hands  of  the  people,  to  make  them  liable  to  the  hold 
ers  of  those  bills.  He  has  a  large  personal  interest  as 
well  as  great  stock  of  professional  ambition  and  reputation 
in  the  issue.  The  war  involves  many  people  of  wealth 
and  influence,  and  calls  forth  the  strong  men  of  the  bar 
in  that  part  of  the  State  to  protect  and  defend  the  stock 
holders  against  the  suits  on  the  defunct  bank  bills. 

Henry  L.  Benning  was  one  of  the  able  lawyers  arrayed 
on  that  side ;  was  for  some  of  the  parties  and  son-in-law 
of  Seaborn  Jones,  who  was  a  party  largely  interested  as 
well  as  leading  lawyer  in  the  defence.  Such  was  the  sit 
uation  at  the  time  of  the  election  by  the  Legislature  of 
Benning  as  associate  justice  of  the  supreme  court,  in  1853, 
against  Judge  Nesbit,  whose  opinions  were  not  favorable 
to  the  relief  of  the  stockholders.  When  the  questions 
came  before  the  supreme  court,  in  cases  in  which  Benning 
was  not  of  counsel,  but  involved  the  same  questions  as 
the  cases  did  in  which  he  had  been  employed  for  other 
parties,  Mr.  Dougherty  challenged  his  right  to  preside 


62  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

and  try  them  with  the  two  other  judges,  and  demanded 
that  he  should  retire  from  the  bench.  Benning,  with  a 
firmness  strongly  tested  by  the  sentiment  of  the  bar  of 
the  State  against  it  with  but  few  exceptions,  overruled 
the  challenge  ;  holding  that  he  was  not  legally  disquali 
fied  by  his  having  been  employed  and  formed  his  opinions 
from  investigating  the  questions  in  other  cases  before  his 
election  as  judge,  or  by  his  relationship  to  persons  inter 
ested  in  the  questions  and  not  parties  in  the  cases  before 
him.  That  it  was  a  stern  duty  imposed  by  law  and  his 
oath  of  office,  which  he  cannot  shirk  or  evade,  to  preside 
in  all  cases  that  come  before  the  court,  in  which,  by  his 
election,  qualification,  and  commission,  he  has  had  given 
to  him  power  and  authority  to  preside.  The  lawyers 
of  the  State  not  interested  as  counsel  differ.  Some 
able  and  stable  men  sustain  Benning,  while  a  ma 
jority  think  he  should  have  retired.  But  even  some 
of  those  agree  with  Benning  in  his  judgment  and  dissent 
ing  opinions  as  to  the  liability  of  the  stockholders  after 
the  dissolution  of  the  corporations.  The  discussion  ex 
tended  to  the  press  and  political  circles,  in  which  it  was 
freely  asserted  that  the  political  influence  of  the  bank 
stockholders  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Legislature  in 
the  nomination  of  Benning  over  other  prominent  and 
able  aspirants,  and  in  his  election ;  and  as  freely  asserted, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  it  was  an  element  of  weakness, 
on  account  of  the  popular  sympathy  in  other  parts  of  the 
State  with  the  bill  holders.  And  it  was  also  charged 
that  the  refusal  to  re-elect  Judge  Nesbit,  and  the  election 
of  a  Democrat,  was  a  violation  of  the  implied  compact 
between  the  parties,  when  the  court  was  organized,  not  to 
make  politics  a  test  in  the  election  of  judges.  It  has,  how 
ever,  been  the  custom  of  both  parties,  with  but  few  excep- 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  63 

tions  in  the  past,  to  elect  their  own  men  to  all  offices, 
when  they  had  the  numerical  strength  to  do  so.  Benning, 
like  Dougherty,  is  a  man  of  learning,  research,  and  ability 
as  well  as  courage,  integrity,  and  purity  of  private  char 
acter. 

Columbus  has  furnished  a  magnificent  cluster  of 
lawyers  besides  Colquitt,  Dougherty  and  Benning,  some 
of  whom  have  figured  largely  and  others  sparingly  in  pol 
itics.  Among  the  more  noted,  Daniel  and  Alexander 
McDougald,  Joseph  Sturgis,  Alfred  Iverson,  Marshall  J. 
Welborn,  Grigsby  E.  Thomas,  Adam  G.  Foster,  Hines 
Holt,  James  Johnson,  and  Seaborn  Jones,  to  whom,  many 
who  knew  them  all  well,  award,  that  in  some  respects, 
and  in  the  general  average  of  powers  as  counsellor,  prac 
titioner  and  advocate  he  was  somewhat  the  superior. 

Two  men  among  the  most  perfect  models  of  their  re 
spective  style  of  man,  and  among  the  most  universally 
beloved  of  the  old  Whig  leaders  who  retired  from  high 
official  position  on  the  ascendency  of  Democratic  power 
in  the  Legislature,  one  from  the  United  States  Senate,  the 
other  from  the  supreme  court  bench,  were  William  Crosby 
Dawson,  lately  deceased,  of  Greensboro ;  and  Eugenius 
A.  Nesbit,  of  Macon,  still  living.  Dawson  has  been  dis 
tinguished  for  all  that  good  will  to  men,  kindness,  and 
urbanity  can  produce  in  a  single  character.  A  man  of 
medium  size  and  height,  with  large,  broad  nose,  somewhat 
flat  face  and  forehead,  and  eye  radiant  with  intelligence, 
and  inviting  good  nature  and  charity,  indicating  his  gen 
erous  and  genial  social  nature  to  all  who  ever  approached 
him.  He  was  endowed  by  nature  with  only  fair  average 
abilities,  which  have  been  largely  cultivated  at  the  bar, 
on  the  bench,  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  as  grand 
master  of  masons. 


C4  MY  CONTEMPORAKIES.— 1857. 

Nesbit  is  a  model  man  in  form  of  body,  arms,  bands, 
neck,  head  and  face  ;  but  is  small,  far  below  the  average 
size  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  this  State,  but  is  of  durable 
temperament  and  elastic  physical  constitution.  He  is  of 
unostentatious  grace,  self  reliance,  somewhat  severe  dig 
nity,  and  a  presence  that  forbids  familiar,  vulgar  approach. 
He  is  of  pure  public  and  private  character,  and  a  Chris 
tian.  His  career  as  a  Whig  leader  and  as  representative 
in  Congress  was  popular ;  and  his  research  and  learning 
adorn  the  early  volumes  of  the  supreme  court  reports, 
where  his  opinions  are  recorded,  and  which  take  high 
rank  with  American  jurists. 

He  is  contemporary  of  Samuel  Terry  Bailey,  of  Macon ; 
and  Dawson,  with  Francis  H.  Cone,  of  Greensboro ;  both 
lawyers  of  superior  ability,  learning  and  large  success,  of 
northern  birth  who  carne  in  early  life  to  this  State,  but 
who  differ  widely  from  each  other.  Bailey's  habits  of 
thought,  study,  and  practice  caused  him.  to  stand  some 
what  aloof  from  the  brethren  in  social  life,  but  he  was  him 
self  always  thoroughly  prepared,  and  brought  to  every 
contest  a  large  measure  of  severe  criticism. 

Cone,  large  and  portly,  with  a  piercing  black  eye,  was 
always  free  and  full  in  conference  ;  bold,  confident  and 
defiant  in  argument  and  tactics  before  any  court,  high  or 
low,  or  the  jury.  As  lawyer,  judge,  legislator,  he  was 
thorough  and  profound ;  and  in  social  life,  as  playful  as  a 
boy.  His  humor  is  a  perennial  spring,  and  his  anecdotes 
take  the  widest  range,  from  the  grave  and  learned,  to  the 
ridiculous  and  gross.  As  a  Democratic  leader  he  lost 
caste  with  the  people  after  his  encounter  and  stabbing 
Mr.  Stephens,  in  1848. 

Judge  Nesbit  is  also  contemporary  at  Macon  with  Ab 
salom  H.  Chappell,  a  man  of  tall  and  stately  dignity,  and 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  65 

great  integrity,  as  well  as  learning  and  ability.  Like 
most  of  the  great  old  lawyers,  he  is  not  inclined  to  accept 
any  legal  proposition  as  settled  ;  but  prepares  thoroughly 
on  authority  to  support  every  possibly  disputed  premise, 
and  exhausts  every  point  in  debate,  never  considering 
his  work  done  until  the  edifice  of  an  unanswerable  and 
exhaustive  argument  is  complete. 

Three  of  the  ablest  men  of  upper  Georgia  are  at  Rome : 
Augustus  R.  Wright,  John  W.  H.  Underwood,  and  John 
Ramsey  Alexander. 

Wright  is  of  somewhat  spare  and  erect,  but  of  strong 
and  durable  as  well  as  active  body ;  is  of  the  sanguo-ner- 
vous-bilious  temperament,  full  of  emotion,  impetuous  and 
rapid  in  all  his  mental  operations.  He  loves  truth  and 
despises  consistency  when  the  two  seem  to  come  in  con 
flict.  Has  the  reputation  of  being  changeable  in  religion 
and  politics,  having  in  turn  been  a  preacher  of  the  Meth 
odists  and  Baptists,  and  a  leader  of  the  Whig  and  Demo 
cratic  parties.  He  is  a  man  of  learning  as  well  as  accu 
rate  thought,  never  was  a  student  in  the  ordinary 
acceptation  of  the  word,  for  he  is  a  genius,  takes  in,  ab 
sorbs  and  comprehends  things  without  mental  plodding. 
His  speeches  always  draw  crowds,  at  the  bar  and  on  the 
hustings ;  full  of  wit  and  humor,  with  a  thorough  under 
standing  of  human  passion  and  sympathy.  His  voice  is 
like  a  clarion  in  clearness  and  expansive  power ;  and  in 
issues  that  call  forth  his  great  exertions  his  eloquence 
rises  to  grandeur  and  sublimity. 

Underwood  has  the  advantage  and  disadvantage  of  hav 
ing  a  distinguished  father  in  the  same  profession.  The 
one  to  be  put  forward  under  favorable  auspices  in  youth, 
the  other  the  tardiness  with  which  the  public  accepts  the 
conclusion  that  the  son  is  equal  to  the  father  in  real  merit 


66  MY  CONTEMPORAKIES.— 1857. 

and  ability;  because  not  all  the  sons  of  great  men  are 
great ;  and  even  where  they  inherit  the  parental  mind, 
by  reason  of  the  care  and  exemption  from  toil  the  father's 
success  brings  to  the  sons,  and  the  groundless  confidence 
reposed  in  ancestral  greatness  as  a  safe  passage  through 
the  world,  the  sons  often  fail ;  but  not  so  of  Underwood. 
He  is  of  fine  form  and  person,  of  fluent  language  and 
delivery  in  speeches  and  in  conversation.  His  voice  is 
clear  and  distinct,  though  not  capable  like  Wright's  of  ex 
panding  and  enlarging  in  volume  with  the  passion  and 
power  of  the  oration.  But,  nevertheless,  he  is  a  powerful 
and  effective  advocate  and  stump  speaker,  a  learned  and 
able  lawyer  and  counsellor.  His  father's  wit  is  a  thunder 
bolt  that  regards  not  the  company  or  presence,  and  con 
sults  no  man's  opinions  or  feelings.  His  is  the  gentle 
and  refreshing  breeze,  and  sometimes  almost  a  gale,  that 
fans  and  cools  and  enlivens  all  men,  and  blows  nobody  ill. 

Alexander  is  not  distinguished  for  wit  nor  eloquence,  but 
is  a  sound  and  safe  counsellor  and  effective  and  logical 
advocate  whom  passion  never  betrays  into  error ;  a  safe 
ally  and  a  dreaded  foe ;  open,  candid,  true  and  unimpas- 
sioned.  All  three  of  the  men  are  of  pure  private  character. 

Henry  R.  Jackson,  of  Savannah,  and  William  Hope 
Hull,  are  men  of  rare  production,  universal  confidence, 
and  general  admiration.  The  first  the  cousin,  the  latter 
the  neighbor,  and  both  life-long  bosom  friends,  of  Howell 
Cobb,  and  both  Democrats  from  youth.  Hull  is  much 
like  Cobb  in  size  and  form,  without  favor  of  features,  and 
in  breadth,  quickness,  and  power  of  mind,  which  has  been 
confined  mainly  to  the  law  practice. 

Jackson  was  an  ardent  and  impassioned  student  and 
advocate,  full  of  ambition  and  chivalry,  and  proud  custo 
dian  of  the  honor  and  dauntless  courage  as  well  as  ability 


MY  CONTEMPOEAKIES.— 1857.  67 

of  his  historic  family.  He  was  a  gallant  commander  of  a 
Georgia  regiment  in  the  late  Mexican  war ;  has  been  an 
able  and  inflexible  judge,  and  an  eloquent  and  effective 
Democratic  orator.  He  is,  withal,  a  man  of  literary  taste 
and  cultivation,  and  of  rare  poetic  gifts.  As  lawyer, 
scholar,  and  patriot,  he  is  loved  by  his  able  associates,  se 
niors  and  juniors,  of  the  Savannah  bar,  and  by  the  people 
of  the  State. 

Among  the  multitude  of  able  and  promising  of  the 
younger  class  of  my  seniors,  I  mention  particularly  six  a 
little  older  than  myself,  and  nearly  of  equal  ages,  who  are 
endowed  naturally  with  great  minds,  each  having  the 
most  abundant  capacity  to  sustain  himself  in  any  height 
to  which  the  political  seas  may  drift,  or  the  storms  of 
party  drive  him.  Robert  G.  Harper,  and  Lucius  Q.  C.  La- 
mar,  of  Newton;  Thomas  R.  R.  Cobb,  of  Clarke;  Linton 
Stephens,  of  Hancock ;  Benjamin  H.  Hill,  of  Troup  ;  and 
Joseph  E.  Brown,  of  Cherokee  county. 

It  is  rare  to  find  among  so  large  a  number  approxi 
mating  them,  in  any  State  or  country,  such  a  number  of 
contemporaries  who  are  the  equals  of  these ;  and  they  all 
differ  from  each  other  in  mind  and  temper. 

Harper  and  Lamar,  after  graduating  at  Emory  college 
and  tarrying  in  the  vestibule  of  court  till  their  beards 
grew,  set  out  as  partners  in  law  practice  at  Covington. 
Harper  is  gentle  and  modest,  but  firm,  resolute,  and  per 
sistent.  The  rays  of  the  diamond  sparkle  more  brightly 
as  the  scintillations  of  genius  are  struck  by  action  and 
contact,  and  as  the  obscuring  rubbish  of  modesty  and 
unpretension  is  thrown  aside,  leaving  bare  to  the  gaze  of 
the  most  astute  critic  the  God-made  man  of  worth;  and 
yet  he  is  less  known,  less  appreciated,  applauded  and 
honored  than  the  others. 


68  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

Lucius  Lamar  is  of  over-endowed  brain  and  nerve 
power,  is  charged  as  if  by  a  galvanic  battery  in  all  his 
physical  and  mental  composition  when  called  forth  to 
make  intellectual  effort.  Impetuous  from  inherited  love 
of  right,  and  antipathy  to  wrong;  honest  himself,  he 
demands  more  than  mortal  effort  and  ambition  can  achieve; 
that  is,  to  see  all  other  men  true  and  honest.  No  power 
is  too  high  to  be  questioned,  no  influence  potent  enough 
to  awe  him.  Disappointment  may  await,  but  its  augurs 
have  no  terrors  for  the  brave  heart  and  buoyant  hopes  of 
this  young  man  eloquent,  who  comes  heralded  by  pa 
rental  greatness  and  powerful  family  prestige. 

Thomas  Cobb  and  Linton  Stephens  are  alike  in  on*e  in 
cident  and  barrier  to  their  hopes  of  public  political 
honors.  They  have  each  a  senior  brother  among  the  pop 
ular  and  ambitious  men  of  the  period ;  each  has  an  idol 
in  his  own  household,  above  self  and  next  to  the  Deity. 
Cobb  is  a  great,  learned,  laborious,  untiring,  ambitious 
lawyer,  while  his  brother  Howell,  with  a  larger  brain  but 
none  the  more  powerful,  carries  all  his  plans  and  aims 
into  the  line  of  political  promotion;  and  the  junior  is 
none  the  less  fit  for  high  position  and  power  in  the  State. 

Linton  Stephens  differs  from  his  brother  in  all  but 
great  mind,  courage,  integrity  and  fraternal  devotion. 
Alexander  has  always,  when  composed,  looked  like  he  was 
almost  ready  for  the  undertaker.  Linton  has  a  bilious, 
nervous  composition,  with  a  strong  frame  and  hard  mus 
cles  that  can  stand  labor  and  endure  exposure.  He  is 
brave,  and  despises  the  opposite  quality ;  confident  in  his 
own  judgment,  and  contemns  the  feeble  reasoning  power 
that  reaches  an  opposite  conclusion.  Careless  in  manner 
and  in  dress,  fears  no  personal  opposition  or  danger,  and 
carries  his  life  in  his  hand  for  the  friends  he  confides  in 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.—1857.  69 

and  loves,  yet  assails  or  invades  none  who  assail  or  invade 
not  him.  He  is  shaded  by  the  fame  of  his  brother,  but 
for  powerful,  severe  logic,  and  aggressive,  persisterft,  ex 
haustive  analysis  and  argument  he  has  but  few  equals  in 
the  State. 

Benjamin  H.  Hill  is  one  of  the  rare  young  men  of  the 
age,  and  exceeds  them  all  in  the  most  coveted  and  courted 
gift  of  political  aspirants, — popular  eloquence.  He  has 
full  self  control  upon  all  emergencies,  at  the  bar  of  the 
supreme  court,  before  the  judge  of  the  circuit,  or  the  jury, 
where  he  is  irresistible,  and  in  the  popular  meetings,  large 
and  small. 

Nature  made  him  an  orator  by  giving  him  a  command 
ing  and  attractive  person,  a  large  and  active  brain,  and 
unbounded  capacity  for  utterance.  He  has  the  physi 
cal  power  to  rise  with  his  own  estimate  of  the  magnitude 
of  his  theme,  and  I  have  never  seen  his  spirit  fag  or  his 
voice  fail  to  meet  the  enormous  demands  of  his  fruitful 
imagination.  He  has  the  courage  to  assert  any  premises 
that  may  be  needed,  and  it  puzzles  the  severest  critics  to 
detect  the  error  of  argumentation  to  sustain  what  he  as- 
^serts. 

Most  of  the  old  party  leaders  in  opposition  to  the  De 
mocracy  have  come  over  to  us,  and  Hill  has  a  limitless 
field  in  which  to  exert  his  power  before  the  people  in  op 
posing  the  resistless  career  of  the  party. 

Joseph  E.  Brown  has  been  reared  in  the  mountain  dis 
trict  of  Cherokee,  Georgia ;  comes  of  the  race  of  hardy, 
honest  and  true  men  of  the  times.  He  has  the  largest 
and  best  balanced  brain  of  all  the  young  men  of  the  State 
and  scarcely  has  an  equal  in  energy  and  perseverance. 

As  orator,  in  the  popular  and  appropriate  understand 
ing  of  the  term,  he  is  barely  the  equal  of  either  of  the 


70  MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— 1857. 

five  alluded  to ;  but  as  a  debater  he  is  the  inferior  of  none, 
and  the  superior  of  most  of  them.  He  is  never  caught 
unprepared,  and  never  meets  an  emergency,  however  sud 
den  or  great,  which  he  cannot  summon  resources  to  meet. 
Never  is  a  blow  aimed  at  him  or  his  cause,  that  he  can 
not  ward  off  or  parry.  He  was  a  lawyer  at  an  early  pe 
riod  of  life,  and  almost  as  soon,  among  the  front  and  able 
lawyers  of  Cherokee,  Georgia,  feared  and  respected  for  his 
masterly  powers.  He  is  cautious,  watchful,  never  tires, 
or  leaves  any  means  untried  which  promise  success,  and 
never  leaves  a  fortress  or  battery  of  his  adversary  unas- 
sailed. 

An  ardent  Democrat  from  his  boyhood,  a  leading  mem 
ber  of  the  State  Senate  at  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  pres 
idential  elector  at  thirty-two;  active  in  all  the  popular 
elections  and  debates  since  he  came  to  manhood,  he  pos 
sessed  the  full  confidence  and  challenged  the  full  support 
of  his  party  in  the  election  for  the  judgeship,  an  office  not 
political,  against  the  popular  incumbent,  David  Irwin,  one 
of  the  ablest  among  the  old  judges  and  one  of  the  purest 
and  best  men  of  the  circuit.  The  bitterness  and  preju 
dice  growing  out  of  the  race,  connected  as  it  was  with 
the  political  strife  between  the  Democratic  and  American 
parties,  soon  subsided  after  he  entered  on  the  discharge 
of  official  duties.  Firm,  impartial,  vigilant,  sober,  moral, 
fearless  in  the  administration  of  civil  and  criminal  law, 
the  people  of  both  parties  approve  and  sanction  his  elec 
tion.  Thorough  in  knowledge  of  the  law  and  practice, 
and  with  abilities  that  would  distinguish  him  in  any  court 
of  the  State,  the  lawyers  pronounce  him  an  able  judge. 

There  are  four  men  in  the  State  to  whom  the  public 
mind  turns  as  naturally,  when  the  matter  of  intellectual 
greatness,  moral  and  political  power  with  reference  to  our 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  71 

own  men,  as  it  has  done  to  the  trio  of  Clay,  Calhoun  and 
Webster  in  the  national  firmament.  These  are  Alexan 
der  H.  Stephens  and  Robert  Toombs  of  the  Whigs,  and 
Herschel  V.  Johnson  and  Howell  Cobb  of  the  Democrats. 

Cobb  is  the  youngest,  now  forty-two  years  old.  He 
was  a  college  graduate,  a  lawyer,  and  the  solicitor  of  his 
circuit  before  he  was  twenty-two  years  old ;  was  elected 
to  Congress  and  served  four  consecutive  terms  and  was 
speaker  of  the  House,  at  the  age  of  thirty-four.  Differing 
from  Governor  Towns,  Ex-governor  Charles  J.  McDonald, 
Walter  T.  Colquitt,  Herschel  V.  Johnson,  and  a  majority 
of  the  leading  Democrats  upon  the  proper  course  for  the 
Southern  States  to  pursue,  upon  the  great  territorial 
slavery  compromise  of  1850,  and  agreeing  with  Berrien, 
Jenkins,  Toombs,  Stephens,  and  the  majority  of  leading 
Whigs  of  the  State  who  favored  accepting  it  as  a  final  ad 
justment,  he  came  home,  advocated  and  defended  the 
measure  known  as  the  omnibus  bill,  justified  the  national 
government  in  adopting  it,  and  opposed  all  ideas  of  resist 
ance  to  it  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the  slaveholding 
States. 

The  General  Assembly  called  a  State  convention  of  del 
egates,  to  be  elected  by  the  people,  to  determine  the  course 
that  Georgia  would  take  on  account  of  the  passage  of  the 
bill  by  Congress;  the  points  of  which  were:  abolition  of 
the  slave  trade  in  the  District-  of  Columbia,  and  a  law  to 
carry  into  effect  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  constitution 
for  the  restoration  of  fugitive  slaves  in  the  free  States  to 
their  owners  in  the  slave  States ;  the  admission  of  Cali 
fornia  as  a  State  with  an  anti-slavery  constitution,  alleged 
to  be  fraudulent ;  the  organization  of  the  territories  of 
New  Mexico  and  Utah,  and  the  payment  of  $3,000,000 
to  Texas  to  cede  part  of  her  slave  territory  to  New  Mexico. 


72  MY  CONTEMPOKARIES.— 1857. 

Many  of  the  old  Whig  and  Democratic  leaders  accepted 
seats  in  the  convention  ;  some  of  the  old  Whigs  as  South 
ern  Eights  men,  but  the  most  of  them  adhering  to  the 
Union;  some  of  the  old  Democrats  as  Union  men,  but 
the  majority  as  opposed  to  submitting  without  resentment 
or  resistance  in  some  form  to  the  injustice  and  aggressive 
spirit  of  the  North  and  the  general  government  toward 
the  South  and  the  institution  of  slavery. 

In  this  convention,  Charles  J.  Jenkins  was  the  Madison 
"  come  to  judgment."  He  stood  like  a  great,  towering 
and  impassable  statue  by  the  paths  that  seemed  to  lead 
to  degradation  and  humility  on  the  one  side,  or  to  disor 
der  and  strife  on  the  other.  He  rose  above  the  stratum 
of  the  unconditional  submi.^sionists,  and  bowed  the  tall 
heads  of  tlie  immediate  resistance  and  secession  men  to 
the  true  level  on  which  all  could  meet  without  dishonor 
and  without  revolution.  The  address  and  resolutions  ac 
cepting  the  settlement,  and  setting  forth  contingencies 
for  resistance  in  the  future,  were  adopted,  and  the  conven 
tion  dissolved.  But  the  issues  that  had  called  it  into  be 
ing  had  dissolved  for  the  present  the  organization  of  the 
national  Democratic  and  Whig  parties  in  the  State.  At 
the  State  election  of  1851,  the  parties  were  Union,  com 
posed  of  the  majority  of  old  Whigs  and  minority  of  old 
Democrats  ;  and  Southern  Rights,  composed  of  a  majority 
of  old  Democrats  and  minority  of  old  Whigs.  Cobb  ac 
cepted  the  candidacy  of  the  Union  party,  and  Charles  J. 
McDonald  of  the  Southern  Rights  party,  for  governor. 

The  contest  was  exciting  and  the  discussions  on  the 
hustings  were  of  the  kind,  and  by  the  men,  to  arouse 
popular  passion  to  its  utmost  height.  McDonald  was  not 
a  popular  orator  like  Johnson  and  other  Democratic  lead 
ers  and  Southern  Rights  Whigs.  The  incomparable  Walter 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  73 

T.  Colquitt  was  still  in  the  splendor  of  his  oratorical 
powers.  McDonald  was  supported  by  many  of  the  most 
popular  and  gifted  men  of  the  State. 

Cobb  made  the  canvass  in  person,  and  was  supported 
by  the  matchless  and  irresistible  eloquence  and  vast  per 
sonal  influence  of  Toombs,  Stephens,  Berrien,  Jenkins, 
and  others.  He  was  sustained  by  some  of  the  old  Dem 
ocratic  leaders,  among  the  most  popular  of  whom  was 
John  Henry  Lumpkin. 

The  people  were  excited  and  resentful,  but  loyal  to  the 
Union.  At  heart  they  were  opposed  to  submission  to 
wrong,  but  saw  no  method  of  resistance  but  revolution 
and  violence,  to  which  they  were  unwilling  to  resort  for 
existing  causes.  The  discussion  before  them  tended  to 
strengthen  this  feeling;  and  the  popular  judgment  in  fa 
vor  of  accepting  and  acquiescing  in  the  compromise  set 
tlement.  The  cause  of  Cobb  gathered  strength,  and  that 
of  McDonald  declined  ;  and  when  the  election  came,  the 
majority  was  overwhelming  for  Cobb. 

The  Legislature  elected  at  the  same  time  was  also  over 
whelmingly  of  the  constitutional  Union  type,  based  on 
the  acceptance  of  the  settlement  and  preservation  of  the 
Union  on  the  terms  set  forth  by  the  convention  known 
as  the  Georgia  platform;  and  thus  ended  the  dispute 
about  resisting  the  government  at  this  time. 

The  termination  of  the  issues  that  called  the  Union  and 
Southern  Rights  parties  into  existence  dissolved  again 
their  elements,  and  revived  the  old  party  organizations. 
The  Union  Democrats  aligned  themselves  with  their  na 
tional  party  for  the  presidential  election  of  1852;  and 
the  Whigs  of  the  Union  party  rejoined  their  national 
allies. 

Governor  Cobb  soon  found  himself  in  antagonism  to  the 


74  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

leading  men  who  had  contributed  most  to  place  him  in 
power,  and  in  full  accord  and  sympathy  with  the  public 
men  who  had  been  his  former  political  allies,  but  many 
of  them  vehement  in  opposition  to  him  as  a  Union  Demo 
cratic  leader. 

When  the  national  bugles  were  sounded,  summoning 
the  clans  to  the  national  conventions,  the  old  Whigs  and 
old  Democrats,  having  accomplished  their  joint  aim  on  a 
temporary  question,  parted  in  peace.  The  old  Democrats 
who  had  learned  to  love  their  new  allies,  the  Southern 
Rights  Whigs,  went  with  the  few  that  still  adhered,  in  the 
most  perfect  harmony  and  confidence,  into  the  affiliation 
of  the  national  Democracy.  They  had  been  in  a  minority 
as  Southern  Rights  men,  but  soon  found  themselves  in  the 
majority  as  re-organized  Democrats ;  and  found  themselves 
elevated  above  their  former  triumphant  Union  Whig  op 
ponents  by  having  a  national  and  State  government,  both 
Democratic ;  Franklin  Pierce  was  president,  and  Howell 
Cobb  governor. 

As  the  term  drew  to  a  close,  Cobb  had  served  the  pur 
poses  of  his  candidacy  and  election.  He  preferred  the 
national  to  the  State  service,  and  chose  to  retire  volun 
tarily  from  the  executive  office. 

The  old  Democrats  of  the  State  had  now  the  opportu 
nity  to  honor  one  of  the  men  who  had  stood  firmly  for 
the  cause  of  the  South,  and  had  gone  down  defiantly  with 
the  southern  wing  of  the  party,  but  who  was  then  in  ac 
cord  with  all  the  principles  and  aims  of  the  national 
party ;  and  the  banner  was  confided  to  Herschel  V.  John 
son. 

The  old  Whigs  who  had  reunited  with  their  national 
party  in  1852,  were  disappointed  in  the  result  of  their 
presidential  nomination,  General  Winfield  Scott.  They 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  75 

were  not  satisfied  with  the  party  platform  adopted,  or 
General  Scott's  letter  of  acceptance.  Taking  the  man 
and  his  antecedents,  the  platform  of  resolutions  declaring 
the  principles  and  policy  of  the  national  party,  and  the 
letter  of  the  candidate,  all  into  critical  review,  they  re 
garded  the  action  of  the  party  in  national  convention  as 
giving  effect  to  the  anti-slavery  and  anti-southern  procliv 
ities  of  a  large  portion  of  the  national  Whigs.  Those 
leaders,  prominent  for  the  presidential  office,  who  were 
constitutional  in  political  creed,  regardless  of  their  abstract 
opinions  of  slavery,  had  been  thrown  overboard ;  and  to 
their  minds,  as  described  and  expressed  by  themselves, 
the  national  party  was  abolitionized,  and  unsafe  for  the 
South. 

Mr.  Stephens,  Mr.  Toombs,  Mr.  Jenkins,  who  had  been 
reared,  and  become  leaders,  and  won  their  laurels  in  the 
battles  of  the  party,  supported  and  seconded  by  many  of 
the  old  Whigs  of  this  and  other  southern  States,  rebelled, 
and  refused  to  support  the  candidate  and  the  party  as  or 
ganized  and  championed. 

The  result  was  a  vote  expressive  of  their  principles,  to 
which,  as  Whigs,  they  had  long  adhered;  and  also  of 
their  opposition  to  the  national  Democracy  with  Franklin 
Pierce  as  the  candidate,  and  which  was  intended  to  be 
complimentary  to  the  men  for  whom  they  voted — Daniel 
Webster,  who  died  after  he  was  nominated  and  before  the 
election,  and  Charles  J.  Jenkins,  the  author  of  the  Geor 
gia  platform. 

There  were  a  few  men  in  this  and  other  Southern  States 
too  extreme  in  their  pro-slavery  and  sectional  feelings 
and  opinions  to  affiliate  so  soon  with  either  of  the  national 
parties,  who  cast  their  votes  for  George  M.  Troup  of 
Georgia,  and  General  John  A.  Quitman  of  Mississippi. 


76  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

But  in  1853  the  chasm  that  had  stood  open,  and  di 
vided  the  Scott  and  the  Webster  Whigs  in  this  State  had 
been  closed,  and  the  wounds  inflicted  on  each  other  in 
the  temporary  breach  had  been  healed ;  and  with  great 
union  and  enthusiasm  they  rallied  to  the  support  of 
Charles  J.  Jenkins,  for  governor,  against  Herschel  V. 
Johnson. 

The  canvass  was  a  manly  and  masterly  one,  as  it  was 
bound  to  be  with  such  men  for  leaders,  supported  as  they 
were  by  the  able  and  popular  men  of  their  respective  par 
ties.  Cobb,  who  had  encountered  the  opposition  of  John 
son  while  a  Union  candidate  for  governor,  now  espoused 
his  cause  as  a  Democratic  candidate,  and  that  of  the  party 
candidates  for  Congress  and  the  Legislature.  Mr.  Ste 
phens  and  Mr.  Toombs  gave  to  Jenkins  a  support  intensi 
fied  by  cordial  agreement  in  principles  and  in  aims,  and 
a  lifelong  friendship  for  the  man  himself.  The  speakers 
and  the  press  aligned  themselves  with  the  respective  par 
ties  in  all  the  ardor  and  zeal  of  ancient  friendship  and 
hatred. 

Herschel  V.  Johnson,  three  years  senior  to  Howell  Cobb, 
then  approaching  forty-one  years  of  age,  was  then 
nominated  judge  of  the  Ocmulgee  circuit,  tho,ugh  he  never 
had  been  extensively  engaged  in  the  law  practice  prepar 
atory  to  judicial  duties.  He  had  been  a  close  and  severe 
student,  and  from  youth  an  ardent  Democrat;  and  by  his 
probity  and  virtue,  his  freedom  from  all  that  could  arm 
an  adversary  with  charges  to  assail  his  private  character, 
and  by  his  fearless  and  masterly  eloquence  in  the  debates 
of  his  party,  like  Toombs,  Stephens  and  Cobb  had  leaped 
to  the  very  front  in  early  life.  He  had  been  made  prom 
inent  for  the  office  in  1845  when  he  was  thirty-three  years 
old  and  yielded  voluntarily  to  Mathew  Hall  McAlister  of 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  77 

Savannah,  who  was  defeated  in  the  election  by  the  Whig 
candidate,  then  governor,  George  W.  Crawford.  Again, 
1847,  he  withdrew  in  favor  of  George  W.  Towns,  who 
while  in  office  appointed  him  United  States  senator,  to  fill 
the  seat  made  vacant  by  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Colquitt, 
where  he  soon  achieved  a  brilliant  reputation  as  orator 
and  debater. 

Johnson,  to  be  known  and  appreciated,  must  be  well 
known.  We  do  not,  in  our  approach  to  him,  reach  the 
warm  strata  and  temperature  of  his  heart  and  soul  until 
we  get  close  to  him.  Admiring  his  intellect,  his  solid 
judgment  and  honesty,  enthused  by  his  wonderful  powers 
as  a  popular  speaker,  we  do  not  feel  invited,  as  by  the  air 
and  manner  of  many  of  our  public  men,  to  come  up  and 
be  a  close,  warm-hearted  and  confiding  friend.  This  cause 
was  felt  strongly  in  his  relations  with  the  men  of  his  own 
party.  He  has  been  conscious  that  they  could  not  assail 
his  private  or  public  character  or  deny  his  great  merit 
and  valuable  public  services;  that  he  was  perhaps  stand 
ing  in  the  way  of  many  aspirants,  hence  did  not  have  as 
cordial  support  for  himself  as  he  has  uniformly  rendered 
to  others. 

But  a  man  endowed  as  he  was  by  nature,  cultivated 
by  study  and  learning,  trained  by  many  hard  fought  con 
tests  with  the  political  foe,  who  is  in  sympathy  with  the 
Democratic  masses,  as  he  has  ever  been,  needs  no  help 
from  party  leaders  where  he  can  be  seen  and  heard.  He 
never  made  the  mistake  of  underrating  his  adversary. 
He  had  debated  with  all  the  Whig  leaders ;  knew  their 
powers ;  knew  Jenkins  to  be  a  man  of  great  ability  and 
unassailable  character.  He  assured  me,  at  the  hotel  in 
Rome,  when  about  going  out  to  meet  him  the  first  time 
in  debate  after  their  respective  nomination,  that  he  feared 


78  MY  CONTEMPOKABIES.— 1857. 

his  power,  and  dreaded  the  momentous  contact  with  so 
able  and  pure  a  man. 

The  crowd  was  large ;  and  the  speeches  in  full  keeping 
with  the  intellectual  giants  who  had  met.  Johnson  was 
more  in  sympathy  with  the  masses  upon  the  issues  dis 
cussed,  the  merits  of  the  national  Whig  and  Democratic 
parties.  His  style  of  enunciation  was  more  exciting,  and 
he  had  at  least  a  partial  triumph  over  his  adversary,  but 
such  a  triumph  as  wavered  with  the  conflicting  emotions 
of  great  masses  of  people,  at  that  time  not  fully  settled 
and  determined  in  their  final  course. 

Johnson  had  been  a  Southern  Rights  Democrat,  and 
was  denounced  as  what  was  known  as  "  fire-eater,"  and 
that  class  of  men  had  been  defeated  and  had  grown  into 
disfavor ;  but  before  being  a  "  fire-eater  "  he  had  been  a  life 
long  national  Democrat,  and  was  then  struggling  to  restore 
the  power  of  the  national  Democracy  in  the  State.  Jen 
kins,  the  candidate  of  the  Whigs,  had  all  this  to  confront, 
with  all  his  prestige  as  a  union  man  and  restorer  of  peace 
between  the  sections  as  author  of  the  Georgia  platform. 
The  interest  in  the  canvass  did  not  abate  at  the  election, 
and  the  result  was  so  close  that  all  doubt  and  uncertainty 
were  only  dispelled  by  an  official  count. 

The  Democratic  Legislature  elected  with  Johnson  had 
the  election  of  a  senator.  The  retiring  Gov.  Cobb  and 
his  defeated  Democratic  competitor,  Charles  J.  McDonald, 
were  again  rivals  in  competition  for  the  distinguishing 
honor,  either  of  whom  would  have  made  an  acceptable 
senator ;  either  could  have  been  easily  nominated  in  the 
party  caucus  but  for  the  candidacy  of  the  other,  and  as 
easily  elected  on  joint  ballot. 

The  Southern  Rights  Democrats  and  the  new  allies, 
the  Southern  Rights  Whigs,  were  willing  to  accept  the 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  7  9 

aid  and  powerful  influence  of  Cobb  in  the  exciting  and 
doubtful  contest  to  restore  the  party  to  power,  but  not 
to  bestow  the  coveted  honor  of  the  senatorship  upon  him. 

The  caucus  put  forward  McDonald  as  the  candidate  and 
Cobb  retired,  but  all  his  friends  in  the  Legislature  did  not 
vote  for  the  nominee,  and  after  protracted  ballotings  Mc 
Donald  finally  failed  to  -get  a  majority  vote.  The  result 
was  a  compromise  of  the  alienated  factions  on  Hon.  Alfred 
Iverson  as  senator.  Cobb  went  back  temporarily  into 
private  life,  and  at  the  next  election  in  1855  went  back 
to  the  House  from  his  district.  McDonald  has  been  placed 
on  the  supreme  court  bench,  for  which  his  native  capac 
ities  and  large  experience  and  learning  eminently  qualify 
him. 

The  country,  however,  was  not  to  remain  at  rest.  The 
disengaged  elements  of  the  Whig  party  with  the  co-oper 
ation  of  disaffected  and  dissatisfied  Democrats  organized  a 
new  party  combining  most  of  the  tenets  of  the  Whig 
party  and  based  upon  opposition  to  the  right  of  foreign 
born  citizens  and  members  of  the  Catholic  church  to  hold 
office.  The  fatal  experiment  was  tried  of  a  popular  party 
organized  to  control  the  republican  government  of  the 
Union  and  of  the  States  in  secret  lodges,  and  concealing 
the  identity  of  the  membership  from  the  public.  It  was 
first  known  and  spoken  of  as  the  "  Know  Nothing  "  party, 
a  cognomen  assumed,  and  applied  on  account  of  the  obli 
gation  of  the  members  to  "know  nothing  "  when  interro 
gated  as  to  the  membership,  the  organization,  and  move 
ments  of  the  party.  This  was  a  feature  which  when  dis 
covered  and  ventilated  soon  became  more  odious  to  the 
popular  mind  than  the  leaders  and  speakers  were  ever 
able  to  make  Catholics  and  foreigners. 

When  new  and  untried  it  was  popular  and  captivating 


80  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

to  men  out  of  office  and  power.  It  promised  reform  of 
abuses  and  promotion  to  office,  and  bid  fair  to  sweep  the 
Democracy  from  their  reign  of  authority.  In  this  State  it 
gained  many  Democrats  but  lost  more  largely  of  influen 
tial  Whigs.  Mr.  Stephens  opposed  it  and  fought  all  its 
principles  and  aims  with  a  zeal  and  power  peculiar  to 
himself.  Ho  was  seconded  by  Mr.  Toombs  and  many 
prominent  old  Whigs,  who  were  for  the  time  being  called 
Anti-Know  Nothings  and  Anti-Americans,  as  the  new 
party  when  fully  developed  took  the  name  of  American 
party. 

But  in  the  canvass  of  1856  the  Anti-Know  Nothing 
Whigs  all  took  open  ground  as  Democrats  in  the  support 
of  Mr.  Buchanan  for  the  presidency.  Perhaps  no  canvass 
in  the  State  has  ever  exceeded  that  of  1855  in  point  of 
masterly  discussion  before  the  people.  Gov.  Johnson  then 
a  candidate  for  re-election  against  Hon.  Garnett  Andrews 
of  Wilkes  county,  the  nominee  of  the  American  party, 
and  Basil  H.  Overby,  the  candidate  of  the  Temperance 
Reform  and  Prohibition  party,  spoke  all  over  the  State. 
He  was  in  full  health  and  in  the  zenith  of  his  oratorical 
glory.  Cobb,  who  was  a  candidate  in  his  own  district 
where  his  election  was  assured,  canvassed  other  parts  of 
the  State  with  the  most  withering  orations  to  large  mass 
meetings.  Toombs  brought  all  his  powers  to  bear  to  en 
lighten  the  public  mind  and  beat  down  the  new  party. 
They  were  aided  by  many  able  speakers  of  both  the  old 
parties  of  less  distinction. 

The  old  Whig  leaders  having  refused  to  bear  the  stand 
ard  and  colors  of  the  new  American,  and  having  joined 
their  ancient  foes  in  the  warfare  upon  the  new  bantling, 
were  treated  with  strong  resentment  by  their  old  party 
friends,  who  called  out  the  remaining  leaders,  and  fol- 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  81 

lowed  them  with  great  enthusiasm.  Andrews,  their  can 
didate,  like  McDonald,  was  not  a  popular  orator,  and  such 
was  the  case  with  several  of  their  candidates  for  Congress. 
Hence  the  services  of  those  who  could  speak  were  in  great 
demand.  Dr.  H.  V.  M.  Miller,  "  Demosthenes  of  the  moun 
tains,"  exceeded  if  possible  the  past  brilliancy  and  elo 
quence  that  had  given  him  the  distinguishing  title  in  his 
orations  to  large  assemblages  of  the  people.  Benjamin 
H.  Hill  was  a  candidate  for  Congress,  and,  though  defeated 
by  Judge  Warner,  added  to  the  brilliant  reputation  he 
had  as  lawyer  that  of  one  of  the  most  powerful  popular 
orators  in  the  State.  The  admiration  of  his  party  men 
for  him  arose  almost  to  idolatry. 

When  the  national  canvass  of  1856,  which  resulted  in 
the  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  as  president,  came  on,  the 
Democrats  had  defeated  the  Whigs  and  Americans  in 
turn,  and  were  in  full  power  in  the  State,  having  a  ma 
jority  of  the  votes  of  the  State  in  the  ranks  and  a  major 
ity  of  the  popular  old  Whig  leaders.  They  have  had  an 
easy  victory  so  far  as  relates  to  the  vote  of  Georgia,  though 
a  hard  struggle  in  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Mr.  Bu 
chanan  goes  into  power  with  the  highest  prospects  of  a 
popular  administration. 

In  these  elections  of  1855  and  1856  the  Democratic 
party  opposed  the  proscriptive  ideas  of  the  Know  Nothing 
or  American  party  based  on  religious  opinion  and  place  of 
birth.  The  party  was  also  in  accord  with  the  settlement 
by  Congress  of  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  Territorial 
government,  as  had  been  provided  in  the  acts  organizing 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  territories,  and  enabling  the  people 
to  form  State  governments  repealing  restrictions  and 
leaving  them  to  establish,  protect,  tolerate,  or  refuse  and 
reject  the  institution  of  slavery  without  hindrance  or 


82  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

intervention  by  Congress  or  the  Executive  Government 
of  the  United  States.  The  old  issues  of  the  Whig  and 
Democratic  parties  had  nearly  all  received  a  historic  solu 
tion  ;  and  on  these  new  ones  the  Whig  leaders  referred  to 
could  freely  harmonize  with  the  Democrats.  Their  own 
National  party  had  drifted  nearer  and  nearer  the  whirl 
pool  of  abolition ;  and  they  could  have  no  alliance  with  it 
consistent  with  their  views  of  constitutional  relations  be 
tween  the  States  and  sections  of  the  Union  and  fidelity 
to  the  slaveholding  South.  Hence  their  affiliation  with 
National  Democracy  was  patriotic  and  cordial. 

•The  four  men  under  review,  all  perhaps  nearly  equal 
in  many  respects,  are  essentially  different  in  others,  and 
each  in  some  particulars  is  greater  than  all  the  rest.  Like 
the  Dougherty,  Lumpkin,  Hansell,  Warren,  and  Hill 
brothers,  and  Hugh  Haralson,  Mark  A.  Cooper,  David  J. 
Bailey,  and  many  others,  three  of  these  are  men  of  fine 
physical  proportions  and  form,  and  will  in  this  respect 
compare  favorably  with  Webster,  Hunter,  and  Brecken- 
ridge  ;  Toombs  is  physically  the  most  faultless,  and  has  only 
to  be  seen  in  any  presence  to  attract  attention  and  admi 
ration  ;  Johnson  is  scarcely  less  perfect ;  Cobb  lacks  height 
to  make  him  the  equal  of  either,  and  is  more  in  physical 
mould  like  Silas  Wright,  and  Thomas  H.  Benton.  Ste 
phens  is  the  opposite  to  them  all  in  every  part  of  his  physi 
cal  frame,  and  is  as  rare  for  his  physical  frailty  as  Toombs 
for  physical  perfection;  their  confidence  in  each  other 
and  love  borders  on  that  of  parental  ardor  in  disinterest 
edness. 

Stephens  is  encumbered  by  his  pride  of  consistency; 
Toombs  wears  his  as  a  loose  summer  gown,  defies  public 
opinion  and  criticism,  despises  his  foes,  and  defies  his 
friends  if  they  differ  from  him,  never  dodges  a  bolt  aimed 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  83 

at  him  for  want  of  consistency,  but  goes  direct  in  search 
of  the  truth  of  the  matter  as  now  seen  and  understood, 
and  prides  as  much  in  confuting  his  own  former  errors  as 
those  of  other  men. 

Stephens  is  formal  in  his  reasoning  processes,  parlia 
mentary  in  modes  of  procedure,  and  courteous  to  his  ad 
versaries  ;  lies  in  defiant  manly  coil  like  the  rattlesnake, 
and  lets  all  unintruding  foes  pass  unharmed,  but  strikes 
with  unerring  aim  and  deadly  fang  whomsoever  dares 
to  assail  him,  his  positions,  or  the  party  under  his  lead. 

Toornbs  defies  time,  place,  and  circumstance,  as  does 
the  storm  when  the  winds  are  unchained.  Stephens  has 
method,  art,  consistency,  as  well  as  vigor  and  correctness 
of  thought;  Toombs  has  giant  strength  combined  with 
electric  quickness  and  brevity.  Under  his  magic  brain 
power  figures  are  conceived,  born,  and  achieve  their  talis- 
manic  effect  upon  admiring  men  in  a  moment  of  time. 

All  things  considered,for  pure  intellectual  power  Toombs 
scarcely  has  a  peer.  And  when  they  are  combined 
with  his  wonderful  power  of  utterance  and  daring  cour 
age  they  would  make  a  powerful  rival  in  any  popular 
government.  From  early  life  they  gave  him  prominence 
in  the  House,  and  now  give  him  rank  among  the  ablest 
men  of  the  Senate. 

Stephens,  with  his  bodily  frailty  and  weakness  and  his 
brain  power,  possesses  faculties  of  person  of  the  rarest  be 
stowed  on  men.  His  voice  is  that  of  a  woman  in  tone  but 
of  a  man  in  extent  before  he  is  aroused.  Then  his  pale  feat 
ures  and  emaciated  frame  without  muscles  invite  sym 
pathy  and  dread  of  physical  collapse  and  failure,  from 
strangers  who  have  not  heard  him  and  witnessed  his  tri 
umphs.  The  eye,  that  lies  in  somewhat  melancholy  ra 
diance  when  at  rest,  like  his  placid  and  confident  mind, 


84  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

begins  with  his  increase  of  strength  and  warmth  of  body 
to  glow  with  unearthly  brilliancy.  He  gathers  physical 
power  as  the  surging  of  the  awakening  brain  heaves 
against  its  barriers,  and  all  the  muscular,  the  fibrous,  and 
nervous  man  rises  from  the  ghost-like  to  the  God-like. 
The  voice  glides  from  the  combined  tone  of  the  Cute  and 
nightingale  to  the  volume  of  a  speaking  angel  of  light 
and  intelligence.  His  audience  passes  under  the  magic 
power  of  eloquence,  and  there  he  holds  them  at  his  will. 
The  men  who  heard  him  on  the  hustings  from  1843  to 
1856,  who  survive  and  see  this  florid  picture,  will  pro 
nounce  it  not  overdrawn.  But  he  enthused  his  own  and 
enraged  the  opposing  party.  His  friends  loved  and  wor 
shipped.  His  enemies  admired  his  masterly  powers, 
dreaded  his  fearful  assaults,  and  hated  his  party  for  hav 
ing  such  a  formidable  and  tormenting  leader. 

But  many  of  the  grandest  flights  of.  eloquence  I  have 
witnessed  and  felt  were  by  Herschel  V.  Johnson.  He  pos 
sesses  physical  manhood,  grandeur,  and  beauty  like 
Toombs  when  aroused,  and  like  Stephens  his  voice  gains 
compass,  power,  and  melody  as  he  ascends  on  the  wings  of 
unchained  fancy,  and  sways  alike  the  judgment  and  emo 
tions  of  men.  His  logic  is  not  stronger,  but  not  so  brief 
as  that  of  Toombs ;  both  like  Stephens  are  masters  of  in 
vective.  Stephens  and  Toombs  have  anecdote ;  Johnson 
and  Cobb,like  Douglas  and  Calhoun  and  Andrew  Johnson, 
deal  in  earnest,  persistent  argument  and  reason  that  go 
direct  to  the  mind,  the  heart,  and  sentiments  of  men.  But 
Johnson's  severity  often  drives  his  enemies  into  closer 
alliance  against  him. 

Cobb  either  has  no  such  power,  or,  from  superior  wis 
dom  and  more  human  kindness  in  his  heart,  never  commits 
such  mistakes  for  the  cause  and  the  party  of  which  he 


MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— 1857.  85 

is  champion.  Those  who  hear  him,  no  matter  whether 
of  his  or  the  opposing  party,  listen  to  him  with  or  without 
their  consent.  They  are  chained  by  the  presence  of  a 
great  masterly  mind  and  powerful  person  charged  with 
the  commission  of  pleading  the  cause  of  a  common  coun 
try  and  a  brotherhood  of  people,  and  guided  by  the 
promptings  of  sincerity  and  the  love  of  truth,  but  with, 
less  music  and  power  of  voice,  and  grace  of  motion  than 
some  of  the  others;  a  man  who  always  rises  above  the 
tricks  of  the  demagogue  and  the  falsehood  of  the  unscru 
pulous  panderer  to  popular  ignorance  and  prejudice. 
While  he  treats  his  own  cause  with  masterly  power  and 
unwavering  fidelity,  he  treats  his  foe  fairly.  And  this 
makes  him  perhaps  the  most  effective  and  successful 
popular  speaker  of  the  four.  While  many  may  honestly 
differ  from  this  judgment,  none  who  are  candid  will  deny 
his  great  power  over  the  people  through  his  wonderful 
gifts  as  a  popular  speaker. 

CANVASS  OF  1857. 

Since  the  chapter  on  "  Contemporaries  "  was  written,  the 
parties  have  passed  through  a  singularly  organized  and 
exciting  canvass  for  the  office  of  governor,  and  by  oppo 
site  causes  brought  out  two  young  men  as  candidates. 
The  Whigs  having  been  defeated  in  1852,  and  again  in 
1853,  the  party  having  been  absorbed  in  this  State  by  the 
new  American  party  in  1855,  and  suffered  defeat  under 
that  organization,  had  lost  the  more  powerful  and  promi 
nent  party  leaders  in  1856,  and  hence  was  a  hopeless 
minority  at  the  time  of  the  election  of  Prest.  Buchanan. 
The  result  was,  the  remaining  old  and  prominent  men  of 
the  party  seemed  not  to  desire  a  hopeless  candidacy ;  but 
the  party,  composed  as  it  was  of  a  large  minority,  and  of  a 


86  MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857. 

large  volume  of  public  intelligence,  virtue,  and  patriotism, 
was  not  willing  to  abandon  the  organization,  and  yield 
to  the  dominant  Democratic  party  without  a  manly  strug 
gle  to  regain  power. 

Their  convention  summoned  to  the  lead  and  placed  the 
banner  in  the  hands  of  the  zealous,  gifted  and  eloquent 
Benjamin  H.  Hill. 

The  Democratic  party  being  in  the  ascendency,  and  hav 
ing  a  redundancy  of  men  among  the  old  leaders  who  cov 
eted  the  honor  of  being  Governor,  was  greatly  troubled  in 
convention  to  unite  on  any  one  of  the  aspiring  candidates 
for  a  nomination,  James  Gardner,  Henry  G.  Lamar,  Wm. 
H.  Stiles,  Hiram  Warner,  and  John  Henry  Lumpkin,  and  a 
number  of  outstanding  men,  ready  to  accept  a  candidacy, 
under  the  usage  of  compromising  disputes  among  promi 
nent  men  by  the  nomination  of  a  man  not  known  as  a 
candidate. 

James  Gardner  was  heralded  by  a  long  and  brilliant 
reputation  as  editor  of  The  Constitutionalist  newspaper  at 
Augusta,  and  had  contributed  largely  for  many  years  to 
the  Democratic  victories  of  the  State  by  his  power  as  a 
political  writer ;  had  come  in  possession  of  fortune,  and 
desired  the  honor  of  retiring  under  the  eclat  of  a  nomina 
tion  by  his  party,  for  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the 
State.  He  was  seconded  and  supported  actively  and  unan 
imously,  by  the  Democratic  leaders  in  that  part  of  the 
State. 

Henry  G.  Lamar  is  a  man  of  ripe  age,  fair  abilities, 
sterling  integrity,  high  sense  of  personal  honor,  eminently 
patriotic,  and  sound  in  the  Democratic  faith,  and  true 
to  the  South,  and  the  recipient  of  a  powerful  family  influ 
ence  as  well  as  that  of  his  life-long  personal  friendships 
among  the  public  men  in  his  part  of  the  State. 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  87 

Hiram  Warner  came  from  the  North  in  early  youth, 
identified  himself  with  the  State,  and  has  been  a  steady 
and  reliable  Democrat  from  that  time  to  the  present. 
In  early  life  he  served  with  distinction  in  the  Legislature, 
and  later  he  served  as  judge  of  his  circuit,  three  terms, 
and  a  term  of  eight  years  as  judge  of  the  supreme  court, 
in  addition  to  his  long  and  successful  career  when  out  of 
office  as  a  lawyer  in  western  Georgia.  He  also  served 
with  great  ability  as  representative  in  the  last  Congress. 
And  at  different  periods  of  life  has  been  recommended 
for  this  office.  His  character  for  ability,  fidelity,  conser 
vatism,  and  personal  honesty  gave  him  many  strong 
friends  and  supporters  for  this  nomination. 

William  H.  Stiles  had  been  a  member  of  Congress  on 
the  general  Democratic  ticket  before  the  State  was  laid 
off  into  congressional  districts ;  a  minister  to  Austria  four 
years,  under  President  Polk,  residing  at  Vienna,  and  is  a 
man  of  erect  form,  pleasing  person,  courtly  style,  and 
polished  manner  of  popular  oratory ;  a  true  and  chivalrous 
representative  of  southern  Democracy,  supported  by  the 
elegant  and  refined  people  of  Savannah. 

John  Henry,  nephew  to  Wilson  and  Joseph  Henry 
Lumpkin,  son  of  an  honest  primitive  Baptist  preacher, 
George  Lumpkin,  came  to  Cherokee,  Georgia,  from  Ogle- 
thorpe  County,  when  young.  Has  been  solicitor  and 
judge  of  his  circuit,  and  several  times  member  of  Con 
gress,  and  has  long  been  a  Democratic  leader  of  great 
personal  cleverness  and  popularity  in  this  part  of  the 
State.  And  in  this  contest  for  a  nomination  to  the  office, 
which,  above  all  others,  he  has  long  coveted,  he  was  the 
choice  of  this  part  of  the  State,  with  many  warm  support 
ers  in  other  sections. 

While  any  one  of  them  would  have  been  an  acceptable 


88  MY  CONTEMPORAKIES.— 1857. 

man  to  the  people,  the  antagonisms  between  their  friends 
in  the  convention  were  so  strong  as  to  prevent  the  nom 
ination  of  either,  and  as  a  sequence  to  defeat  them  all. 
It  resulted  after  a  long  session,  and  repeated  fruitless  bal- 
lotings,  in  throwing  all  overboard,  and  nominating  by 
acclamation,  upon  the  recommendation  of  a  special  select 
committee,  the  present  Governor  of  Georgia, 

JOSEPH  EMERSON  BKOWN, 

of  whom  my  purpose  to  prosecute  the  history  of  the  State 
will  impose  the  most  pleasant  duty  to  write  more  at  large. 

The  friends  and  adherents  of  the  defeated  candidates, 
notwithstanding  the  evidences  of  discontent  that  at  first 
gave  encouragement  to  the  opposition  party  under  Mr. 
Hill,  in  the  course  of  the  canvass  gradually  yielded  to  Mr. 
Brown  their  cordial  and  united  support,  and  the  party 
of  Mr.  Hill,  the  Whig,  American,  or  opposition  party  as  it 
is  called,  voted  for  him  as  enthusiastically  even  in  the  face 
of  admitted  numerical  strength  in  the  Democratic  ranks. 

The  canvass  was  a  heavy  one  for  the  candidates,  and 
was  conducted  with  great  zeal  and  ability.  Hill  with  in 
cisive  tactics,  his  stirring  and  impressive  eloquence,  ap 
pealed  to  the  prejudices  and  the  solidifying  sentiments 
of  his  own  party  with  a  resume  of  its  contests  and  achieve 
ments,  and  to  the  supposed  disaffecting  elements  of  the 
Democracy;  arraigned  the  party  which  had  been  in 
power  in  the  Union  and  in  the  State  upon  the  current 
newspaper  charges  of  maladministration  and  abuse  of 
power  and  discretion.  The  administration  of  the  Western 
&  Atlantic  railroad  was  reviewed  with  terrible  scathing, 
because  it  was  alleged  that  it  had  been  used  for  party 
piirposes  and  to  promote  favorites  to  the  waste  of  public 
finances  and  the  injury  of  the  State. 


MY  CONTEMPORARIES.— 1857.  89 

Brown  with  his  perseverance,  calmness,  composure,  and 
confidence  as  well  as  moral  and  physical  courage,  in  his 
convincing  reason  and  powerful  argumentation  addressed 
the  assembled  masses  in  every  part  of  the  State,  and  tri- 
umphantly  defended  the  party  who  had  committed  the 
banner  to  his  hand  to  lead. 

He  defended  the  party  -with  which  he  had  been  identi 
fied  from  his  childhood,  and  whose  principles  were  de 
rived  from  and  based  upon  the  constitution  itself — the 
party  of  a  proud  American  ancestry,  the  projectors  of 
Constitutional  Liberty  and  the  founders  of  Eepublican 
Government  and  makers  of  the  Constitution  itself — a 
party  whose  administrations  had  been  the  chief  source  of 
prosperity  and  development  of  a  great  country — the 
nursery  and  school  of  statesmen,  and  the  champion  of 
political  justice  and  equality,  and  whose  history  was  that 
of  unrivalled  progress  and  development,  and  under 
whose  rule  the  United  States  had  been  the  admiration  of 
the  world  abroad,  and  had  drawn  contributions  of  people, 
of  arts,  science,  and  learning  as  well  as  of  wealth,  from 
all  parts  of  the  globe.  A  party  whose  triumphs  were  not 
of  force  or  violence,  but  results  of  reason  and  intelligence, 
the  force  and  effect  of  the  love  of  truth  and  justice,  and 
enlightened  public  opinion. 

His  nomination  was  the  defeat  of  the  people's  favorites 
in  the  different  parts  of  the  State  where  he  was,  as  well 
as  being  a  young  man  for  so  high  a  position,  a  personal 
stranger  to  the  masses  of  the  people.  That  the  ardent 
friends  of  all  the  defeated  aspirants  should,  before  the 
election,  yield  in  his  favor,  and  join  in  full  accord  and  give 
him  a  cordial  and  enthusiastic  support,  based  on  the 
sanction  and  conviction  that  he  was  the  strongest  as  well 
as  most  suitable  man  of  them  all,  is  one  of  the  features  of 


90  MY  CONTEMPOKAKIES.— 1857. 

the  politics  of  this  State  which  can  only  be  explained  on 
the  hypothesis  that  in  the  newly  elected  and  installed, 
and  comparatively  youthful,  Governor  the  people  have 
discovered  a  man  of  destiny. 


CHAPTER  II. 
GOVERNOR  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EARLY  LIFE. 

His  rapid  rise  from  the  walks  of  humble  private  life, 
obstructed  by  the  disabilities  of  poverty,  and  the  want  of 
early  scholastic  advantages  which  many  of  his  contem 
poraries  enjoyed,  propelled  by  the  self-sustaining  energy 
of  a  naturally  great  mind  to  the  highest  honor  in  the 
gift  of  the  State  at  the  age  of  thirty-six  years,  invests  his 
personal  history  with  an  interest  to  the  people  of  this  and 
future  generations,  and  with  a  priceless  value  to  mankind. 
Many  men  in  this  State  have  risen  rapidly,  and  come  to 
high  official  honors  in  early  middle  life.  But  they  were 
propelled  by  early  advantages  and  propitious  surround 
ings,  and  were  obstructed  by  far  less  competition  in  other 
able  and  popular  men. 

Cobb  rose  as  rapidly,  and  began  earlier  in  life  to  receive 
public  honors  than  Brown.  But  he  grew  up  in  the  heart 
of  the  State,  enjoyed  the  training  of  her  masters  of  learn 
ing  in  Franklin  College  at  Athens,  came  up  in  the  very 
centre  of  political  power  and  influence,  and  was  heralded 
by  powerful  family  prestige,  and  sustained  by  worldly 
fortune.  Brown  comes  from  the  mountain  district,  the 
remote  interior  of  the  State,  far  from  railroads  and  tele 
graphs,  and  schools  of  learning,  and  the  boasted  intellect 
ual  centres,  and  as  far  from  political  cabals  and  juntos. 
His  fortunes  have  not  been  speeded  or  his  morals  diluted 
by  the  improvements  of  metropolitan  life  and  society, 
nor  does  he  share  too  largely  the  sympathy  of  the  older 


92          •  GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BEOWN'S  EAELY  LIFE. 

men  supplanted  or  postponed  by  his  promotion  and  ele 
vation.  He  enters  on  his  high  office  with  but  few  political 
props  to  uphold,  and  fewer  dead  weights  to  pull  him  down. 

He  is  a  comparatively  frail  man  in  body ;  may  die 
young.  Hence  this  note  of  his  physique.  He  is  five 
feet  ten  inches  in  height,  and  wreighs  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty-five  pounds ;  he  will  not  compare  with  Toombs 
and  Johnson  in  splendor  of  personal  outline,  or  with  Mark 
A.  Cooper,  and  John  C.  Breckenridge,  in  stately  and 
imposing  height  and  form,  and  strength  of  body  ;  and  still 
he  is  further  removed  from  the  pattern  of  Alexander  H. 
Stephens. 

His  complexion  is  fair,  though  slightly  swarthy,  or 
wanting  in  the  ruddy,  fresh  glow  of  the  young  men  of 
active  life,  physical  strength,  and  health.  The  hair  and 
beard  are  black,  the  latter  of  reasonable  luxuriance,  and 
the  former  indicating  a  slight  want  of  richness  and  depth 
of  soil.  The  head  is  unusually  large,  and  seems  to  balance 
well  on  the  vertebral  column  ;  the  brow  expansive  and  in 
dicating  in  its  conformation  a  native  powerful  mental  organ 
ization  with  uncommon  perceptive  and  reasoning  faculties ; 
the  brain  within  seems  never  to  tire,  but  is  capable  of  pow 
erful  and  prolonged  exertion ;  the  features  are  full  and  reg 
ular,  with  a  cheek,  chin,  and  nose  in  proportion  with  the 
high  and  well-rounded  forehead ;  large  square  mouth  and 
thick  lips;  eyes  of  deep,  dark  blue  when  in  repose,  and  radi 
ant  under  mental  effort  and  excitement;  his  chest  is  too 
thin  for  great  strength  of  lungs ;  he  is  not  fitted  for  loud 
and  boisterous  declamation ;  his  throat  is  weak,  and  subject 
to  irritation  and  disorder;  his  voice  is  loud  and  smooth  in 
tone,  distinct  and  clear  in  pronunciation,  which  can  be  well 
understood  to  the  extent  of  the  voice  itself.  But  it  can 
not  be  extended  like  that  of  Hill,  Johnson,  and  Stephens. 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWN'S  EAKLY  LIFE.  93 

Hence  he  is  never  very  loud  or  vehement,  even  in  the 
most  important,  speeches,  but  is  always  self-possessed, 
self-reliant,  confident,  and  deliberate.  He  is  earnest  and 
emphatic  in  conversation,  but  never  boisterous  or  noisy, 
and  never  emphasizes  his  ideas  with  oaths  or  expletive 
adjectives.  Never  deals  in  fiction  or  fancy  in  conveying 
his  thoughts  to  his  hearers,  but  uses  facts  and  reason,  and 
the  most  exhaustive  argumentation,  in  the  plainest, 
and  most  approved  English  words.  With  the  air  of  slow 
and  stately  dignity,  he  has  no  military  dash  in  his  walk 
and  physical  motions.  Nothing  of  the  swell  of  the  nabob, 
or  dainty  toilet  of  the  fop ;  and  nothing  of  the  coarse,  care 
less,  and  ruffian  manner  of  the  hoosier.  Genteel,  but  not 
showy ;  neat,  but  not  gaudy,  is  his  style  of  dress  and 
address. 

Bat  few,  perhaps,  will  be  able,  by  following  his  exam 
ple  in  pursuit  of  public  honors,  to  approximate  his  bril 
liant  success.  But  there  are  points  to  be  noted  in  his 
personal  habits,  that  all  the  world  may  profit  by  follow 
ing.  He  abstains  habitually  and  totally  from  all  intoxica 
ting  drinks,  and  loathes  and  rejects  tobacco  in  all  its 
forms  and  uses.  And  in  my  intimate  and  cordial  friendly 
relations  with  him  in  private  life,  I  have  never  heard  him 
use  a  profane  oath,  or  relate  an  obscene  or  vulgar  anec 
dote. 

In  religion  he  is  also  a  decided  character,  and  is  as  firm 
and  pronounced  a  Baptist  in  church  relations,  as  he  is  a 
Democrat  in  politics.  It  is,  however,  a  noteworthy  fea 
ture  of  the  religion  of  the  churches,  and  the  politics  of 
this  State,  that  they  never  mix  much  with  each  other. 

The  politicians  on  their  canvasses  are  not  over-zealous 
in  religion ;  and  the  men  of  the  church  in  turn  forget  or 
disregard  its  fellowship  when  they  come  to  vote  in  party 


94  GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EAKLY  LIFE. 

elections.  The  Christians  of  the  period  love  the  cause  of 
religion,  and  adhere  strongly  to  their  respective  churches 
when  in  the  prosperous  or  revival  state,  and  for  all  the 
legitimate  and  scriptural  purposes  of  their  professions  ; 
but  when  the  tide  of  politics  arises  they  naturally  drift, 
every  man  with  his  own  party. 

Brown  is  a  steady  and  consistent  Baptist — the  line  of 
distinction  is  as  clear  between  Baptists  and  Methodists  for 
all  religious  purposes,  as  between  Democrats  and  Whigs 
for  political  purposes.  The  members  of  opposing  churches 
respect  each  other  as  Christian  professors,  and  those  of 
opposing  parties  respect  each  other  as  citizens  of  a  com 
mon  government,  while  they  stand  aloof  and  act  in  their 
separate  organizations.  Hill  is  a  decided  Methodist,  but 
was  enthusiastically  supported  by  all  good  Baptist  whigs, 
as  Brown  was  by  all  good  Methodist  democrats.  It  is, 
moreover,  a  very  marked  characteristic  with  both  parties, 
and  exemplified  by  the  public  officers  of  both,  whether 
political,  judicial,  or  ministerial,  that  in  the  discharge  of 
official  duty  they  are  sternly  impartial  between  all  the 
religious  denominations. 

1879. 

After  the  eventful  period  of  twenty-two  years — when 
the  then  youthful  statesman  has  grown  gray,  and  his 
career  has  been  crowned  with  the  most  eminent  suc 
cess — in  public  administration,  so  far  as  it  was  in  the 
power  of  the  largest  measure  of  abilities  and  the  most 
sleepless  energy  and  perseverance  to  save  the  State  from 
disaster,  and  in  the  management  of  his  own  private  fort 
une,  as  well  as  the  public  enterprises  in  which  his  business 
capabilities  have  been  employed,  his  life  becomes  invested 
with  an  interest  and  value  to  mankind  whenever  and 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EARLY  LIFE.  95 

wherever  genius  and  talent  struggle  with  privations  and 
difficulties,  and  when  masterly  abilities  and  moral  courage 
attempt  to  confront  and  repress  wrong  and  correct  abuses ; 
and  where  sagacity  and  forecast,  almost  prophetic,  by 
bold  and  daring  originality,  seek  to  wield  the  powers  of 
government  in  the  interest  and  general  improvement  and 
advantage  of  the  people,  instead  of  burdening  them  for 
selfish  and  ambitious  purposes. 

Even  the  childhood  and  youth  of  a  man  whose  grand 
thoughts  resulted  in  original  plans  for  the  general  good, 
but  many  of  which  were  thwarted  or  retarded  by  de 
structive  war,  to  be  utilized  and  adopted  by  his  succes 
sors,  have  an  example  so  moral  and  sublime  as  to  claim 
the  minute  attention  of  aspiring  young  men  in  all  countries. 

His  paternal  ancestors  were  Scotch-Irish,  his  immediate 
ancestor  the  descendant  of  emigrants,  of  honorable  descent, 
to  Virginia  upwards  of  a  century  ago.  Like  Crawford, 
Forsyth,  and  many  others  who  have  adorned  the  State  in 
high  positions,  the  ancestry  was  Virginian.  The  grand 
father,  Joseph  Brown,  was  a  whig  rebel,  and  took  active 
part  in  the  war  for  independence.  The  father,  Mackey 
Brown,  was  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  to  which  State 
the  ancestors  had  removed.  In  early  life  he  removed 
and  became  a  citizen  of  Tennessee  where  he  joined  the 
army  in  the  brigade  of  General  Carroll  and  served  under 
General  Jackson  in  the  campaign  of  New  Orleans.  There 
was  a  consequent  family  admiration  of  Jackson  as  a  hero 
and  statesman. 

His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Sally  Rice,  who  was 
also  of  Virginian  ancestry.  The  Rice  family  having  be 
fore  emigrated  to  Tennessee,  Mackey  Brown  and  Sally 
Rice  were  married  and  resided  in  that  State  until  a  short 
time  before  the  birth  of  Joseph  Emerson,  which  took 


96  GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWN'S  EAKLY  LIFE. 

place  on  the  15th  day  of  April,  1821,  in  Pickens  district, 
South  Carolina,  whither  the  parents  had  removed.  Dur 
ing  his  boyhood  they  removed  to  and  settled  in  Union 
county,  which  is  in  north-eastern  Georgia.  It  was  in  that 
remote  mountain  home,  under  the  control  of  and  in  duti 
ful  and  affectionate  obedience  to  steady  religious  Baptist 
parents,  that  he  passed  his  early  youth.  He  labored  in 
the  field  and  attended  stock  to  aid  in  the  family  support 
until  he  was  nineteen  years  of  age.  He  had  been  sent  to 
the  country  schools,  had  learned  to  read  and  write,  and 
had  acquired  some  knowledge  of  arithmetic  and  the  ele 
mentary  branches  of  ordinary  education. 

It  was  only  a  spark  of  knowledge  that  struck  the  tin 
der  of  a  great  brain  in  the  formative  state ;  but  the  igni 
tion  took  place,  and  the  flame,  which  no  adverse  fortune 
nor  accumulation  of  discouraging  circumstances  could 
extinguish,  began  to  burn  and  brighten  and  to  irradiate 
its  light  and  heat.  The  world  has  witnessed  the  rapid  rise 
and  brilliant  career  of  the  mountain  boy  in  the  proudest 
position  in  the  gift  of  a  great  and  appreciative  people. 

The  labored  steps  of  genius  without  fortune  by  which 
he  began  to  climb  the  rugged  hill  to  fame  and  power, 
though  humble  in  themselves,  are  sublime  in  moral  grand 
eur,  and  are  heralds  of  hope  and  encouragement  to  mind 
with  energy  and  perseverance  in  all  lands  and  all  ages  to 
come. 

lie  heard  of  Calhoun  Academy  in  Anderson  district, 
South  Carolina,  under  Wesley  Leverett,  a  distinguished 
teacher,  and  seeing  the  light  as  its  rays  came  from  the 
east,  he  planned  the  grand  enterprise  of  reaching  and 
passing  a  year  in  that  school.  He  had  no  exchequer, 
never  had  revelled  on  cash,  the  gift  of  parental  bounty,  or 
from  any  source  whatever ;  never  had  clothing  except  the 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EAELY  LIFE.  97 

common  but  neat  domestic  manufacture,  had  no  horse  of 
his  own  to  ride  over  the  long  mountain  road  to  Anderson, 
had  no  money  to  pay  for  board  and  tuition  after  he  should 
reach  the  place.  His  worldly  estate  consisted  of  a  yoke 
of  steers. 

He  set  out  with  the  oxen  with  his  younger  brother 
James,  now  an  eminent  lawyer  at  Canton,  to  ride  alter 
nately  his  father's  plow-horse  and  drive  the  steers,  and 
to  carry  back  the  horse  after  the  main  part  of  the  jour 
ney  was  completed — a  distance  of  about  one  hundred  and 
thirty  miles. 

He  sold  his  steers  after  arrival  for  eight  months'  board, 
entered  the  school  and  went  in  debt  for  tuition.  There 
was  no  danger  in  trusting  him  then,  and  there  has  never 
been  since. 

His  earnest  manner  gained  him  credit,  his  energy  and 
enterprise  enabled  him  to  meet  its  demands  promptly. 
At  the  end  of  his  board-contract  he  returned  to  Union 
County,  Georgia,  and  taught  a  three  months'  school,  with 
the  proceeds  of  which  he  paid  his  tuition-debt  and  had 
some  money  left  to  apply  to  the  expenses  of  another 
term. 

He  returned  to  Carolina  and  spent  two  years  of  close 
hard  study,  on  credit  mainly  for  board  and  tuition,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  made  such  advances  in  the  languages 
and  mathematics  as  to  have  been  prepared  if  he  had  pos 
sessed  the  means  to  pay  the  expense  to  enter  an  advanced 
college  class.  He  returned  to  Georgia,  went  to  Canton, 
the  county  seat  of  Cherokee  County,  and  took  charge  of 
the  town  academy  as  teacher  in  January,  1844,  in  debt  for 
two  years  preceding  board  and  tuition,  with  six  scholars 
which  soon  increased  to  sixty ;  while  teaching  this  school 
he  read  law  of  nights  and  Saturdays  without  an  instructor  ; 


98  GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWN'S  EAELY  LIFE. 

and  at  the  end  of  the  year  he  returned  and  paid  off  his 
South  Carolina  debt. 

In  1845  he  pursued  the  study  of  law  with  a  view  to  its 
practice,  and  at  the  same  time  earned  his  board  by  teach 
ing  the  children  of  Dr.  John  W.  Lewis.  In  August  of 
that  year,  after  a  critical  public  examination  which  he  sus 
tained  with  unsurpassed  promptness  and  correctness,  he 
was  admitted  to  practise  in  the  courts. 

Dr.  Lewis,  who  had  observed  the  immense  promise  of 
young  Brown,  and  comprehended  the  extraordinary  mind 
with  which  nature  had  endowed  him,  and  the  sleepless 
energy  with  which  he  was  pressing  it  to  development 
and  practical  use,  loaned  him  the  money  to  pay  the  ex 
pense  and  attend  the  law  school  at  Yale  College,  where 
he  entered  in  October,  1845.  Having  the  advantage  of 
a  previous  course  of  thorough  and  severe  study  of  law  he 
was  enabled  to  keep  up  with  his  law  classes,  and  also  found 
time  to  take  a  liberal  literary  course.  Having  graduated 
in  1846  he  returned  to  Canton  and  entered  into  practice 
which  soon  became  extensive  and  lucrative. 

Eleven  years  later  as  the  victorious  leader  of  the  great 
Democratic  party  of  Georgia  he  was  installed  into  the 
office  of  chief  magistracy  with  the  honors  that  crowned  a 
success  brought  about  by  native  and  cultivated  ability 
and  reached  without  cause  of  reproach. 

In  1847  he  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Rev.  Joseph 
Grisham,  a  Baptist  clergyman  of  South  Carolina,  who 
has  been  among  the  most  devoted  of  wives  as  she  is  one 
of  the  noblest  and  best  of  women ;  she  has  been  constantly 
by  his  side  in  all  his  arduous  duties  with  aid  in  toil  and 
wise  counsel  in  times  of  trial  and  embarrassment,  constant 
and  devoted  in  affection  and  so  just  and  generous,  so 
noble  and  self-sacrificing,  as  well  as  self-possessed  and 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EAELY  LIFE.  99 

prudent,  even  under  strong  provocation  in  ill-natured  pub 
lic  criticism,  as  to  have  held  and  maintained  the  universal 
esteem  and  high  respect  of  all  parties,  the  foes  as  well  as 
the  friends  of  her  distinguished,  often  assailed  and  much 
abused  husband. 

It  is  difficult  for  even  a  great  man  to  continue  to  act 
wisely  without  a  true  and  devoted  wife  to  aid  him  in  coun 
sel  and  share  his  cares  and  toils.  Such  has  been  the  good 
fortune  of  Gov.  Brown  from  early  manhood  to  the  present. 

They  have  been  blessed  in  their  offspring  as  well  as 
domestic  worldly  success  and  prosperity.  Julius  L.  Brown, 
the  elder  son,  a  graduate  of  the  State  University  of  Geor 
gia  and  Cambridge  Law  school,  has  become  prominent  in 
the  legal  profession  ;  Joseph  M.  Brown  who  inherited 
much  of  the  father's  intellect,  educated  for  the  same  pro 
fession,  but  on  account  of  premonitions  of  physical  weak 
ness  has  changed  his  purposes  and  become  a  railroad  man ; 
Elijah  A.  and  Charles  M.  Brown*  are  inclined  to  the  noble 
calling  of  agriculture  ;  George  M.  the  youngest  child  is 
yet  a  school  boy ;  Mary  V.  is  the  wife  of  Dr.  E.  L.  Con- 
nally  of  Atlanta,  and  Sallie  is  not  yet  grown. 

But  all  has  not  been  continued  bliss  in  this  happy 
household.  There  was  an  idol  taken  away,  where  mem 
ory  still  lingers,  in  all  the  freshness  it  had,  when  the 
handmaid  and  the  herald  of  parental  and  paternal  grief — 
grief  that  bowed  low  the  strong  head  of  the  father,  and 
embalmed  the  true  mother's  heart.  Bright  in  childhood, 
as  the  diamond,  newly  cut  from  the  imbedded  secrecy  of 
the  untold  past  ages  and  centuries,  were  his  mind  and 
soul,  encased  as  they  were,  in  a  casket  made  frail  by 
early  and  incurable  spinal  disease;  and  by  the  continued 
ravages  of  which  it  was  prevented  from  growth,  develop- 

*  Since  this  was  written  Charles  M.  Brown  has  died,  as  hereafter  stated. 


100         GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EAKLY  LIFE. 

ment,  and  vigor,  endowed  as  lie  was  with  genius,  whose 
rays  sparkled,  during  his  brief  life,  through  the  sombre 
clouds  of  pain  and  unrest,  he  passed  like  a  meteor  from 
out  of  sight  of  men. 

This  was  Franklin  Pierce  Brown,  whose  mortal  remains 
repose  beneath  a  towering,  beautifully  surmounted,  and 
ornamented  monument  of  Carrara  marble,  executed  in 
Italy,  in  the  Oakland  cemetery  at  Atlanta,  where  he  was 
laid  in  1871,  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years.  A  child 
almost  in  frame,  he  was  a  pre-conscious,  self-educated 
man  in  mind,  in  heart,  and  in  all  the  attributes  that 
endeared  him  to  his  kindred,  and  to  his  own  and  his  par 
ents'  friends.  His  private  library,  as  he  read  and  mas 
tered  the  books,  enlarged  with  the  growth  of  his  mind, 
the  expansion  of  his  judgment,  and  cultivation  of  his 
affections  and  taste,  and  at  his  early  death,  it  embraced 
one  hundred  volumes.  The  inscription  on  his  monument 
is  from  a  voluntary  tribute  to  his  memory,  from  Alex 
ander  H.  Stephens  :  "  Such  a  prodigy  of  intellect  and 
virtue,  in  a  body  so  frail,  I  never  met,  in  any  other  human 
form,  and  never  expect  to  if  I  live  a  thousand  years." 

There  are,  perhaps,  but  few,  if  any,  of  the  wives  of 
public  men  of  this  age  who  can  be  compared  with  Mrs. 
Brown  as  to  the  traits  of  mind,  and  heart,  and  the  disposi 
tion  and  habits  which  render  a  wife,  in  truth  and  reality, 
a  helpmate  to  her  husband,  and  which  rendered  her  the 
equal  of  her  husband  in  many  respects. 

Instead  of  wasting  his  estate  by  extravagance  and  use 
less  display,  she  has  been  a  model  of  household  and  domes 
tic  ecjnomy.  Instead  of  leading  an  idle  life,  devoted  to 
pleasure  and  gayety,  as  most  women  do,  whose  husbands 
have  distinguished  them,  she  has  been  devoted  to  toil  and 
industry,  and  has  scarcely  been  the  inferior  of  her  hus- 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EAKLY  LIFE.         10 1 

band  in  the  wonderful  power  he  possesses  of  endurance 
of  protracted  mental  and  physical  labor  and  exertion. 

It  should  be  recorded  to  encourage  the  wives  of  all 
public  men,  that  Mrs.  Brown,  in  addition  to  the  care  of 
her  children,  and  household  duties,  with  her  own  hand, 
copied  for  the  printer  the  original  manuscripts,  difficult 
for  most  people  to  read,  of  all  the  messages  and  public 
documents  of  the  Governor  while  in  office.  And  in  like 
manner  all  his  discussions  and  opinions,  as  chief  justice  of 
the  supreme  court  of  Georgia ;  and  in  addition,  with  the 
aid  of  the  lamented  and  life-long  afflicted  son,  Franklin 
Pierce  Brown,  kept  a  complete  file  in  scrap-books  of  the 
public  criticisms  and  comments  and  commendations  on 
the  Governor,  and  most  of  the  public  documents  from  his 
early  life  to  the  present ;  which,  since  the  destruction  of 
public  records  and  files  by  the  Federal  cavalry  at  Milledge- 
ville,  have  greatly  facilitated  the  writer  in  this  work. 

The  student  of  biography  may  be  curious  to  know  by 
what  kind  of  ladder  he  ascended  from  such  lowly  begin 
nings  to  so  high  a  station  and  rank,  and  with  such  extraor 
dinary  rapidity.  The  answer  to  the  inquiry  is,  a  ladder 
he  built  as  he  ascended.  It  was  based  on  the  solid  foun 
dation  of  brain,  backbone,  and  heart ;  mind,  heroic  endur 
ance  and  irrepressible  perseverance  and  energy,  and 
honest  purpose.  The  warmth  of  his  patriotism,  and 
sympathy  with  the  masses  of  the  people  of  all  classes,  and 
his  fearless  advocacy  of  the  right,  melted  and  moulded 
the  material  of  its  rounds,  in  rapid  succession,  by  which 
he  reached  the  height,  and  stood  firmly  planted  on  the 
foundation  of  self-sustaining  ability  and  wisdom. 

He  was  accustomed  to  attend  courts,  give  unremitted 
attention  to,  and  takes  notes  of  all  the  proceedings 
on,  legal  questions.  If  he  was  counsel,  he  went  in  pre- 


102         GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EAELY  LIFE. 

pared  on  facts  and  law ;  if  he  was  not  counsel,  in  the  case 
on  trial,  he  was  a  laborious  student  of  law  in  its  applica 
tion  to  the  affairs  of  men,  and  therefore  deeply  interested 
in  every  cause  that  came  to  be  tried  by  the  courts  He 
had  neither  disposition  nor  time  to  loiter  and  dissipate,  or 
associate  with  the  idle  and  vicious. 

His  first  election  to  public  office  was  in  1849,  when 
nominated  by  the  Democrats  of  the  forty-first  senatorial 
district,  composed  of  Cobb  and  Cherokee  counties  ;  when, 
after  encountering  strong  popular  opposition  on  account 
of  his  temperance  opinions  and  practices,  and  his  stubborn 
and  persistent  refusal  to  carry  his  election  by  buying 
whiskey  and  treating  voters,  he  was  elected  by  a  large 
majority,  and  entered  the  senate  under  the  administra 
tion  of  George  W.  Towns,  amid  a  splendid  array  of  legis 
lative  talent  and  worth.  Towns  had  been  re-elected  over 
Hon.  E.  Y.  Hill  by  a  doubtful  struggle,  and  the  parties 
were  closely  matched,  and  nearly  equally  divided  in  the 
legislature.  In  the  Senate,  were  Andrew  J.  Miller,  Blount 
C.  Ferrell,  Peter  E.  Love,  Allen  E  Cochran,  William  W. 
Clayton,  Thomas  Purse,  Richard  H.  Clark,  William  B. 
Wofford,  John  D.  Stell,  David  J.  Bailey,  Charles  Murphy, 
Edward  D.  Chisolm,  James  M.  Spurlock.  In  the  House 
were  Lin  ton  Stephens,  Lucius  J.  Gartrell,  Edmund  H. 
Worrell,  William  T.  Wofford,  John  A.  Jones,  A.  T. 
Mclntyre,  Charles  J.  Jenkins,  Alexander  McDugald,  Rob 
ert  P.  Trippe,  Randolph  Spaulding,  James  N.  Ramsey, 
Thomas  C.  Howard,  John  W.  Anderson,  George  P.  Harri 
son,  A.  D.  Shackelford,  A.  H.  Kenan,  Winslow  J.  Lawton. 
There  were  others  of  merit  in  both  Houses. 

The  State  being  in  the  rapid  stage  of  development, 
her  Legislature  was  a  body  of  the  first  significance  and 
importance ;  and  summoned  the  best  men  of  the  respec- 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EARLY  LIFE.          103 

live  parties.  The  questions  before  this  body  were  well 
calculated  to  draw  out  and  utilize  the  wisdom  of  the  elder, 
and  develop  the  capacities  of  the  younger  members  of 
the  Houses,  the  men  of  mark  and  merit.  It  is  a  truth, 
however,  that  a  large  majority  of  this,  as  other  preced 
ing  Legislatures,  was  of  men  not  constituted  by  natural 
endowments  or  acquired  abilities  for  the  high  and  respon 
sible  duties  of  legislators.  Young  Brown  was  placed  on 
three  important  standing  committees  of  the  Senate ; 
among  them  the  committee  on  the  judiciary. 

The  questions  of  revenue,  finance,  and  taxation,  were 
prominent,  and  summoned  the  highest  talent  of  both  par 
ties.  There  was  a  public  debt  of  upwards  of  $1,800,00,0, 
which  had  been  created  in  great  part  by  the  losses  and 
the  complications  of  the  State  through  the  State  Central 
Bank,  and  the  construction  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic 
Railroad. 

The  theory  of  equalizing  the  burdens  of  government 
that  were  increasing  with  its  enterprises,  and  consequent 
expenses,  by  the  equitable  system  of  ad  valorem  taxa 
tion,  had  been  favored  by  Gov.  Crawford.  So  far  as  relates 
to  real  estate,  it  was  more  strongly  and  forcibly  urged  by 
Gov  Towns,  on  the  general  theory  of  placing  all  taxable 
property  on  the  basis  of  paying  taxes  to  support  govern 
ment  according  to  value.  The  idea  that  the  owner  of  a 
slave-child,  or  invalid,  or  of  small  value,  should  pay  as 
much  tax,  on  that  slave,  as  the  owner  of  a  slave  of  large 
value,  and  a  like  theory  as  to  other  property,  and  assets, 
tended  to  bring  the  system  of  "specific  taxes,"  into  dis 
favor,  and  to  inaugurate  that  of  taxing  values  instead  of 
specified  property. 

The  Western  &  Atlantic  railroad,  the  first  enterprise 
of  the  kind  by  any  Southern  State,  was  being  completed. 


104         GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EARLY  LIFE. 

The  subject  of  a  suitable  organization  and  system  of  laws 
for  its  government  and  management,  so  as  to  make  it 
available  as  a  great  channel  of  inland  transportation,  and 
the  development  of  the  country,  as  was  originally  in 
tended,  and  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  State  after  paying 
the  debts  contracted  for  construction,  and  at  the  same 
time  guard  against  the  corrupting  influences  of  so  large  a 
money  collecting  and  disbursing  institution,  was  one  of 
momentous  importance. 

The  administration  and  government,  and  financial 
affairs  of  the  State  penitentiary  ;  the  asylums  of  the  luna 
tics,  and  deaf  and  dumb ;  the  public  land  system ;  the 
disputed  boundary  with  Florida;  the  militia  laws,  and 
means  of  the  protection  of  the  State ;  the  purity  of  elec 
tions;  salaries  of  public  officers ;  the  supreme  court ;  edu 
cation,  and  the  threatening  relations  of  the  people  of  the 
North  toward  the  South  on  the  slavery  question,  were 
under  severe  and  critical  review  in  this  Legislature,  and 
all  afforded  ample  field  for  the  intellectual  powers  of  Mr. 
Brown  and  his  able  contemporaries  of  the  Senate  and 
House.  x 

Gov.  Towns,  who  was  of  the  class  called  "  hot  spurs," 
and  afterward  "fire-eaters,"  brought  the  subject  of  fed 
eral  relations  before  the  Assembly,  stating  in  strong 
terms  his  views  of  the  dangers  to  the  South  growing  out 
of  anti-slavery  aggressions  by  the  Northern  people.  It 
was  in  this  Legislature  that  the  measure  was  adopted 
which  divided  the  Democratic  and  Whig  parties  up  to 
1852.  The  call  of  a  convention  of  the  State  to  consider 
her  course  on  account  of  the  alleged  fraudulent  organiza 
tion  of  the  Territory  of  California  into  a  State  govern 
ment,  with  a  constitution  prohibiting  slavery,  and  the 
admission  of  the  State  into  the  Union  by  Congress  :  the 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EARLY  LIFE.          105 

debates  on  this  question  and  matters  germane  to  it 
had  the  effect  to  develop  different  and  conflicting  opin 
ions  between  Democrats  and  between  Whigs  in  reference 
to  the  preservation  of  the  Federal  Union ;  and  the  integ 
rity  of  the  States  and  the  protection  to  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  South  in  the  peculiar  institution  of  slavery. 
They  differed  as  to  the  value  and  importance  of  the  Union, 
while  all  were  Union  men ;  they  differed  also  as  to  the 
extent  of  the  aggressive  spirit  against  slavery  and  the 
imminence  of  the  danger,  while  they  were  all  State  Rights 
and  Southern  Rights  men.  The  result  was  an  explosion 
and  disbanding  of  party  organizations  for  the  time  being. 

In  these  discussions,  and  those  which  followed  before 
the  people,  Mr.  Brown,  while  not  a  Disunionist  or  Seces 
sionist,  as  many  of  the  Southern  Rights  men  were,  was 
firmly  and  decidedly  in  favor  of  such  a  course  as  might 
tend  to  arrest  aggression  and  preserve  the  Union  and 
Constitution  by  providing  safeguards,  or  enforcing  those 
we  had,  for  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  the  honor  and 
interest  of  the  slaveholding  people  of  the  South. 

But,  as  we  have  seen,  the  wing  of  Democracy  with 
which  he  acted  was  largely  in  the  minority  when  the 
people  came  to  elect  delegates  to  the  convention,  and  in 
the  subsequent  election  of  Cobb  over  McDonald  for  gov 
ernor,  with  a  strong  Union  legislature  which  elected  Mr. 
Toombs  in  the  place  of  Mr.  Berrien  to  the  United  States 
Senate.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  upon  the  settlement  of 
the  disputed  issues  the  local  and  temporary  parties 
organized  on  them  were  disbanded,  the  old  Whig  and 
Democratic  parties  re-organized,  and  the  Southern  Rights 
Democrats  passed  out  from  under  the  cloud  of  defeat  and 
minority. 

In  the  organization  of  the  Democratic  forces  of  the 


106          GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWN'S  EAKLY  LIFE. 

State  for  the  decisive  canvass  between  the  national  Whigs 
and  Democrats  in  the  Union,  and  to  determine  the  mooted 
and  vexed  question  as  to  the  ascendency  and  power  of 
the  one  or  the  other,  under  the  lead  of  Winfield  Scott 
and  of  .Franklin  Pierce,  the  prominence,  ability,  and  in 
fluence  of  Brown  caused  him  to  be  placed  upon  the  Demo 
cratic  electoral  ticket  for  the  5th  congressional  district  of 
the  State,  which  after  a  successful  canvass  was  carried  for 
himself  and  the  Pierce  electors  by  an  overwhelming  and 
increased  majority. 

I  have  elsewhere  alluded  to  his  candidacy  and  election 
over  Hon.  David  Irwin,  the  incumbent  judge  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  circuit  in  1855,  and  his  brilliant  and  able  admin 
istration  for  the  two  years  ensuing,  which  position  he  held 
at  the  time  the  State  Democratic  convention  nominated 
him  for  governor. 

The  wisdom  of  the  State  has  fluctuated  much  upon  the 
proper  mode  of  appointing  judges  of  the  superior  court. 
From  time  out  of  mind  they  had  been  elected  by  the 
General  Assembly  on  joint  ballot ;  but  by  Act  of  1852,  re- 
enacted  in  1854,  the  State  constitution  was  so  changed  as 
to  give  their  election  to  the  people.  This  contest  be 
tween  Brown  and  Irwin  was  a  trial  in  that,  as  there  was 
in  other  circuits  of  the  new  system,  which  in  the  course 
of  a /few  years  proved  to  be  unsatisfactory  on  account  of 
the  repugnance  of  the  people  to  bringing  their  candidate 
to  electioneer  personally  for  votes,  and  the  supposed  de 
moralizing  tendency  upon  the  judges  when  after  a  suc 
cessful  canvass  they  have  to  preside  over  friends  and  foes 
and  to  pass  judgment  upon  the  legal  rights  of  those  who 
supported,  as  well  as  those  who  voted  against  them.  In 
many  parts  of  the  State  it  had  the  appearance  of  tending 
to  evil. 


GOV.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  EARLY  LIFE.          107 

The  next  change  was  to  clothe  the  governor  with  the 
power  to  nominate,  and  the  senate  to  confirm  or  reject — 
as  in  the  case  of  appointing  judges  of  the  supreme  court 
— which  system  was  in  force  until  1877,  when  the  con 
stitutional  convention  of  that  year  so  altered  the  constitu 
tion  as  to  return  to  the  original  system  of  electing  by  the 
Legislature,  except  that  instead  of  a  vote  by  ballot  as 
formerly,  the  method  is  to  vote  viva  voce. 

The  method  last  abandoned  was  intended  to  remove 
the  appointment  from  all  the  corrupting  influences  of 
popular  elections ;  but  it  was  found  to  be  a  source  of  dis 
satisfaction  because  of  the  vast  power  it  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  governor,  and  the  impossibility  of  the  ap 
pointment  of  any  man,  however  well  suited  or  however 
much  desired  by  the  people,  who  could  not  in  some  way 
procure  a  nomination  by  him. 


CHAPTER  III. 

GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA  UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN. 

This  embraces  the  period  from  his  inauguration  in 
November,  1857,  up  to  the  commencement  of,  and  during 
the  whole  of  the  late  war,  to  the  final  collapse  of  the  con 
federacy,  and  to  the  suspension  of  civil  authority  in  the 
State,  arid  his  arrest  and  confinement  under  the  military 
authority  of  the  United  States  in  the  year  1865,  having 
been  four  times  elected  by  the  people  of  the  State,  and 
by  large  and  increased  popular  majorities.  In  1859  the 
opposition  nominated  the  Hon.  Warren  Akin  of  Bartow 
county,  who  canvassed  the  State  with  great  zeal  and 
ability.  But  it  was  in  the  face  of  increased  and  solidified 
confidence  of  the  people  in  and  largely  widened  and  in 
tensified  popularity  of  the  incumbent ;  and  Mr.  Akin,  as 
would  any  other  man  of  either  party  in  the  State,  suffered 
defeat. 

In  1861,  after  the  war  was  fully  opened  on  a  large 
scale,  they  nominated  the  Hon.  Eugenius  A.  Nesbit,  a 
man  of  great  ability,  and  purity,  and  of  large  personal 
popularity,  who,  like  Brown,  had  thoroughly  and  heartily 
joined  in  the  movement,  and  cast  his  lot  with  the  fortunes 
of  the  new  confederacy.  But  he,  like  Akin,  suffered  de 
feat  by  a  very  large  majority. 

In  1863,  when  the  fatal  crisis  of  the  bloody  struggle 
was  being  passed,  and  when  the  murmurings  of  discon 
tent  were  beginning  to  be  heard,  and  it  was  supposed 
that  the  somewhat  silent  voice,  and  unorganized  send- 


GEORGIA  UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  109 

ment  of  opposition  to  the  war  in  its  inception,  and  espe 
cially  to  its  continuance,  and  the  strong  desire  for  an 
adjustment,  and  peace,  would  find  expression  at  the  bal- 
. lot-box,  the  Hon.  Joshua  Hill  was  brought  out  as  a 
candidate.  He  was  an  acknowledged  Union  man.  An 
old  Whig  with  strong  party  prejudices,  and  great  personal 
integrity,  decision,  moral  courage  and  firmness,  who  at 
the  time  of  secession  represented  his  district  in  Congress, 
and  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  validity  of  the  ordinance 
of  secession,  did  not  retire  with  the  Georgia  delegation  from 
Congress,  but  formally  resigned  his  seat,  thus  acknowledg 
ing  the  authority  of  the  Federal  government  over  a  repre 
sentative  of  Georgia  in  Congress.  It  being  impracticable 
to  defeat  Brown  by  the  popular  vote,  and  with  a  view  to 
securing  the  election  to  the  General  Assembly,  a  third  can 
didate  was  brought  out.  There  was  a  sentiment  of  oppo 
sition  to  Brown  among  men,  as  much  opposed  to  Hill  as 
he  was,  growing  out  of  his  opposition  to  the  policy  of 
Jefferson  Davis,  President  of  the  Confederacy,  which  will 
claim  particular  attention  in  another  part  of  this  volume. 
This  opposition  put  forward  as  a  third  candidate  a  man  of 
fair  ability,  and  great  excellence  and  purity  of  private 
character,  and  a  true  patriot ;  the  Hon.  T.  M.  Furlow  of 
Sumter  county,  a  strong  Secessionist.  But  both  these  able 
and  popular  men,  like  Benjamin  H.  Hill,  Warren  Akin, 
and  Judge  Nesbit,  were  doomed  to  overwhelming  defeat, 
by  a  majority  required  by  the  State  constitution  over 
both  competitors.  It  is  a  marked  feature  in  this  election, 
that  the  Georgia  troops  in  the  army,  by  act  of  the 
Legislature,  held  elections  in  their  camps  and  voted,  in  the 
face  of,  and  defiance  to,  the  complaints  of  the  confederate 
administration  and  authorities  against  the  course  Brown 
had  pursued,  in  maintaining,  even  in  war,  the  constitu- 


110  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

tion  of  the  Confederacy,  and  the  rights  of  the  soldiers,  as 
well  as  people.  The  soldiers  of  this  State  voted  for  Brown 
by  large  majorities. 

The  history  of  Georgia  in  this  period  is,  to  a  large  ex 
tent,  a  continuation  of  the  history  of  her  Governor,  which 
naturally  divides  itself  into  the  civil  and  military  admin 
istrations. 

CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION  OF  Gov.  BROWN. 

Entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  when  really  a 
young  man  for  the  position,  and  when  he  was  regarded 
and  classed  among  the  young  men  of  the  State,  as  the 
successor  of  a  line  of  able  and  distinguished  men,  such  as 
Lumpkin,  Schley,  Gilmer,  McDonald,  Crawford,  Towns, 
Cobb,  and  Herschel  V.  Johnson,  the  anxiety  and  solici 
tude  with  his  own  party  and  his  special  friends  as  to  his  ex 
perience  and  knowledge  and  ability  to  sustain  the  reputa 
tion  of  the  State  and  administer  the  government  were 
only  equalled  by  the  expectation  of  short-comings  and 
failure  on  the  part  of  his  defeated  political  foes.  It  was 
difficult  for  the  intelligent  public  to  conceive  that  a  man 
from  the  remote  interior  without  the  benefits  of  long 
association  with  central  political  juntos  and  rings,  and 
without  experience  in  civil  administrations  and  a  compara- 
.  tive  personal  stranger  to  a  large  portion  of  the  people, 
could  enter  upon  such  an  office  without  meeting  many 
difficulties  to  obstruct  his  success.  It  was  not  in  their 
process  of  reasoning  upon  the  probabilities  of  his  success 
that  a  man  in  the  interior,  endowed  as  he  was  by  the  very 
largest  measure  of  brain  power  and  unparalleled  energy, 
perseverance,  and  moral  courage,  could  become  learned 
from  the  same  authors  studied  in  the  central  towns ;  that  he 
had  the  same  universe  spread  out  before  him  in  which  to 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  HI 

study  nature,  and  people  of  the  same  race  to  live  among 
and  study  human  passion  and  frailty ;  and  that  there 
was  more  leisure  and  fewer  obstructions  in  the  way  of 
just  and  correct  conclusions,  and  more  influences  to  fix 
his  principles  and  habits  in  accordance  with  the  demands 
of  integrity  and  fidelity  in  private  intercourse  and  in  pub 
lic  administration. 

Hence  the  true  character  of  Joseph  E  Brown  was  not 
well  understood-,  or  the  full  measure  of  his  administrative 
capacity  well  comprehended  by  any  considerable  number 
of  even  his  own  party  in  the  State.  Many  good  men 
were  inclined  to  think  the  party  had  succeeded  with  a 
man  who  had  to  be  aided  and  instructed  in  his  duties, 
and  were  not  prepared  for  the  conclusion  that  he  was 
himself  bold,  fearless,  an  irrepressible  leader  prepared 
to  follow  the  dictates  of  his  own  superior  judgment,  and 
to  lead  not  only  the  people,  but  his  seniors  in  age,  in  the 
matters  of  sound,  practical,  successful,  honest  government. 

Able  men  of  the  State  in  the  Legislature  and  out  felt 
they  were  his  seniors  in  age,  experience,  and  intellectual 
rank,  that  when  he  differed  from  the  General  Assembly, 
and  sought  to  arrest  hasty,  inconsiderate,  or  unwise  legis 
lation  by  the  exercise  of  the  constitutional  prerogative  and 
duty  of 

THE  VETO  POWER, 

he  was  dealing  out  his  personal  vanity,  presumption,  and 
ambition  to  the  obstruction  and  hinderance  of  the  legis 
lative  will  emanating  from  the  superior  wisdom  and  pru 
dence  of,  the  leaders  thereof;  and  that  he  failed  to  culti 
vate  a  proper  consideration  and  deference  for  the  opinions 
of  that  body. 

Against  the  criticisms  of  the  opposition  which  had  al 
ready  added  to  his  strength  and  popularity  with  the  peo- 


112  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

pie  in  his  second  election,  in  the  message  of  November, 
1859,  he  thus  vindicates  his  administration  : — 

"The  numerous  examples  of  hasty  and  inconsiderate  legislation,  which 
we  so  often  witness,  are  becoming  a  source  of  great  detriment  to  the 
State  and  should  be  discouraged  by  all  prudent  legislators.  One  of  the 
great  evils  of  the  age  is,  that  we  legislate  too  much.  As  a  general  rule,  the 
failure  of  a  bill  that  has  merit  in  it  is  less  to  be  regretted  than  the  passage 
of  a  bad  law.  Wholesome  rules  of  law  with  which  the  people  have  become 
familiar  should  not  be  changed,  unless  for  good  cause  after  very  mature  de 
liberation.  A  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Legislature  to  observe  this  rule  has 
involved  our  laws  in  much  uncertainty,  and  has  often  kept  the  people  in  ig 
norance  of  their  true  meaning.  Our  legislators  have  frequently  given  too 
little  attention  to  their  duties  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  session,  and  have 
left  the  greater  part  of  the  business  of  the  session  to  be  transacted  within  the 
last  few  days  before  adjournment.  Hence,  their  inability  to  give  to  each  im 
portant  measure,  brought  before  them  at  the  close  of  the  session,  the  atten 
tion  and  deliberation  necessary  to  its  proper  disposition.  The  consequence 
has  been,  that  we  have  had  much  inconsistent  and  unwise  legislation.  If  we 
would  learn  wisdom  by  experience,  we  might  do  much  to  correct  this  evil  in 
future.  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  use  all  the  influence  and  power  of  my  position 
to  that  end.  I  shall  not,  therefore,  hesitate  to  lay  aside  and  withhold  my 
sanction  from  all  such  bills  passed  in  the  hurry  and  confusion  which  usually 
precede  an  adjournment  as  fail  to  command  the  approbation  of  my  judg 
ment,  together  with  all  such  as  have  not  been  plainly  and  correctly  enrolled 
and  signed  by  the  proper  officers. 

"  I  would  further  suggest  the  propriety  of  dispensing  with  a  great  deal  of 
the  trivial,  local,  private,  and  class  legislation  which  is  introduced  into  almost 
every  General  Assembly,  much  of  which  is  useless  because  it  benefits  no  one, 
and  much  of  it  is  unjust  and  mischievous,  because  it  benefits  a  few  individ 
uals  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  Let  it  be  remembered,  that  each  useless 
local  Act  introduced  and  passed  cumbers  the  Journals  and  the  pamphlet  of 
Acts,  and  that  the  State  pays  out  of  money  raised  from  the  people  by  taxa 
tion,  for  printing  4,000  copies  of  the  Journals  of  each  House  and  5,000  copies 
of  the  Act  itself,  and  that  one  day  spent  by  the  General  Assembly  in  the 
passage  of  such  Acts  costs  the  State  over  $2,500,  in  pay  of  members,  officers, 
and  other  expenses.  A  proper  and  just  regard  for  economy  demands  refor 
mation  in  this  particular.  The  same  objections  that  are  applicable  to  trivial 
and  local  legislation,  apply  to  much  of  our  private  or  individual  and  class 
legislation,  with  many  other  objections  on  account  of  its  injustice  and  in 
equality.  It  would,  in  my  opinion,  be  much  better  for  the  Legislature,  with 
few  exceptions,  to  lay  down  general  rules  of  law,  and  let  all  alike  regulate 
their  conduct  by  them. 

"  Entertaining  these  views,  I  have,  during  my  term  in  office,  frequently 


UNDEB  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  H3 

withheld  my  sanction  from  bills  of  the  character  above  described.  In  so 
doing,  I  do  not  consider  that  I  have  been  wanting  in  respect  for  the  General 
Assembly.  The  Constitution  has  assigned  to  the  Governor,  as  well  as  to  the 
General  Assembly,  official  powers  and  duties,  and  the  people  should  hold  him 
responsible  for  the  independent  exercise  of  his  official  powers,  as  well  as  the 
faithful  discharge  of  his  official  duties.  Neither  House  of  the  General  As 
sembly  feels  that  it  is  wanting  in  respect  for  the  other  when  it  refuses  to 
pass  a  Bill  which  it  does  not  approve,  though  it  may  have  been  passed  by  the 
other.  The  constitution  declares  that  the  governor  « shall  have  the  revision 
of  all  Bills  passed  by  both  Houses  before  the  same  shall  become  laws;'  and 
it  only  gives  to  the  General  Assembly  power  to  pass  laws,  '  notwithstanding 
his  dissent,'  by  two-thirds  of  both  Houses. 

"  If  the  Governor,  therefore,  out  of  respect  for  the  two  Houses,  signs  a  Bill 
which  his  judgment  does  not  approve,  he  denies  to  the  people  the  exercise  of 
that  executive  revision,  which,  under  the  constitution  they  have  a  right  to 
demand  as  a  protection  against  hasty  or  unwise  legislation." 

CRIME  AND  PARDONING  POWER. 

At  this  period,  the  increase  of  crime  had  kept  pace 
with  the  multiplied  chances  for  escape  of  punishment  on 
the  part  of  those  violating  public  law.  With  the  increase 
of  the  class  of  men  who  disregard  law,  and  pursue  their 
own  inclination,  in  defiance  to  its  penalties,  there  had 
been  a  fearful  relaxation  on  the  part  of  judges,  and  an  in 
crease  of  men  who  serve  on  juries  whose  own  life  and 
conduct  made  them  amenable  to  law,  when  rigidly  admin 
istered,  and  who  therefore  had  strong  sympathy  with  per 
sons  under  indictment  for  the  like  offences  they  were  in 
the  habit  of  committing.  The  laws  against  gambling  en 
counter  the  opposition  of  all  men  fond  of  gambling,  those 
regulating  liquor  traffic  have  not  much  support  from 
men  fond  of  tippling.  Laws  to  protect  virtue,  and  for  the 
promotion  of  purity,  between  sexes,  have  all  the  chances 
of  being  evaded  when  libertines  chance  to  be  on  the  jury 
to  try  those  who  violate  them.  Men  who  rely  upon 
deadly  weapons,  and  cultivate  the  idea  of  punishing  per 
sonal  insults  and  offences  by  violence,  are  slow  to  punish 

8 


114  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

men  whose  conduct  results  from  similar  ideas  and  prac 
tices. 

The  increase  of  legal  skill  and  tact  in  the  defence  of 
criminals ;  the  disposition  to  use  the  pardoning  power  by 
the  Governor,  and  the  General  Assembly,  tended  to  give 
assurance  to  lawless  men  against  the  ultimate  penalties 
of  criminal  law,  where  there  were  social,  pecuniary,  or 
political  advantages  to  be  used  in  their  behalf.  As  judge 
of  the  superior  court  for  the  two  preceding  years,  he 
had  seen  the  evil  tendency  of  relaxation,  and  the  want 
of  firmness  and  nerve  in  the  courts  and  juries.  He  had 
set  his  face  as  a  judge  against  it,  and  while  he  incurred 
the  hatred  of  criminals,  and  men  committing  misdemean 
ors,  by  preventing  their  escape  from  conviction,  and  im 
posing  and  executing  the  laws'  penalties,  he  drew  to 
him  the  confidence,  esteem,  and  ardent  support  of  the 
law  and  order  loving  people  of  all  parties.  And  now 
that  the  executive  office  of  the  State  was  placed  in  his 
hands  he  had  to  confront  the  same  spirit  and  fearful  ten 
dency,  in  a  higher  sense  of  responsibility,  and  in  the  face 
of  far  more  formidable  opposition.  It  was  the  influence 
of  wealth  and  social  power  of  political  leaders  whose  op 
position  was  to  be  dreaded  in  all  future  contests,  and  the 
attempt  to  make  him  odious  before  the  people  for  the  al 
leged  want  of  proper  feelings  of  humanity,  clemency 
and  mercy.  It  involved  on  him  the  decision  between  the 
policy  of  giving  encouragement  to  criminals,  and  immu 
nity  to  crime,  through  the  tender  emotions  of  forgiveness 
and  mercy,  as  to  temporal  penalties  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  protection  of  life,  liberty,  and  property  of  the  whole 
people  by  making  punishment  certain,  according  to  the 
rules  of  law.  It  involved  him  in  the  refusal  to  turn  con 
victed  offenders  loose  by  the  indiscriminate  or  liberal  use 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWK  H5 

of  the  pardoning  power,  and  to  sanction  bills  of  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly,  even  when  backed  by  powerful  influences, 
whose  object  was  to  relieve  properly  and  legally  con 
victed  criminals  from  the  penalties  of  their  crimes. 

The  first  important  bill  of  this  kind  passed  in  the 
first  session  of  the  Legislature  was  to  commute  the  pun 
ishment  of  John  Black  under  sentence  of  death  for  mur 
der  in  Habersham  county.  In  his  veto  message  to  this 
bill  the  Governor,  after  ably  reviewing  the  case,  and  the 
law  as  to  the  constitutional  power  to  commute  by  the 
Legislature  after  correction  and  sentence  by  the  Court, 
foreshadowed  his  views  and  policy  as  follows : — 

"  While  I  am  controlled  in  my  action  in  this  case  by  the  Constitutional 
question,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  notice  the  question  as  one  of  public  policy  in 
connection  with  the  question  of  Constitutional  obligation.  Should  the  right 
to  commute  the  punishment  be  recognized  and  exercised  in  this  case,  it  is 
not  probable  that  there  would  ever  be  another  case  of  capital  punishment  in 
Georgia ;  the  most  aggravated  case  of  murder  would  probably  be  brought  be 
fore  the  General  Assembly.  Eloquent  and  sympathetic  appeals  would  be 
made  to  the  passions  and  feelings  of  the  Legislature.  The  result  would 
probably  be  in  every  case  a  commutation  of  the  punishment;  and  when  the 
convict  went  to  the  Penitentiary,  in  a  few  years  he  might  be  pardoned  out 
and  let  loose  upon  the  community  to  shed  more  innocent  blood.  The  clamor 
which  is  beginning  to  be  raised  for  the  pardon  of  every  felon  I  can  but  re 
gard  as  a  false  sympathy,  tending  to  encourage  the  commission  of  crime  by 
destroying  in  the  minds  of  bad  men  the  fear  of  certain  punishment.  In  a 
deliberate  case  of  wilful  murder  the  best  interest  of  the  community  requires 
that  the  culprit  should  suffer  death.  This  is  the  revealed  law  of  our  Creator; 
He  has  said,  *  the  murderer  shall  surely  be  put  to  death/  Again,  He  has 
said,  'moreover  ye  shall  take  no  satisfaction  for  the  life  of  a  murderer, 
which  is  guilty  of  death,  but  he  shall  be  -surely  put  to  death.'  '  So  ye  shall 
not  pollute  the  land  wherein  ye  are;  for  blood  it  defileth  the  land;  and  the 
land  cannot  be  cleansed  of  the  blood  that  is  shed  therein,  but  by  the  blood  of 
him  that  shed  it.'  That  State  or  Nation,  which  is  most  faithful  in  its  ob 
servance  of  God's  moral  law,  is  always  the  most  prosperous  and  happy.  If 
we  would  save  our  land  from  the  stain  of  innocent  blood,  we  must  execute 
the  law  and  punish  the  guilty.  While  the  pardoning  power  is  a  necessary 
one  in  every  well  regulated  government,  and  while  there  are  cases  when  it 
should  be  exercised,  its  indiscriminate  exercise  cannot  fail  to  be  attended 


116  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

with  the  most  ruinous  consequences ;  when  the  murderer  is  turned  loose  upon 
the  community,  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  blood  of  the  innocent,  slain 
like  the  blood  of  Abel  of  old,  cries  to  us  from  the  ground." 

The  firm  adherence  to  the  settled  opinion  and  policy  of 
this  message,  in  their  application  to  the  multitude  of 
cases  for  pardon,  drew  down  upon  him  the  odium  and  the 
curses  of  criminals,  their  relatives  and  advocates,  and 
strengthened  the  confidence  of  the  law  abiding  people  in 
their  Governor,  and  tended  to  protect  them  against  the 
crimes  of  lawless  men  by  removing  the  hope  of  immunity 
from  punishment  when  legally  convicted. 

The  rule  laid  down  in  the  case  of  Black  was  a  hard  one 
to  adhere  to,  and  subjected  the  Governor,  in  the  course 
of  his  administration,  to  many  severe  tests  of  his  firmness. 
Many  are  able  to  brave  danger  in  the  most  terrific  form, 
or  to  resist  the  influence  of  rewards  when  offered.  But 
few  men  who  are  charged  with  individual  responsibility 
in  matters  involving  life  or  liberty  have  the  stability  to 
withstand  the  influence  of  sympathy  aroused  by  the  claims 
of  early  friendship,  and  the  sacred  and  heart-subduing 
pleadings  and  appeals  of  a  true  and  noble  mother  for  her 
son  under  sentence  of  death.  The  case  of  William  A. 
Choice,  of  Home,  put  him  to  the  test  in  both. 

His  mother,  a  women  of  great  worth  and  propriety, 
and  of  superior  intelligence,  had  been  proprietor  of  a 
hotel  at  Dahlonega,  where  Brown  in  his  boyhood  carried 
country  produce  to  sell.  Her  great  kindness  to  the  poor 
country  boy  was  fresh  in  his  manhood  memory.  At  this 
period  she  was  the  mother  of  elegant  daughters,  inter 
married  with  prominent  and  influential  men.  The  son 
himself,  under  sentence,  was  a  man  of  brilliant  mind, 
and  of  large  personal  popularity  in  his  youth.  The 
mother,  as  all  true  mothers  would,  visited  the  Governor 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  HJ 

in  person,  in  behalf  of  her  only  son.  But  he  was  firm, 
treating  her  with  great  tenderness  and  kindness ;  he  com 
municated  to  her  his  determination  to  consider  the  case 
in  the  light  of  official  duty  under  oath,  and  to  follow  his 
convictions  of  right  in  the  case.  The  case  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  people  at  large,  was  much  discussed  in 
newspapers,  and  social  circles.  Hon.  Benj.  H.  Hill,  the 
great  criminal  lawyer  and  advocate,  who  had  defended 
him  in  vain  in  the  court,  and  Hon.  Daniel  Printup,  his 
brother-in-law  and  an  able  lawyer,  sought  and  obtained 
seats  in  the  State  Senate,  where,  on  the  discussion  of  the 
bill  for  pardon,  the  former  exerted  his  wonderful  power 
of  logic,  eloquence,  and  pathos. 

The  bill  passed  both  Houses  and  went  to  the  Governor. 
After  an  able  review  of  the  case,  in  which  his  judgment 
concurred  with  the  court  and  jury,  reviewing  the  plea 
of  insanity,  as  the  result  of  intoxication,  the  Governor 
concludes  his  veto  message  in  the  following  language, 
which  well  illustrates  the  times,  the  case,  and  the  man  of 
iron  will  in  the  discharge  of  official  duty: — 

"  In  determining  a  question  of  the  character  of  the  one  now  under  con 
sideration,  I  should  be  unfaithful  to  the  high  trust  reposed  in  me,  if  I 
should  permit  my  reason  to  be  overcome  by  my  sympathy. 

"  No  act  of  my  life  has  been  more  unpleasant  than  the  one  I  now  perform. 
No  one  has  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  character  of  the  relatives  of  the 
defendant,  and  no  one  would  more  sincerely  rejoice  to  be  able  to  soothe  the 
feelings  of  a  mother  whose  heart,  pierced  with  anguish,  now  languishes 
with  untold  grief.  But,  if  it  were  proper  for  me  on  this  occasion  to  be 
influenced  by  considerations  of  this  nature,  I  should  do  wrong,  were  I  to 
contemplate  the  sufferings  on  one  side,  and  refuse  to  look  upon  the  picture 
of  misery  on  the  other. 

"  A  few  months  since  the  family  of  Webb,  the  deceased,  was  comfortable 
and  happy.  His  wife  and  little  children  had  the  care  and  protection  of  a 
fond  husband  and  a  kind  father;  but  in  a  moment  of  time,  by  the  cruel  act 
of  the  defendant,  the  wife  a  widow,  and  the  children  orphans,  were  left  to 
mourn  their  irreparable  loss,  and  were  thrown  upon  the  cold  charities  of 
the  world  almost  friendless  and  penniless,  to  make  their  way  through  life  as 


118  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

best  they  could,  poor  and  neglected.  But  duty  forbids  that  I  should  be  influ 
enced  by  the  contemplation  of  this  scene  of  misery  on  either  side.  The  laws 
must  be  vindicated,  and  crime  must  be  punished,  or  society  cannot  be  pro 
tected,  and  Courts  and  Juries  must  be  sustained  in  the  administration  and 
execution  of  'the  criminal  laws  of  the  land,  or  violence  and  bloodshed  will 
prevail  to  an  extent  that  will  excite  and  prompt  our  people  to  take  the 
law  into  their  own  hands,  in  the  belief  that  it  is  the  only  protection 
left  them. 

"  I  am  not  unmindful,  while  making  this  decision,  that  the  pardoning 
power  is  a  necessary  one  in  every  well  regulated  government,  and  that  there 
are  some  cases  in  which  it  ought  to  be  exercised,  as  in  cases  of  partiality, 
prejudice,  or  highly  excited  feelings  on  the  part  of  the  Court  or  Jury  by 
whom  the  case  was  tried,  rendering  it  highly  probable  that  injustice  was 
done  the  defendant,  or  on  account  of  perjury  or  mistake  on  the  part  of  the 
witnesses  for  the  State,  which  is  afterwards  discovered,  and  which  may  have 
materially  influenced  the  verdict  against  the  defendant,  or  in  cases  of  con 
viction  upon  such  slight  evidence  that  the  mind  is  left  in  great  doubt  about 
the  guilt  of  the  defendant,  or  in  cases  of  extreme  youth, — in  these  and  pos 
sibly  a  few  other  instances  when  injustice  is  likely  to  be  done,  and  when 
the  remedy  is  no  longer  within  the  reach  of  the  Courts,  the  humanity  of  our 
Constitution  has  wisely  vested  in  another  department  of  the  government 
ample  power  to  prevent  the  injustice,  by  extending  a  pardon,  and  thus 
arresting  the  judgment  of  the  Court.  But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
this  power  is  subject  to  be  greatly  abused,  and  that  it  was  not  the  intention 
of  those  who  formed  our  Constitution,  that  the  verdicts  of  Juries  and  the 
judgments  of  Courts  should  be  indiscriminately  annulled  by  its  exercise,  and 
felons  convicted  of  atrocious  crimes  thereby  turned  loose  again  upon  the 
community;  the  extension  of  mercy  to  such  offenders  is  the  infliction  of 
cruelty  and  injustice  upon  society.  I  am  also  aware  that  it  is  argued  that 
the  pardoning  power  is  a  Godlike  power,  and  that  it  is  noble  to  exercise  it. 
But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  when  this  argument  is  used,  that  God  himself 
required  no  less  than  the  blood  of  his  own  Son  as  an  atonement  for  sin 
before  he  exercised  the  pardoning  power,  and  *  without  the  shedding  of 
blood  is  no  remission,'  is  the  language  of  his  eternal  truth.  £od  has  said 
in  his  revealed  law,  that  *  the  murderer  shall  surely  be  put  to  death,'  '  more 
over  ye  shall  take  no  satisfaction  for  the  life  of  a  murderer  which  is  guilty 
of  death  :  but  he  shall  be  surely  put  to  death.  So  ye  shall  not  pollute  the 
land  whereon  ye  are,  for  blood  it  defileth  the  land,  and  the  land  cannot  be 
cleansed  of  the  blood  that  is  shed  therein,  but  by  the  blood  of  him  that  shed 
it.'  If  then  we  would  respect  the  revelation  of  God,  and  save  our  land  from 
the  stain  of  innocent  blood,  we  must  execute  the  law  and  punish  the  guilty. 
Some  may  say  that  the  stern  truths  of  the  Bible  are  not  suited  to  the 
humanity  and  sympathy  of  the  present  age ;  they  are  none  the  less  truths, 
however,  on  that  account,  and  it  is  none  the  less  certain  that  the  curse  of 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  119 

God  will  rest  upon  that  State  or  nation  which  disregards  them,  and  that 
his  blessings  will  attend  those  who  obey  them." 

The  pardon  failing,  for  the  want  of  a  two-third  vote 
over  the  veto,  the  pending  writ  of  error  was  prosecuted 
in  the  supreme  court,  and  the  conviction  was  affirmed. 
In  the  Legislature,  a  year  later,  a  bill  was  passed  to  pardon 
him,  and  place  him  in  the  lunatic  asylum.  This  bill  was 
also  vetoed  by  the  Governor,  on  the  grounds  that  the 
supreme  court  had  reviewed  an'd  pronounced  upon  the 
whole  case,  and  thoroughly  considered  the  law  of  insanity 
in  its  application  to  this  case.  And  upon  the  further 
ground  that  there  was  no  power  in  the  Legislature  to 
adjudge  him  a  lunatic,  and  commit  him  to  the  asylum, 
which  could  only  be  legally  done  by  the  court  having 
jurisdiction  of  the  case.  This  bill  was  passed  over  the 
veto,  and  Choice  sent  for  a  short  time  to  the  asylum, 
and  died  there. 

BANKS  AND  BANKING. 

November  5, 1857,  the  retiring  Governor  Johnson  com 
municated  to  the  Legislature  in  his  general  message  : — 

"  In  the  midst  of  prosperity  and  remunerating  prices  for  the  products  of 
agriculture,  our  banks  have  generally  suspended  specie  payments,  resulting 
in  panic,  broken  confidence,  and  general  stagnation  in  commerce.  As  the 
session  of  the  General  Assembly  was  so  near  at  hand,  and  the  suspension 
seemed  to  be  necessary,  as  a  measure  of  self-defence  against  the  heavy  drafts 
upon  their  coin,  to  supply  the  demand  for  specie  at  the  North,  I  thought  it 
prudent  to  withhold  any  action  against  them,  as  required  by  law,  until  the 
Legislature,  in  its  wisdom,  should  have  an  opportunity  of  deliberating  upon 
the  matter,  and  directing  what  course  ought  to  be  pursued  towards  them.  I 
therefore  submit  this  whole  subject  to  your  consideration ;  and  to  enable  you 
to  act  advisedly,  I  herewith  transmit  to  you  copies  of  the  late  returns  of  the 
various  banks  of  Georgia,  exhibiting  their  condition,  made  in  pursuance  of 
executive  proclamation.  It  is  gratifying  that  these  statements  afford  evi 
dence  of  their  solvency.  Will  you  legalize  their  suspension  and  fix  a  day  in 
the  future  when  they  shall  resume  specie  payments?  As  a  general  rule,  it 
is  safest  to  meddle  as  little  as  possible  with  the  currency  of  the  country. 
The  laws  of  trade  regulate  it  best.  Hence,  in  view  of  the  crisis  that  is  upon 


120  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

us,  complicated,  as  it  is,  with  the  interests  of  agriculture,  and  the  price  of  its 
productions,  it  would  seem  to  be  wise  to  tolerate  the  suspension,  in  reference 
to  all  those  institutions,  which,  upon  examination,  shall  prove  to  be  sound 
and  solvent.  It  is  not  only  legitimate,  but  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  to  in 
vestigate  thoroughly  the  condition  of  the  banks;  to  institute  a  diligent 
enquiry  into  their  mode  of  transacting  business,  and,  by  the  use  of  all  the 
powers — even  to  sending  for  persons  and  papers — which  may  be  necessary  to 
ascertain  whether  they  have  confined  their  operations  strictly  within  their 
appropriate  spheres,  or  whether  they  have  embarked  in  speculations,  by  plac 
ing  their  funds  in  New  York,  to  shave  southern  paper  at  a  heavy  discount, 
or  in  any  other  manner  departed  from  the  objects  contemplated  by  their 
charters.  It  is  due  to  the  country  that  a  full  exposition  be  made ;  it  is  the 
only  manner  in  which  the  public  can  be  protected.  If  such  abuses  shall  be  de 
tected,  let  the  Legislature,  in  granting  them  tolerance  in  their  present  predica 
ment,  put  them  upon  terms  which  will  prevent  their  recurrence  for  the  future." 

This  message  came  from  one  of  the  most  able  and  pop 
ular  governors  the  State  has  had,  and  it  was  natural  for 
the  General  Assembly  to  follow  its  suggestions,  by  the 
passage  of  an  act  to  legalize  the  bank  suspensions,  and 
relieve  them  from  the  forfeiture  of  their  charters,  to  which 
by  suspension,  they  became  liable.  And  the  passage  of 
the  legalizing  act  recommended,  developed  in  the  young 
Governor  a  trait  of  character  and  a  firmness  in  the  face 
of  the  moneyed  corporations  of  the  State  that  drew  to 
him  the  admiration  of  the  people.  His  attempt  to  throt 
tle  the  banks,  and  to  force  them  like  individuals  to  obey 
the  laws  of  the  State,  was  a  sublime  exhibition  of  moral 
courage,  and  imbedded  him  securely  in  their  confidence, 
while  it  arrayed  against  him  a  monetary  power  and  politi 
cal  influence  that  were  well  calculated  to  deter  weak  and 
timid  men.  His  terrible  review  of  banks  and  banking  in 
this  State,  in  reply  to  their  pleas  for  suspending  specie 
payments,  in  the  veto  message,  to  which  no  successful 
reply  could  be  made,  is  one  of  the  State  papers  that  will 
do  to  be  read  in  any  country,  or  stage  of  civilized  gov 
ernment,  by  people  seeking  the  height  of  truth  and  jus- 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  121 

tice.  The  document  is  elaborate  and  exhaustive.  The 
foundation,  premises,  and  conclusions  are  in  the  following 
extracts : — 

"  Our  banking  institutions  have  exclusive  privileges  conferred  upon  them 
by  law  which  are  very  valuable,  and  which  the  laboring  masses  are  pro 
hibited  under  a  heavy  penalty  from  exercising  upon  the  same  terms  upon 
which  the  banks  exercise  them.  The  banks  are  permitted  by  law,  without 
bond  or  security,  to  loan  their  credit,  or,  in  other  words,  their  own  notes  as 
money,  and  to  charge  interest  upon  them.  The  laboring  man,  whatever  may 
be  his  occupation,  is  denied  this  privilege,  and  is  subject  to  indictment  and 
punishment  as  a  criminal  if  he  attempts  to  exercise  it.  He  can  receive  in 
terest  only  upon  the  capital  which  is  the  income  of  his  labor ;  and  upon  this 
he  is  permitted  to  charge  only  legal  interest,  or  seven  per  cent,  per  annum. 
The  laboring  masses  produce  the  capital.  Indeed,  all  capital  is  the  result 
of  labor;  and  that  system  of  legislation  which  establishes  a  favored  class,  and 
confers  upon  them  privileges  denied  to  others,  by  which  they  are  enabled  to 
enrich  themselves  by  taking  from  the  laboring  masses  the  income  of  their 
labor,  is  not  only  unjust,  but  contrary  to  the  genius  and  spirit  of  our  gov 
ernment. 

"  I  affirm  that  our  banks,  which  have  suspended  and  so  continue,  are  guilty 
of  a  high  commercial,  moral,  and  legal  crime.  Of  a  commercial  crime,  be 
cause  they  have  brought  the  present  crisis  upon  the  people  for  selfish  pur 
poses,  when  there  was  no  great  necessity,  and  when  by  spending  a  few  thou 
sand  dollars  of  their  immense  profits  in  the  purchase  of  specie  the  suspension 
could  easily  have  been  avoided.  By  refusing  to  do  this  they  have  destroyed 
public  confidence,  deranged  commerce,  caused  our  great  staple  to  fall  several 
cents  on  the  pound,  by  which  our  planters  have  sustained  a  loss  of  several 
millions  of  dollars,  and  the  value  of  property  throughout  the  State  has  greatly 
depreciated.  The  credit  of  the  State  abroad  has  been  injured,  while  general 
distrust  and  depression  have  been  the  result.  They  have  been  guilty  of  a 
moral  crime  by  violating  their  contract  with  the  people,  in  refusing  to  meet 
their  solemn  promises  when  they  acknowledge,  nay,  even  boast  of  their  ability 
to  do  so,  thereby  doing  the  grossest  injustice  to  the  laboring  masses  who  have 
confided  in  them  and  been  deceived  by  them.  They  have  been  guilty  of  a 
legal  crime  by  wilfully  and  knowingly  violating  and  setting  at  open  defiance 
a  positive  statute  of  the  State,  making  the  price  of  our  property,  the  price  of 
labor,  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the  people,  and  the  law  of  the  State  all 
bend  to  their  interest.  They  are  governed  solely  by  their  interest,  and  it  is 
their  interest,  in  times  of  prosperity  to  expand  and  extend  their  circulation, 
raise  the  price  of  property,  stimulate  a  spirit  of  speculation  and  involve  the 
country  in  their  debt  as  much  as  possible. 

#  *  *  * 

"  In  1840,  while  the  people  were  passing  through  one  of  those  periods  of 


122  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEOEGIA 

distress  above  alluded  to,  they  determined  to  protect  themselves,  if  possible, 
against  such  a  state  of  things  in  future ;  and,  through  their  representatives, 
they  passed  a  law  requiring  the  banks  which  had  suspended  to  resume  spe 
cie  payment  within  less  than  two  months  after  the  passage  of  the  Act  and 
requiring  all  the  banks  of  this  State  in  future  to  redeem  all  their  liabilities 
in  specie,  on  demand  or  presentation — while  forfeiture  of  the  charter  was  pro 
vided  as  the  penalty  for  a  violation  of  the  law.  The  people  relying  upon  this 
plain  statute,  as  well  as  the  common  law  which  takes  away  the  charter  of  a 
corporation  which  abuses  the  trust  and  palpably  violates  the  contract  upon 
which  the  charter  was  obtained,  supposed  they  were  secure  against  further 
bank  suspensions.  On  account  of  the  value  of  their  corporate  privileges  it 
was  believed  that  motives  of  interest  would  prompt  the  banks  to  make,  out 
of  their  large  gains,  a  sacrifice,  if  need  be,  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  pro 
cure  the  specie  and  redeem  their  bills  to  save  their  charters.  It  was  not  then 
believed  that  the  banks  would  have  the  power  to  violate  the  law  with  im 
punity,  and  to  dictate  the  terms  of  their  own  pardon.  Since  the  passage  of 
the  Act  of  1840,  the  number  of  banks  and  the  amount  of  banking  capital  in 
the  State  have  greatly  increased.  As  their  number  and  capital  have  increased, 
their  power  in  the  State  and  their  influence  over  the  legislation  of  the  country 
have  increased.  Who  has  not  observed  within  the  last  few  years  the  increas 
ing  influence  of  our  wealthy  corporations  over  our  Legislature  ?  When  their 
interest  is  at  stake,  outside  pressure  becomes  very  strong  upon  the  law-mak 
ing  power  and  is  too  sensibly  felt. 

"  If  the  suspension  is  legalized  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  banks  have 
triumphed  over  the  people  and  set  the  law  at  defiance.  They  have  made  at 
once  the  interest  upon  the  whole  amount  of  their  circulation  for  the  entire 
period  of  the  suspension.  They  receive  interest  upon  all  their  bills ;  they 
pay  no  interest  and  cannot  be  compelled  to  redeem  the  bills.  It  is  no  reply 
to  say  that  they  may  be  sued  and  compelled  to  pay  interest  after  protest,  and 
ten  per  cent,  damages.  The  bills  are  scattered  all  over  the  State  in  the 
hands  of  the  people,  in  small  sums,  and  not  one  in  fifty  has  an  amount  of  the 
bills  of  any  one  bank  large  enough  to  justify  him  in  employing  a  lawyer  in 
Augusta  or  Savannah,  and  standing  a  suit  with  the  bank.  Better  give  up 
the  debt  in  many  cases  than  incur  the  expense,  trouble,  and  delay.  Legalize 
the  suspension  and  the  bills  still  further  depreciate,  property  falls  lower,  and 
exchange  rises  higher.  The  country  has  no  currency  but  depreciated  bills, 
(for  the  banks  will  lock  up  all  the  gold  and  silver  in  their  vaults)  and  we 
have  no  means  of  determining  which  banks  are  solvent,  and  which  are  in 
solvent.  At  the  time  set  for  them  to  resume  the  insolvent  banks  would  be 
unable  to  do  so.  During  the  suspension  they  would  have  flooded  the  country 
with  their  bills  and  the  failure  would  then  fall  much  more  heavily  upon  the 
people  than  it  would  if  they  were  wound  up  now  before  they  have  time  to  in 
crease  the  circulation  of  their  worthless  bills.  If  they  are  not  good  the  sooner 
the  test  is  made,  and  the  fact  known,  the  better  for  us  all.  If  they  are  good, 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  123 

they  can  buy  gold  and  resume  specie  payment.    If  they  do  not,  let  their 
charters  be  forfeited." 

The  General  Assembly,  although  Democratic,  was  not 
apace  with  the  pioneer  Governor  in  his  attempt  to  execute 
the  law  upon  banks,  and  to  protect  the  people.  He 
was  in  this,  as  in  many  other  respects,  living  in  advance 
of  even  the  higher  classes  of  intelligent  leaders,  who  re 
garded  the  summary  course  he  recommended  harsh  and 
hurtful  in  its  certain  effects  on  commerce,  credit,  and  the 
general  business  of  the  country.  They  overruled  his 
veto  and  passed  the  suspension  Act ;  but  behind  the  legis 
lators  stood  the  people  in  almost  solid  phalanx  with  their 
heroic  Governor.  The  banks  felt  that  the  Executive  was, 
when  true  to  the  trusts  of  his  high  office,  a  power  in  the 
State  not  to  be  scoffed  or  derided,  but  to  be  obeyed  and 
respected  when  charged  with  the  duty  of  protection  to 
the  people. 

The  Act  granted  them  until  the  15th  of  November,  1858, 
to  resume ;  but  the  voice  of  the  people  and  the  odium  of 
suspension  in  the  face  of  the  statute  of  the  State  caused 
the  resumption  by  the  first  of  May  preceding. 

In  the  general  message  of  November,  1858,  after  stat 
ing  the  history  and  effect  of  this  bank  controversy  the 
Governor  says  : — 

"  For  the  purpose  of  compelling  these  corporations  to  yield  obedience  to 
the  law  in  future,  I  respectfully  recommend  the  penalty  for  disobedience  be 
increased,  and  in  addition  to  the  penalty  already  prescribed,  that  a  tax  of  two 
per  cent,  a  mouth  upon  the  whole  amount  of  the  capital  stock  mentioned  in 
the  charter  of  each  delinquent  bank  be  levied  and  collected  in  gold  and  sil 
ver  for  the  entire  time  during  which  any  such  bank  may  in  future  remain 
in  a  state  of  disobedience,  and  fail  to  make  its  returns  as  directed  by  the 
statutes.  There  can  be  no  just  reasons  why  wealthy  corporations  should  be 
permitted  at  their  pleasure  to  set  the  law  at  defiance,  while  individuals  are 
compelled  to  suffer  rigorous  penalties  for  its  violation.  The  mandates  of  the 
law  should  be  obeyed  as  promptly  and  implicitly  by  the  most  influential  and 


124  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

wealthy  as  by  the  poorest  and  most  needy.  This  is  republican  equality,  and 
our  people  should  be  content  with  nothing  else. 

I  presume  it  will  not  be  denied  by  any  one  that  we  have  erred  by  a  too 
liberal  and  unguarded  grant  of  corporate  powers  and  privileges  to  moneyed 
monopolies.  And  it  is  believed  that  a  future  extension  of  this  policy  would 
soon  enable  these  monopolies  to  control  the  government  of  Georgia  and  make 
the  people  the  subjects  of  their  power.  It  is  already  claimed  by  some  that 
they  now  have  the  power,  by  combinations  and  free  use  of  large  sums  of 
money,  to  control  the  political  conventions  and  elections  of  our  State,  and  in 
this  way  to  crush  those  who  may  have  the  independence  to  stand  by  the 
rights  of  the  people  in  opposition  to  their  aggressive  power.  I  trust  that 
the  bold,  independent  and  patriotic  people  of  Georgia  may  never  be  compelled 
to  bow  the  neck  in  subjection  to  the  yoke  thus  intended  to  be  imposed  by 
the  corporate  powers  of  the  State.  Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  however,  by 
those  who  have  watched  with  anxiety  the  growing  power  of  corporate  influ 
ence,  that  the  price  of  republican  liberty  is  perpetual  vigilance. 

"  The  monetary  and  commercial  affairs  of  the  country  must  necessarily  re 
main  subject  to  panics,  under  heavy  pressures,  at  certain,  if  not  frequent 
intervals,  as  long  as  our  present  banking  system  is  continued  with  its  enor 
mous  powers  and  privileges,  which  have  been  enlarged  and  extended  by 
legislative  enactment,  chartering  new  banks  from  year  to  year.  The  people 
should  take  this  subject  into  serious  consideration,  and  pronounce  upon  it  a 
calm  and  deliberate  judgment.  Every  intelligent  person  must  admit  that 
it  is  impossible  for  a  bank  having  a  paper  circulation  three  times  as  large  as 
the  amount  of  its  specie  to  redeem  all  its  bills  in  specie  on  demand.  Should 
all  its  bills  be  presented  for  payment  at  any  one  time,  and  the  specie  be  de 
manded,  it  can  then  redeem  but  one-third  of  them.  In  that  case,  if  the  bank 
has  sufficient  assets,  or  property,  the  other  two-thirds  may  possibly  not  be  an 
ultimate  loss,  but  payment  must  be  delayed  till  the  money  can  be  realized  by 
a  disposition  of  those  assets  and  property,  which  may  not  be  till  the  end  of  a 
lengthy  and  uncertain  litigation.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  our  present  pa 
per  currency  is  not  a  currency  convertible,  at  all  times,  into  gold  and  silver 
upon  presentation ;  and  that  only  one-third  of  it,  should  payment  be  demanded 
on  all  at  one  time,  can,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  so  convertible,  so  long  as 
the  banks  issue  three  dollars  in  paper  for  one  in  coin. 

"In  my  judgment,  no  paper  currency  is  safe  which  is  not  so  regulated  as 
to  be  at  all  times  readily  convertible  into  gold  and  silver.  It  is  true,  our  people, 
by  a  sort  of  common  consent,  receive  the  bills  of  the  banks  and  use  them  as 
money,  though  in  reality  they  rest  on  no  solid  specie  basis.  But  sad  experi 
ence  has  taught  us  that  such  a  circulating  medium  subjects  the  country  to 
panic  at  the  first  breath  of  distrust  or  suspicion,  which  may  be  produced  by 
the  failure  of  a  single  bank  having  a  large  circulation  and  extensive  connec 
tions  with  other  banks,  and  may  widen  and  extend  to  the  prostration  of  the 
credit  of  the  whole  country.  Such  a  currency,  having  no  solid  specie  basis, 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  125 

can  be  available  only  so  long  as  the  community  will  consent  to  receive  promi 
ses  to  pay  money  in  the  place  of  money  itself. 

"  The  people  take  from* the  banks  their  bills  as  money.  The  banks  re 
ceive  interest,  and  often  exchange,  upon  them.  When  required  to  redeem 
their  bills  in  specie,  they  suspend,  if  they  choose  to  do  so;  and  then,  if  an  at 
tempt  is  made  to  coerce  payment  in  specie,  they  resist  it,  holding  a  rod  over  the 
people  by  threatening  to  make  them  pay  upon  a  specie  basis  debts  contracted 
by  them  for  the  bills  of  the  bank ;  notwithstanding  those  bills,  when  they 
received  them,  rested  on  a  basis  of  one-third  specie.  The  high  prerogative 
of  exercising  banking  privileges,  and  of  issuing  their  own  notes  or  bills  to  be 
circulated  as  money,  not  resting  upon  any  solid  specie  basis,  is  secured  to  the 
banks  under  our  present  system  of  legislation  as  an  exclusive  right,  while  the 
exercise  of  similar  privileges  upon  like  terms  is  denied  to  all  individual  citi 
zens  of  the  State  by  stringent  penal  enactments. 

"  The  privilege  of  using  their  own  notes  as  money  gives,  to  the  favored  few 
who  enjoy  it,  immense  advantages  over  their  fellow-citizens,  and  may  often 
enable  the  managers  of  these  corporations  to  amass  great  wealth  by  their 
high  salaries  and  large  profits.  It  may  however  be  said  that  many  of  the 
stockholders  are  widows  and  orphans ;  that  the  stock  is  in  the  market  for 
all ;  and  that  the  dividends  are  not  greater  than  the  profits  realized  from 
other  investments.  This  may  be  admitted.  Indeed,  it  seems  in  practice  to 
be  generally  true,  that  corporate  privileges  do  not  result  so  much  to  the  bene 
fit  of  the  mass  of  stockholders  as  to  the  benefit  of^  the  few  who  manage  the 
corporation.  To  estimate  correctly  the  profits  made  out  of  the  people  by 
those  engaged  in  banking,  we  must  not  only  count  the  dividends  of  seven, 
eight  or  ten  per  cent,  distributed  among  the  stockholders,  but  we  must  also 
take  into  the  account  the  banking  houses,  real  estate  and  other  property 
purchased  out  of  the  profits  of  the  bank  and  held  by  the  corporation. 
Besides,  we  should  consider  a  reserved  fund  of  two,  three,  or  four  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  made  up  of  accumulated  profits,  and  often  kept  back  by 
our  larger  banks  and  not  distributed  among  the  stockholders,  together  with 
the  high  salaries  of  all  the  officers  of  the  bank,  which  must  be  paid  before 
any  dividends  are  distributed.  These  sums,  though  made  out  of  the  people 
by  the  banks,  are  not  semi-annually  divided  among  the  stockholders.  To 
these  add  all  sums  paid  to  attorneys,  agents,  etc.,  and  all  amounts  lost  by 
defaulting  agents,  which,  while  they  cannot  be  set  down  as  profits  of  the 
corporation,  since  neither  its  officers  proper  nor  its  stockholders  are  bene 
fited  thereby,  are  still  sums  of  money  which,  under  the  workings  of  the  sys 
tem,  are  drawn  by  the  corporation  from  the  pockets  of  the  people. 

"  To  all  this  add  the  large  sums  lost  almost  every  year  on  account  of 
broken  banks,  whose  bills  are  left  worthless  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  who 
have  paid  full  price  for  them  as  money.  And  take  into  the  account  the 
further  fact  that  the  State,  in  1848  and  1849,  issued  $515,000  of  her  bonds, 
to  meet  her  liabilities  on  account  of  the  Central  bank,  $240,000  of  which 


126  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEOKGIA 

are  still  outstanding.  And  that  in  1855,  she  issued  $48,500  of  bonds  to  pay 
her  indebtedness  on  account  of  the  Darien  bank,  which  are  still  unpaid, 
making  $288,500  of 'bonds  on  account  of  these  two  banks  which  still  remain 
a  portion  of  the  public  debt,  the  interest  upon  which  is  paid  annually  out  of 
the  taxes  of  the  people — and  we  may  form  some  estimate  of  the  amounts 
which  the  people  of  Georgia  have  paid  and  continue  to  pay  in  taxes,  and 
suffer  in  losses,  to  sustain  the  banking  system. 

'*  Again,  in  many  instances,  those  who  control  the  corporation  may  have 
great  advantages  in  being  able,  if  they  choose,  to  obtain  such  accommoda 
tions  as  they  may  desire,  by  the  use  of  its  funds,  when  a  favorable  oppor 
tunity  for  speculation  occurs.  The  dividends  paid  to  stockholders  are 
therefore  no  proper  criterion  by  which  to  judge  of  the  advantages  of  the 
corporation  to  those  who  hold  its  offices,  and  control  and  manage  its  capital 
and  its  operations  ;  or  of  the  sums  lost  by  the  people  on  account  of  the  work 
ings  of  the  system. 

"  Thus  far  I  have  discussed  this  question  upon  the  supposition  that  the 
liabilities  do  not  exceed  three  dollars  for  every  one  of  specie  actually  on 
hand  in  the  banks  to  meet  and  satisfy  them.  This  supposition  is  more 
favorable  to  many  of  the  banks  than  facts  will  justify.  The  law  of  their 
charters  only  requires  that  their  liabilities  shall  not  exceed  three  dollars  for 
every  one  of  capital  stock  actually  pa  id  in  and  not  three  dollars  for  every  one 
of  specie  on  hand  to  meet  those  liabilities.  As  an  illustration  of  the  error 
of  our  present  legislation  in  incorporating  banks,  suppose  the  amount  of  the 
capital  stock  of  the  bank  *be  limited  by  the  charter  to  $500,000  which  is  to  be 
paid  in,  in  gold  and  silver,  by  the  stockholders.  The  charter  then  provides 
that  the  liabilities  of  the  bank  shall  at  no  time  exceed  three  times  the 
amount  of  the  capital  stock  actually  paid  in.  The  stockholders  paid  in  the 
$500,000  in  gold  and  silver.  The  directors  of  the  bank  may  then,  without 
any  violation  of  the  letter  of  the  charter,  incur  liabilities  against  the  bank  to 
any  amount  that  does  not  exceed  $1,500,000 ;  and  that  too,  without  any 
obligation  on  their  part  to  keep  in  their  vaults  the  $500,000  actually  paid  in, 
or  a  like  sum.  If  they  should  take  out  $400,000  of  their  specie  and  invest 
it  in  real  estate  or  other  property,  leaving  but  $100,000  of  specie  in  the 
vaults,  they  may  still  contract  debts  to  the  amount  of  a  million  and  a  half, 
and  may  point  in  triumph  to  the  language  of  their  charter,  and  to  the  fact 
that  the  $500,000  of  capital  stock  was  once  actually  paid  in,  as  their  author 
ity  for  so  doing. 

"  This  bank  legislation  of  our  State  does  not  seem  to  have  been  well  under 
stood  by  our  people.  They  have  generally  believed  that  banks,  by  the  let 
ter  of  their  charters,  were  required  to  have  on  hand  at  all  times  an  amount 
of  specie  one-third  as  large  as  the  entire  amount  of  their  liabilities.  The 
banks  have  understood  the  matter  very  differently,  arid  have  not  only 
claimed,  but  exercised  the  right  when  they  regarded  it  their  interest,  to  ex 
tend  their  liabilities  far  beyond  three  dollars  for  every  one  of  specie  actually 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWK  127 

on  hand  to  meet  those  liabilities.  By  examination  of  their  returns  made  to 
this  department  in  October,  1857,  it  will  be  seen  that  at  the  time  of  the  late 
suspension  of  our.  banks  in  Augusta  and  Savannah,  the  liabilities  of  one  of 
them  for  bills  in  circulation  and  individual  deposits,  exceeded  thirteen  dollars 
for  every  one  dollar  of  both  specie  and  bills  of  other  banks  which  it  then 
had  on  hand.  Another  had  only  one  dollar  in  specie  in  its  vaults  for  every 
ffteen  dollars  of  its  liabilities  for  bills  in  circulation  and  deposits.  Another 
had  not  one  dollar  in  specie  for  every  seven  of  liability  for  bills  in  circulation 
and  deposits  ;  and  another  had  only  one  dollar  in  specie  for  every  eleven  dol 
lars  of  its  liabilities  of  the  character  mentioned  above.  It  is  true  these 
banks  had  other  assets,  bat  those  assets  were  not  money.  The  question 
naturally  suggests  itself,  how  can  such  a  currency  be  convertible  into  gold  and 
silver — the  money  of  the  constitution — on  demand  or  presentation?  How  can 
a  bank  vrith  ffteen  dollars  of  cash  liabilities  for  every  one  dollar  in  specie,  or 
even  of  five  dollars  for  one,  pay  its  liabilities  promptly  on  demand  ?  It  is 
impossible.  And  how  can  its  bills  be  justly  considered  safe  as  a  circulating 
medium,  or  as  money,  if  it  cannot  redeem  them  promptly  on  demand  ? 

"  In  consideration  of  all  the  imperfections  and  abuses  of  our  present  bank 
ing  system,  I  am  of  opinion  that  we  should  do  all  in  our  power  to  bring  about 
its  complete  reformation,  and  if  this  be  not  possible,  we  should  abandon  it 
entirely.  I  am  the  advocate  of  no  harsh  measure  that  would  either  violate 
the  legal  rights  of  the  present  corporations  (however  unwisely  they  were 
granted),  or  that  would  bring  distress  upon  the  people  by  a  sudden  return 
from  a  paper  to  a  specie  currency.  A  reformation  so  radical,  if  attempted, 
must  be  the  work  of  years.  If  the  Legislature  would  continually  refuse  to 
charter  any  new  bank,  or  to  enlarge  the  capital  stock  of,  or  re-charter  any 
bank  now  in  existence,  the  system  would  gradually  work  itself  out  by  efflux 
of  time ;  and  we  might,  without  any  sudden  shock,  return  safely  to  the  cur 
rency  of  the  constitution,  plant  ourselves  upon  a  firm  specie  basis,  and  rid 
ourselves  of  a  system  against  which  the  great  and  good  men  who  conducted 
the  revolution  and  formed  our  constitution  intended  to  guard  their  posterity, 
when  they  declared  in  the  constitution  that  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  coin 
should  be  made  a  legal  tender. 

"  In  two  of  the  States  of  this  Union  banks  are  prohibited  by  constitutional 
provision ;  two  others  have  no  banks,  and  another  had  but  two  small  banks, 
whose  charters,  it  is  said,  have  been  forfeited  by  the  late  suspension.  And  I 
am  informed  upon  what  I  consider  reliable  authority,  that  the  late  com 
mercial  pressure  was  comparatively  but  little  felt  within  the  limits  of  those 
States. 

"Should  our  people  determine,  however,  to  continue  the  present  banking 
system,  and  to  charter  new  banks,  increasing  their  number  and  thereby  in 
creasing  their  power  in  the  State,  I  would  respectfully  urge  the  importance 
of  guarding  all  charters  with  much  greater  stringency  in  the  future.  Let 
the  charter  of  each  provide  that  the  entire  liabilities  of  the  bank  shall  at  no 


128         GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA. 

time  exceed  three  dollars  for  every  one  of  specie  actually  in  its  vaults  and 
bona  fide  the  property  of  the  bank,  on  pain  of  immediate  forfeiture.  Let 
the  simple  fact  of  suspension  of  specie  payment  render  the  charter  absolutely 
null  and  void.  This  would  deter  them  from  engaging  in  such  wild  specula 
tions  and  over-issues  as  compel  them  to  suspend  in  case  of  pressure.  Let 
provision  also  be  made  that  all  executions  issued  against  the  corporation  may 
be  levied  upon  the  property  of  any  stockholder  until  the  creditor  be  satisfied, 
leaving  the  stockholder  to  his  legal  remedies  against  the  rest  of  the  stock 
holders  to  enforce  contribution  among  themselves.  Let  the  bills  of  the  bank 
in  the  hands  of  the  people  at  the  time  of  suspension  bear  interest  from  that 
time  till  paid.  And  let  the  Legislature  retain  the  right,  by  express  reserva 
tion  in  the  charter,  to  alter,  modify,  or  repeal  it  at  pleasure.  In  my  opinion 
it  would  be  best  for  the  Legislature  to  refuse  to  grant  a  charter  to  any  cor 
poration  for  any  purpose  whatever  without  retaining  a  similar  power,  should 
its  exercise  be  required  by  the  interests  of  the  State  or  the  public  good.  If 
the  corporation  .is  unwilling  to  trust  the  people  with  this  repealing  power, 
Jiow  much  more  should  the  people  be  unwilling  to  trust  the  corporation 
without  it." 

Two  years  later,  when  the  then  recent  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  the  abolition  candidate,  as  president,  rendered 
secession  and  revolution  probable,  and  when  the  State 
was  preparing  for  a  convention  to  determine  her  course, 
the  banks  again  sought  relief  by  an  Act  to  legalize  their 
suspension. 

On  the  30th  of  November,  1860  :  "  For  the  general  rea 
sons  against  bank  suspensions  contained  in  the  message  of 
December,  1857,"  he  returned  the  Bill  without  approval 
in  an  elaborate  message  setting  forth  the  history  of  the 
question  and  the  results. 

The  following  extracts  show  the  firmness  and  nerve  of 
the  Governor  in  the  maintenance  of  his  opinion  of  right : — 

"  The  suspension  of  specie  payment  by  the  banks  is  not  for  the  benefit  of 
the  banks  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  people !  The  constant  efforts  made  by 
bank  men  to  practise  upon  popular  credulity,  by  the  declaration  of  this 
strange  absurdity,  are  not  a  little  remarkable.  If  this  be  true  why  is  it,  when 
such  a  measure  is  to  be  carried,  that  our  lobbies  are  crowded  with  bank  presi 
dents,  bank  directors  and  bank  stockholders  who  are  constantly  besieging 
the  members  of  the  General  Assembly  with  clamorous  appeals  for  the  passage 


UNDEK  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  129 

of  the  bill,  while  the  banks  with  which  they  are  connected  co-operate  with 
them  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  up  the  excitement  by  refusing  to  extend  the 
smallest' accommodation  to  the  people  till  the  bill  is  passed?  Why  is  it  that 
these  gentlemen  never  take  upon  themselves  to  guard  the  people's  interest 
and  spend  money  to  secure  the  passage  of  bills  through  the  Legislature,  ex 
cept  when  it  is  desirable  to  pass  a  bank  suspension  bill?  This  is  not  the  first 
time  I  have  seen  all  their  influences  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Legislature 
for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  an  object  in  the  midst  of  wild  excitement 
and  great  alarm.  The  small  number  of  members  of  the  present  General 
Assembly  who  were  here  in  1857,  and  voted  for  the  bank  bill  of  that  year, 
will,  I  think,  concur  with  me  in  the  statement,  that  the  excitement  at  the 
capitol  in  1857  was  much  greater  than  the  advocates  of  the  present  bill  have 
been  able  to  create  on  this  occasion.  The  people  then  did  not  appreciate 
the  favor  conferred  on  them  by  the  passage  of  the  law. 

*  *  *  • 

"It  may  be  claimed  that  the  present  political  aspect  of  affairs  requires  the 
legislation  proposed  by  this  bill.  In  case  the  convention  of  the  people  of  this 
State,  when  it  meets  in  January  next,  shall  pass  an  ordinance  declaring  the 
State  out  of  the  Union,  on  account  of  the  refusal  of  the  Northern  States  to 
abide  by  the  Constitution,  it  may  become  proper  to  make  an  exception  to  a 
general  rule,  and  permit  a  suspension  for  a  short  time :  as  a  change  in  the 
relations  of  Georgia  to  the  United  States'  Government  might,  for  a  time, 
produce  some  derangement  in  the  currency  which  could  not  be  anticipated 
by  the  banks;  and  they  might,  in  such  case,  be  entitled  to  a  lenity  to  which 
they  would  not  be  entitled  under  ordinary  circumstances.  I  do  not  admit, 
however,  that  it  is  either  wise  or  just  to  pass  an  Act  in  advance  which  au 
thorizes  the  suspension  till  1861,  without  regard  to  what  may  be  the  action 
of  the  convention.  If  the  State  secedes  from  the  Union,  the  Legislature  will 
probably  have  to  be  again  convened  to  provide  for  our  future  safety  and  wel 
fare  ;  and  it  might  then  be  time  enough  to  determine  this  question." 

The  General  Assembly,  yielding  to  the  clamor  for  relief 
and  fearing  the  injurious  effects  threatened,  passed  the  act 
over  the  veto. 

This  bank  controversy,  and  the  unyielding  opposition 
of  the  executive  to  everything  that  tended  to  result  in 
wrong  and  damage  to  the  people,  through  the  defalcation 
of  any  banking  companies,  is  one  important  part  of 
her  history,  which  in  connection  with  the  sleepless  vigi 
lance  over  the  treasury,  the  sagacious  management  of  the 
public  property  and  judicious  course  in  providing  for  and 


130  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

meeting  promptly  the  State's  debts,  gave  to  her  Gov 
ernor  a  measure  of  popular  confidence  and  ardor  of  pop 
ular  support  that  grew  and  strengthened  with  the 
severity  of  criticism,  and  the  vindictiveness  of  opposition 
from  his  enemies.  And  it  goes  far  to  explain  the  true 
causes  for  the  advanced  position  Georgia  held  among  her 
sister  Southern  States  in  credit,  the  value  of  her  bonds, 
and  the  confidence  of  financial  men  and  institutions 
abroad. 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  WESTERN  &  ATLANTIC  RAILROAD. 

This  great  public  work,  as  a  State  enterprise,  met  with 
strong  popular  opposition  from  its  inception  based  on  the 
Democratic  theory  of  opposition  to  internal  improvements 
by  the  general  government,  and  the  political  doctrine 
that  it  is  inequitable  and  unjust  to  tax  the  whole  people 
for  improvements  to  particular  sections,  and  for  the 
direct  benefit  of  only  a  portion  of  the  taxpayers.  The 
friends  and  advocates  of  the  road  replied  to  the  objec 
tions  by  picturing  the  effect  of  this  enterprise  when 
completed  upon  the  general  prosperity  of  the  State  and 
the  enhancement  of  values,  and  consequent  increase  of 
resources,  and  the  means  of  meeting  and  discharging 
the  State's  debts  contracted  for  the  building  and  equip 
ment  of  the  road,  by  the  opening  of  a  new  outlet  of  travel 
and  commerce  to  the  ocean  and  gulf  through  the  heart  of 
this  State. 

Under  the  rapid  historic  development  of  the  country 
within  the  State,  and  increase  of  trade  and  travel  from 
beyond  her  limits,  and  the  verification  of  the  theories  of 
the  projectors  and  advocates  of  the  road,  the  popular  pre 
judice  against  it  as  a  public  work  abated;  and  the  people 
realized  the  immense  value  and  benefit  they  had  acquired 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWN.  131 

through  the  superior  wisdom  of  the  men  they  had  opposed 
and  censured  for  incurring  State  debts  to  build  it. 

But  the  history  of  the  road,  the  financial  management 
of  it,' and  the  popular  feeling  growing  out  of  the  adverse 
criticisms  of  the  party  out  of  power,  and  not  enjoying  the 
emoluments  of  the  offices  and  contracts  which  the  party 
in  power  had  at  command  and  to  bestow,  had  precipitated 
difficulties,  and  great  perplexities,  to  the  immediate  prede 
cessors  of  Governor  Brown. 

The  personal  integrity  and  honesty  of  Governors 
Towns,  Cobb,  and  Johnson,  who  had  the  administration 
of  the  State  and  road  for  the  ten  years  preceding,  were 
beyond  all  question  by  candid  men.  Still,  in  spite  of  all 
vigilance  on  their  part,  complaints  against  them,  and 
against  the  Democratic  party  in  power  under  their  ad 
ministrations  of  partiality  and  favoritism  for  party 
purposes,  and  of  fraud  and  peculation,  and  private  specula 
tion  on  the'  part  of  officers  and  employees  were  rife, 
through  the  partisan  press,  in  public  orations,  and  private 
discussions  of  the  people.  The  road  was  held  up  to  the 
public  as  a  huge  and  overpowering  means  of  political 
and  partisan  power  and  control  over  the  people  in  elec 
tions,  through  the  influence  of  men  enjoying  and  seeking 
personal  advantage  and  gain. 

The  Democratic  masses  did  not  credit  the  charges  made 
against  their  Governors,  and  the  party  under  their  admin 
istrations  adhered  firmly  and  truly  to  the  integrity  of 
Governor  Johnson,  whose  purity  of  character  was  above 
all  suspicion  for  the  four  years  he  had  been  in  power. 
Still  the  people,  while  not  willing  to  quit  the  party  on 
account  of  individual  abuses  and  wrongs  brought  to  their 
attention,  earnestly  desired  some  system  of  reform  in  the 
administration  of  the  road,  that  would  quiet,  and  effect- 


132  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

ually  stop  the  clamors  of  the  opposition,  by  the  removal 
of  every  appearance  of  the  wrongs  complained  of.  Such 
was  the  public  temper  at  the  time  Governor  Johnson  re 
tired,  and  Governor  Brown  was  installed. 

He  had  resided  in  the  section  of  the  State  through 
which  the  road  was  located,  been  engaged  in  the  law 
practice,  and  presided  as  judge  when  its  affairs  had  been 
investigated,  and  had  been  called  on  as  a  Democratic 
leader  and  public  speaker  to  defend  his  party  against  the 
multitude  of  charges  made  against  its  management.  He 
not  only  knew  and  felt  the  public  temper  and  desire,  but 
understood  to  what  extent  there  was  just  cause  of  com 
plaint.  He  not  only  was  endowed  with  superior  compre 
hension  and  ability,  as  well  as  sleepless  vigilance  and  tire 
less  energy,  but  had  more  nerve,  moral  courage,  and 
inflexible  will  to  work  out  the  desired  reform  than  any  of 
the  public  men  of  the  State  probably  possessed  at  that 
time.  And  with  all  these,  he  combined  an  honest  pur 
pose  to  bring  about  the  much  desired  reform  ;  to  cut  off 
extravagance,  peculation,  and  waste,  and  to  make  the 
road  a  source  of  revenue  in  lieu  of  an  expense  and  bur 
den  to  the  State. 

Like  his  predecessors,  he  lived  to  see  that  it  was  a 
moral  impossibility  to  silence  all  complaints.  The  an 
tagonism  excited  by  displacements  and  removals  inaugu 
rated  a  system  of  severe  espionage  and  criticism  upon  all 
his  official  action. 

These  complaints  from  the  opposing  party  soon  ceased, 
and  that  party  derived  satisfaction  from  Democratic  dis 
content.  The  Governor  was  subjected  to  the  criticisms 
and  murmurings  of  displeased  men  of  his  own  party. 
He  appointed  Dr.  John  W.  Lewis  general  superintendent 
of  the  road.  A  man  unlike  himself  in  age  and  experi- 


UNDEK  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  133 

ence,  but,  like  himself,  a  Democrat  in  full  accord  with  the 
principles  and  high  aims  of  the  party,  and  a  man  of  great 
personal  integrity,  industry,  and  of  economy  and  success 
in  his  own  private  affairs,  who  carried  with  him  into  this 
high  and  responsible  and  perplexing  office  not  only  the 
purpose  to  administer  it  faithfully  and  honestly,  to  make 
the  road  a  financial  success  to  the  State,  and  thus  pre 
serve  and  enlarge  his  own  reputation,  but  to  enhance 
that  of  the  young  Governor  by  whom  he  had  been  ap 
pointed,  and  whom  it  was  his  own  pride  and  happiness 
to  have  aided  in  his  early  struggles  to  complete  his  edu 
cation.  And  who,  like  his  chief,  had  been  long  annoyed 
by  complaints,  true  and  false,  of  malversation  on  the  part 
of  under  officers  and  employees,  and  who  was,  therefore, 
in  full  accord  with  him  in  the  purpose  to  reform  all  real 
abuses,  and  disarm  enemies  of  the  accustomed  luxury  of 
complaining  even  at  the  appearance  of  waste. 

No  time  was  lost,  or  pains  spared  in  carrying  these  aims 
and  purposes  into  execution.  And  with  the  inauguration 
of  rigid  and  inflexible  economy,  there  arose  a  merciless 
complaint — not  of  waste,  corruption,  malversation,  or  pecu 
lation — for  all  appearance  of  these  had  instantaneously 
disappeared ;  but  of  alleged  niggardly  economy  and 
downright  stinginess,  as  well  as  a  total  want  of  financial 
liberality  on  the  part  of  the  management.  Dr.  Lewis  was 
assailed  with  severe  complaints  on  account  of  his  prompt 
action  and  stern  adherence  to  the  policy  of  his  chief, 
which  challenged  his  own  unqualified  approval,  and  with 
jest  and  ridicule  for  alleged  penuriousness.  But  with 
the  nerve  and  firmness  only  equalled  by  that  of  his  chief, 
he  disregarded  them  all  and  plied  his  mind  and  all  his 
energies  to  make  the  policy,  what  it  proved  to  be,  a 
grand  success  for  the  State.  Discontented  people  even 


134  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

directed  their  criticism  to  the  Governor  himself,  and  did 
not  scruple  to  refer  to  the  republican  simplicity  and  well 
regulated  economy  of  his  own  household  and  private 
affairs. 

He  never  drank  or  encouraged  the  drinking  of  intoxi 
cating  liquors  before  or  after  he  became  Governor,  and 
could  not  use  tobacco  or  endure  the  smoke  of  it.  These 
long  enjoyed  excitant  luxuries  were  discontinued  in  the 
receptions  of  the  mansion  ;  and  that  which  was  based  on 
principle,  and  his  exalted  conceptions  of  morality,  and  his 
decided  convictions  of  the  ruinous  effects  of  the  example 
of  drinking  in  high  life,  was  attributed  to  stinginess,  or 
ill  advised  and  distasteful  economy  on  the  part  of  a  high 
public  officer,  who  was  expected  to  cater  to  the  culti 
vated  taste  and  the  appetite  of  the  people  with  whom  he 
had  official  or  social  contact. 

But  all  complaint  and  criticism  were  powerless  to  shake 
his  purposes,  or  to  unsettle  the  fixed  principles  of  a  life 
shaped  by  them  in  private,  and  carried  with  all  their 
strength  and  vigor  into  the  administration  of  the  State,  in 
all  her  multiplied  interests. 

The  connections  of  the  road  were  about  being  largely 
extended  by  the  completion  of  the  roads  northwest  of 
Chattanooga,  its  western  terminus,  by  which  there  was 
an  increase  in  the  gross  income.  By  reason  of  the  re 
form  inaugurated,  the  stopping  of  unnecessary  waste, 
and  useless  expenditure,  the  comparative  expenses  were 
diminished,  and  there  began  a  rapid  increase  in  the  net 
earnings  and  profits  of  the  road,  which  were  paid  monthly 
into  the  treasury  of  the  State  from  that  of  the  road.  As 
a  natural  consequence,  the  popularity  of  the  Governor 
widened,  and  grew  in  intensity,  ^and  confidence,  and  ap 
proval,  and  support  extended  to  all  classes  and  parties,  in 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  135 

every  section  of  the  State.  And  the  matters  alleged 
against  the  Governor,  of  an  excess  of  economy,  and  an 
over  zeal  in  stopping  leaks,  and  cutting  off  useless  ex 
penses,  were  such  as  to  magnify  his  popularity  with  the 
people,  and  to  strengthen  their  purposes  to  support  and 
uphold  his  administration.  These  purposes  became  so 
general  and  fixed  with  the  large  majority  of  the  people 
of  the  State,  that  no  public  man  could  assail  the  wisdom, 
or  question  the  integrity  of  his  administration,  without 
depreciating  himself  in  public  confidence. 

In  November,  1853,  the  retiring  Governor  Cobb,  in 
his  annual  message,  reviewed  the  affairs  of  the  road,  its 
management  and  government,  advocating  a  uniform 
system  of  government  by  superintendent  appointed  by, 
in  harmony  with,  and  amenable  to  the  Governor,  and 
opposed  to  its  sale  as  had  been  suggested.  He  brought 
before  the  Legislature  the  difficulties  and  embarrassments 
attending  it,  and  recommended  "  to  lease  the  road  under 
an  act  of  incorporation.  Let  a  charter  be  granted  with  a 
capital  stock  of  $500,000,  in  shares  of  $100  each,  etc." 
The  General  Assembly  however  did  not  see  fit  to  carry 
out  his  plan,  but  continued  the  government  of  the  road 
under  his  successor,  Governor  Johnson. 

He,  after  two  years  of  trial  and  vexation  under  the 
system,  in  his  message  of  November,  1855,  made  the  fol 
lowing  statement  and  recommendation  : — 

"  The  Road  is  the  people's  property,  constructed  for  their  common  benefit 
and  therefore  it  is  peculiarly  appropriate  for  you,  as  their  representatives,  to 
prescribe  the  line  of  policy  to  be  pursued.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  discuss  the 
various  plans  suggested  for  its  future  management.  Some  insist  that  it 
should  be  sold,  either  in  part  or  in  whole,  so  as  to  sever  its  ownership  from 
the  State,  or  to  give  its  control  to  private  individuals.  Others  urge  that  it 
should  be  leased  for  a  term  of  years.  These  propositions  were  discussed  by 
my  immediate  predecessor,  and  considered  by  the  last  Legislature.  They 


136  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEOKGIA 

have  also,  in  the  mean  time,  engaged  the  popular  mind,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  and  you  are  doubtless  prepared  to  represent  correctly,  by  your  action, 
the  public  sentiment.  Another  mode  proposed  is,  to  place  its  management 
in  the  hands  of  a  board,  composed  of  three  Commissioners,  to  be  chosen  by 
the  people.  I  refer  to  these  propositions  to  demonstrate  what  I  believe  to 
be  indispensable  to  meet  the  expectations  of  the  people  of  the  whole  State, 
and  that  is,  the  necessity  of  removing  its  administration  beyond  the  arena 
of  politics — of  taking  it  from  Executive  control — of  making  it  independent 
of  party  influences,  However  widely  different  these  various  propositions 
are,  they  afford  conclusive  evidence  of  the  restlessness  of  the  popular  mind 
on  the  subject.  The  sentiment  is  all  -pervading,  and  is  manifested  in  a 
thousand  forms,  that  this  is  expected  and  demanded  at  your  hands.  How  it 
shall  be  done  is  the  question  for  your  wisdom.  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
expressing  the  firm  belief,  that  it  were  better  to  adopt  any  one  of  these  pro 
positions,  than  to  permit  the  road  to  be  managed  under  the  present  mode  of 
its  organization.  The  idea  of  this  vast  capital  being  subject  to  the  fluctua 
tions  of  party  politics — confided  to  agents,  who,  as  a  general  rule  will  be 
changed  every  two  years,  in  obedience  to  the  utterances  of  the  ballot  box,  is 
preposterous  and  ridiculous  in  the  extreme.  It  is  only  railroad  men  who 
understand  the  conduct  of  these  great  works.  Politicians,  who  aspire  to 
gubernatorial  honors,  know  but  little,  if  anything,  about  it.  How  absurd, 
therefore,  to  place  the  Executive  at  the  head  of  the  road — inexperienced  and 
therefore  disqualified — and  expect  him  to  manage  it  with  skill  and  success  ? 
How  unjust  to  him — how  hazardous  to  the  interest  of  the  people,  to  saddle 
him  with  so  heavy  a  responsibility.  Without  disparagement  to  predecessors, 
it  is  believed  that  the  road  has  never  been  better  managed  than  it  has  been 
during  the  last  two  years.  Economy  and  punctuality,  in  every  department, 
have  been  enforced — not  a  dollar  lost  by  defalcation — not  a  dollar  recovered 
in  litigation  for  damages  which  accrued  within  that  period — but  few  and 
slight  disasters  from  running  off  or  collisions  of  trains — and  yet  the  dissat 
isfaction  and  complaint,  in  certain  quarters,  are  deep  and  loud.  All,  all 
demonstrating  that  the  policy  of  severing  it  from  Executive  control  is 
absolutely  imperative.  I  respectfully  urge  the  Legislature  to  do  it." 

The  General  Assembly,  large  as  was  the  measure  of 
confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  their  re-elected  Governor, 
declined  to  carry  out  his  wish  to  have  the  government  of 
the  road  separated  from  Executive  control. 

On  retiring  in  November,  1857,  his  message  contains 
this  statement : — 

"  Its  gross  earnings  from  the  30th  September,  1853,  to  the  30th  of  Septem 
ber,    1857,    which  covers  the  four  years  of  my  administration,  have  been 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  137 

$3,052,260.82.  The  working  expenses  of  the  road  for  the  same  period  have 
been  81,329,411.51,  and  the  net  earnings  $1,722,849.31.  How  has  this  large 
amount  of  net  profits  been  disposed  of  ?  Has  it  been  squandered  or  applied 
to  necessary  expenditures  ?  These  are  questions  which  should  be  answered 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  people,  and  when  thus  answered,  the  senseless 
clamor  which  is  raised  against  the  management  of  the  road,  for  mere 
decency's  sake,  ought  to  cease.  Then  see  how  the  account  stand.*. 

Xet  earnings  for  four  years,  $1,722,849.31." 

To  which  is  a  tabular  statement  of  the  expenditure  of 
the  entire  amount,  of  which  were  paid  into  the  State 
treasury  for  1854,  $50,000  :  1855,  $100,000  :  1856,  $43,- 
500:  1857,  $100,000  :  The  balance  mainly  for  locomo 
tives,  tracks,  depots,  cars,  etc. 

And  upon  this  the  Governor  makes  this  comment : 

"  Whether  these  expenditures  were  proper,  is  left  for  fair  minded  men  to 
determine.  They,  at  least,  seem  suited  to  the  enterprise,  and  cannot  be  con 
sidered  unreasonable,  when  it  is  recollected  that  the  road  is  not  even  yet  com 
pleted  and  thoroughly  equipped  for  the  annually  increasing  business  it  is 
compelled  to  accommodate.  At  all  events,  it  will  scarcely  be  asserted  by  any 
having  a  due  regard  for  veracity,  that  the  money  has  been  either  stolen  or 
wasted.  But  these  heavy  expenditures  will  not  be  required  hereafter.  The 
time  has  come  for  the  patience  of  the  friends  of  the  road  to  have  its  reward.  I 
fully  concur  with  the  Superintendent,  that  henceforth,  under  proper  manage 
ment,  it  will  pay  into  the  State  Treasury  $350,000  annually. 

"  It  may  be  suggested,  however,  that  the  mismanagement  is  not  in  the 
application  of  the  net  earnings,  but  in  the  expenses  of  maintaining  and  work 
ing  the  road.  Let  us  see  how  the  State  Road  compares,  in  this  respect,  with 
other  roads  in  the  State,  what  proportion  the  current  expenses  bear  to  the. 
gross  earnings.  The  gross  earnings  of  the  Georgia  Railroad,  for  the  last  four 
years,  were  $4,016,346.14  ;  the  expense  for  working  and  maintaining  it,  for 
the  same  period,  were  $1,848,617.02,  or  about  45  per  cent.  The  gross  earn 
ings  of  the  Macon  &  Western  road,  for  the  four  years,  from  December, 
1852,  to  December,  1856,  were  $1,290,445.00,  and  the  working  expenses  for 
the  same  period,  $468,340.00,  or  50^  per  cent.  The  gross  earnings  of  the 
Central  Railroad,  including  the  line  from  Gordon  to  Eatonton,  from  December 
1,  1853,  to  December  1,  1856,  and  the  line  from  Millen  to  Augusta,  to  the 
1st  of  January,  1856,  were  $4,697,269.68  ;  and  the  current  expenses  for  the 
same  period,  were  $2,219,043.17,  or  47|  per  cent.  These  are  confessedly  the 
best  managed  company  roads  in  Georgia.  But  the  Western  &  Atlantic 
Railroad  compares  favorably  with  them  in  reference  to  the  point  under  con 
sideration.  Its  gross  earnings  for  the  last  four  years  are  $3,052,260.82, 


138  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

and  its  working  expenses,  for  the  same  period,  $1,329,411-51,  or  a  little  less 
than  431  per  cent.  It  would  seem  that  the  country  might  afford  to  be  satis 
fied,  if  the  State  road  be  managed  as  cheaply  as  those  of  private  companies. 
Certainly  the  fact  is  worthy  of  consideration,  when  its  administration  is 
branded  with  corruption  and  mismanagement." 

With  this  the  Executive  authority  of  the  State,  which 
continued  to  hold  the  management  of  the  Western  & 
Atlantic  Railroad,  passed  into  the  hands  of  Joseph  E. 
Brown,  where  both  remained  up  to  and  during  the  late 
war,  and  the  surrender  of  the  State  with  the  Confederate 
authorities  and  property  at  its  close. 

The  results  of  Governor  Brown's  policy  and  sagacity, 
his  energy  and  firmness,  are  briefly  stated  in  the  following 
extract  from  his  annual  message  in  November,  1859,  and 
after  his  re-election  as  Governor. 

"  For  information  in  reference  to  the  condition,  management  and  incomes 
of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  Railroad  for  the  year  ending  30th  September 
last,  you  are  referred  to  the  Report  of  Dr.  John  W.  Lewis,  its  very  vigilant, 
efficient,  and  worthy  Superintendent.  I  feel  that  I  do  but  an  act  of  justice 
when  I  say  that  in  my  opinion  the  State  has  at  no  time  had  connected  with 
the.  road,  in  any  capacity,  a  more  competent,  trustworthy,  and  valuable  public 
servant.  It  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  his  Report,  that  the  sum  of  $102,000 
in  cash  has  been  paid  into  the  State  Treasury  from  the  net  earnings  of  the 
road  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  30th  September  last ;  and  it  will  be  seen 
by  the  report  of  the  State  Treasurer  and  Comptroller  General,  that  four  hun- 
cjred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars  have  been  paid  into  the  Treasury  during 
the  fiscal  year  ending  20th  October,  1859.  The  old  iron  on  about  25  miles 
of  the  track,  has,  since  the  1st  January,  1858,  been  taken  up  and  its  place 
supplied  with  heavy  new  rail.  The  road-bed  and  all  the  superstructure  and 
machinery  are  kept  in  excellent  order.  No  new  debts  are  contracted  which 
are  not  promptly  paid  monthly,  if  demanded  ;  and  no  agent  appointed  or  re 
tained  in  office  during  my  administration  is  known  to  be  a  defaulter  to  the 
amount  of  a  single  dollar. 

"  I  confess  that  the  amount  paid  into  the  Treasury  from  the  road,  during 
the  past  year,  has  somewhat  exceeded  my  expectations.  For  this  I  am  in 
debted  not  only  to  the  Superintendent,  but  also  to  the  untiring  efforts  of  the 
honest,  industrious,  and  faithful  officers  and  agents  associated  with  him  and 
under  his  control. 

"  It  has,  I  think,  been  clearly  shown  within  the  last  two  years  that  the 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  139 

road  owned  and  controlled  by  the  State  is  a  productive  piece  of  property, 
and  with  proper  management  in  future,  I  feel  safe  in  the  prediction  that  it 
will  remain  so  and  that  the  incomes  from  it  will  continue  to  increase  with 
the  increase  of  population,  business,  and  wealth  in  the  country. 

"So  long  as  the  road  remains  under  my  control  I  invite  strict  scrutiny 
into  its  management;  for  I  subscribe  fully  to  the  doctrine  that  it  is  proper 
to  hold  public  functionaries  to  rigid  accountability.  And  I  am  willing  that 
judgment  be  pronounced  upon  my  official  conduct  under  the  application'  of 
this  rule. 

"  In  the  construction  of  the  road  under  State  management  it  is  not  doubted 
that  there  were  in  many  instances  too  lavish  an  expenditure  of  the  public 
money,  and  that  it  cost  a  much  larger  sum  than  it  should  have  cost.  I  am 
not  prepared  on  that  account,  however,  to  admit  that  any  good  reason  exists 
why  a  State  may  not  manage  a  great  public  work  of  this  character  with  as 
much  honesty,  economy,  and  success  as  a  corporation.  To  accomplish  this 
object  it  is  only  necessary  that  the  officer  having  the  appointing  power  select 
agents  who  are  competent,  honest,  and  faithful ;  that  he  lay  down  strict  rules  for 
the  government  of  their  conduct ;  that  he  give  so  much  of  his  individual  atten 
tion  to  the  work  as  will  enable  him  to  know  whether  or  not  those  rules  are 
violated  ;  and,  in  every  case  where  he  discovers  he  has  been  deceived  in  the 
selection  of  a  proper  agent,  or,  where  an  agent  has  palpably  violated  the 
rules  laid  down  for  his  government,  that  he  may  have  the  moral  firmness 
and  nerve  without  regard  to  personal  considerations,  to  apply  the  corrective 
by  a  prompt  removal.  The  observance  of  these  rules  is,  in  my  opinion,  a 
duty  of  the  appointing  power  from  which  he  should  never  shrink.  If  he 
performs  this  duty  he  can  seldom  fail  of  success. 

"  Regarding  it  as  a  matter  of  interest,  I  have  endeavored  at  the  expense  of 
considerable  labor,  to  ascertain  the  original  cost  of  the  State  Road ;  but  I 
find  it  impossible,  for  the  reasons  given  in  the  able  and  very  valuable  report 
of  Col.  P.  Thweatt,  comptroller  general,  who  has  also  given  much  attention 
to  this  subject,  to  arrive  at  a  conclusion  with  entire  accuracy.  It  is  believed 
that  the  report  of  Mr.  Garnett,  then  chief  engineer,  made  in  1847  of  the 
amount  expended  to  that  time  is  about  correct.  He  estimates  the  whole  cost 
to  the  date  of  his  report  at  $3,305,165.88.  Since  that  time  there  has  been 
appropriated  to  the  construction  of  the  road,  its  equipments,  etc.,  in  cash  and 
in  the  bonds  of  the  State,  the  sum  of  $1,136,366.27.  Add  these  sums  together 
and  we  have  $4,441,532.15  as  the  total  amount  appropriated  by  the  Legis 
lature,  and  paid  out  of  the  State  treasury  for  the  construction  and  equipment 
of  the  road.  This,  in  my  opinion,  is  a  very  near  approximation  to  correct 
ness. 

"I  am  aware  that  some  persons,  in  accounting  for  the  gross  incomes  of  the 
road  since  its  completion,  have  charged  large  amounts  of  these  incomes  to 
construction.  These  sums  were,  I  think,  generally  more  properly  chargeable 
to  repairs,  &c,  than  to  original  construction.  As  an  instance,  the  Etowah 


140  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

bridge  was  burned  down  some  years  after  the  road  had  been  in  operation, 
and  it  became  necessary  to  build  a  new  one.  The  cost  of  this  could  not 
properly  be  chargeable  to  original  construction,  but  was,  I  think,  properly 
chargeable  to  repairs  on  account  of  casualty. 

"A  portion  of  the  iron  originally  laid  down  on  the  track  became  so  much 
worn  as  to  be  unsafe,  and  it  was  necessary  to  procure  and  lay  down  new  iron 
i»  its  place.  The  cost  of  this  also  was  properly  chargeable  to  repairs  and 
not  to  original  construction.  If  a  Depot  building  was  sufficient,  when  the 
road  was  completed,  to  accommodate  all  who  had  business  at  the  place,  but 
which  afterwards,  on  account  of  the  decay  of  the  structure  or  increase  of 
business  at  the  location,  was  found  to  be  insufficient,  and  it  became  necessary 
to  build  a  new  one,  its  cost  could  not  justly  be  charged  to  original  construc 
tion. 

"  Without  multiplying  instances  of  this  kind,  I  conclude  that  as  soon  as 
the  Legislature  had  appropriated  a  sufficient  sum  to  complete  the  road,  and 
to  place  upon  it  the  superstructure  and  machinery  necessary  to  the  transac 
tion  of  the  business  offered  by  the  country  to  the  road,  the  original  construc 
tion  account  was  at  an  end,  and  that  all  such  enlargement  of  buildings,  re 
construction  of  bridges,  renewals  of  superstructure  repairs  of  track,  &c.,  &c., 
as  were  afterwards  required  for  the  safety  of  transportation  and  travel  over 
the  road,  or  for  the  accommodation  of  increased  business,  is  properly  charge 
able  to  expense  of  keeping  up  the  road,  and  not  to  expense  of  building  and 
putting  it  into  operation.  Had  the  road  remained  unproductive  to  the 
Treasury  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  on  account  of  bad  crops,  casualties  from 
fire  or  flood,  commercial  pressure,  bad  management,  or  from  any  other  cause, 
it  could  only  have  been  evidence  that  the  original  investment  was  an  unfor 
tunate  one  for  the  time;  but  surely  the  repairs  made  and  all  the  State's 
losses  during  that  time,  could  not,  in  justice  to  the  officers  afterwards  in 
charge  of  the  road,  be  properly  chargeable  to  original  cost  in  calculating  the 
per  cent,  which  the  road  might  afterwards  pay  upon  the  original  investment. 
Estimating  the  original  cost,  therefore,  at  $4,441,532  15,  the  road  during  the 
past  fiscal  year  (ending  2<)th  October  last)  has  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  State 
nearly  nine  and  a  half  per  cent,  upon  the  original  investment.  And  it  should 
not  be  forgotton  in  this  connection  that  it  was  built  at  a  time  when  rail 
roading  was  not  well  understood,  and  that  it  was  built  as  a  public  work,  at 
a  cost  greatly  more  than  would  have  been  expended  in  its  construction,  even 
at  that  time,  by  a  private  company. 

"  Had  the  same  economy  been  used  which  is  usually  practised  by  private 
companies,  the  whole  cost  of  the  road  would  not  probably  have  exceeded,  if 
it  even  had  amounted  to,  $3,000,000. 

"  The  sum  paid  into  the  treasury  during  the  past  year  is  fourteen  per  cent, 
upon  that  sum.  In  comparing  the  present  management  of  the  road  with 
company  management,  it  is  certainly  just  to  the  present  officers,  who  did 
not  build  it,  to  count  the  per  cent,  upon  such  sum  only  as  the  road  should  rea- 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  141 

son  ably  have  cost  had  it  been  built  by  a  company,  and  not  upon  such  sum 
as  it  may  have  cost  under  the  extravagant  system  which  is  sometimes  prac 
tised  in  the  original  construction  of  public  works." 

After  three  years'  trial,  in  the  annual  message  of  No 
vember,  1860,  the  Governor  thus  states  the  result  of  the 
last  year's  operations : 

"  It  will  be  seen  upon  an  examination  of  the  report  of  Dr.  John  W.  Lewis, 
the  able  and  faithful  superintendent  of  the  State  Road,  that  the  road  is  in 
excellent  condition  in  every  department,  and  that  the  net  amount  paid  into 
the  State  treasury  for  the  past  fiscal  year  is  $450,000.  This  sum  has  been 
paid  into  the  treasury  after  deducting  all  expenditures  and  making  all  neces 
sary  repairs,  and  after  paying  $22,940  of  bonds  and  coupons  of  the  funded 
debt  of  the  road,  which  fell  due  1st  January  and  July  last,  together  with 
over  ten  thousand  dollars  of  other  old  claims,  which  originated  before  the 
commencement  of  my  term  in  office,  and  which  had  been  for  years  in  litiga 
tion.  It  affords  me  pleasure  to  add  that  tho  officers  of  the  road,  in  every 
department  of  its  management,  have  generally  been  diligent  and  attentive 
and  have  acquitted  themselves  with  much  credit  during  the  past  year." 

INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS  BY  THE  STATE. 

As  early  as  November,  1855,  Governor  Johnson,  while 
he  announced  the  opinion  to  the  Legislature  that  it  was 
unwise  and  inexpedient  to  appropriate  money  or  sub 
scribe  stock  by  the  State  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  rail 
roads,  favored  the  idea  of  "  completing  the  skeleton  of  the 
system  so  as  to  extend  an  arm  into  each  of  the  grand  geo 
graphical  sections  or  divisions  of  the  State,  by  lending  her 
credit  under  securities  and  guarantees,  which  would  place 
her  beyond  the  contingency  of  ultimate  liability  and  loss." 

He  sanctioned  and  approved  the  Atlantic  &  Gulf 
Road  charter,  which  provided  for  $500,000  stock  by  the 
State  in  it,  while  he  disapproved  of  the  plan  of  granting 
State  aid. 

In  November,  1857,  he  announced  to  the  General  As 
sembly  that,  ''in  granting  new  railroad  charters  they 
should  never  lose  sight  of  the  policy  of  protecting  her 


142  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

State  Road  from  ruinous  competition ;  she  should  be  care 
ful  not  to  cripple  the  efficacy  of  company  roads  which 
have  been  built  by  private  capital ;  she  should  preserve 
the  symmetry  of  the  system  of  our  internal  improvements, 
so  that  in  its  further  development  and  growth  to  maturity 
it  shall,  as  a  primary  object,  promote  her  own  wealth  and 
the  prosperity  of  her  towns  and  seaports." 
He  adds — 

"  Augusta,  Savannah,  and  Brunswick  are  the  three  points  of  commerce  at 
which  the  productions  of  our  agriculture  must  find  their  market  and  their 
door  of  exit  to  the  marts  of  the  world.  The  perfection  of  our  internal  im 
provement  system,  as  well  as  the  interests  of  agriculture,  requires  that  each 
of  these  commercial  points  shall  be  connected  as  directly  as  possible  with 
each  section  of  the  State,  so  that  all  our  people  may  enjoy  a  choice  of  markets 
for  the  sale  of  their  produce.  The  State  may  aid  in  the  construction  of  lines 
of  road  projected  in  reference  to  such  connections,  upon  guaranties  of  se 
curity  that  prevent  the  possibility  of  ultimate  loss.  Beyond  this  she  ought 
not  to  go.  As  to  the  mode  in  which  she  should  extend  her  aid,  I  prefer  the 
loan  of  her  credit  for  a  given  amount  per  mile,  to  a  subscription  for  stock. 
By  the  former  method  she  can  secure  herself  by  statutory  lien  upon  the  road 
and  its  appurtenances ;  whereas,  by  the  latter,  she  must  rely  upon  the  suc 
cess  and  profits  of  the  enterprise." 

When  Governor  Brown  came  into  office  the  incomplete 
railway  system  of  the  State  was  of  paramount  importance, 
and  public  opinion,  while  it  favored  progress  and  exten 
sion  of  the  system,  was  by  no  means  harmonious  as  to 
the  part  the  State  should  take  in  providing  means  for  the 
purpose.  Many  people  regarded  the  prospective  profits 
as  a  sufficient  inducement  to  private  capital,  controlled  by 
intelligence,  to  assure  the  construction  of  all  roads  that 
were  required  by  commerce  and  travel,  and  that  as  a 
natural  sequence  they  would  be  constructed  in  due  time. 
They  favored  liberal  charters  to  private  companies,  and 
opposed  the  policy  of  the  States  furnishing  money  or  in 
curring  pecuniary  obligations  to  build  them. 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  143 

Others  regarded  the  matter  in  the  light  of  public  policy 
and  the  demands  of  the  situation  to  keep  pace  with  the 
improvements  in  progress  on  the  east,  north,  and  west  of 
us;  and  the  immense  advantages  of  leading  in  the  gen 
eral  scheme,  so  that  this  State  shall  have  a  controlling  in 
fluence  in  the  general  system  of  improvements,  and  for 
the  more  direct  effects  of  equalizing  the  benefits  among 
all  the  people  and  every  section  of  the  State  ;  and  for  the 
general  enhancement  of  values  and  increase  to  the  State 
of  her  sources  of  revenue. 

It  was  an  issue  between  progressive  democracy  on  the 
one  hand,  and  stationary  and  cautious  conservatism  on 
the  other.  It  was  an  issue  to  summon  the  decisive 
energy,  and  put  in  action  the  mental  and  moral  force  of 
the  popular  young  Governor,  who  was  in  all  his  nature,* 
his  antecedents,  and  his  impulses,  as  well  as  fixed  opin 
ions,  a  man  of  progress.  And  the  threatened  evils  were 
of  sufficient  moment  to  make  the  matter  of  securing  the 
State  one  of  equal  importance  with  that  of  internal  im 
provements.  In  his  first  annual  message  he  took  the  fol 
lowing  bold  ground  after  reviewing  the  State's  relations 
with  existing  roads. 

"  Other  sections  of  the  State  are  still  destitute  of  the  advantages  of  rail 
road  facilities.  I  am  decidedly  of  opinion  that  it  would  be  good  policy  for 
the  State  to  lend  her  credit  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  such  roads  as  may 
be  necessary  to  develop  her  vast  resources,  provided  she  be  made  perfectly 
secure  beyond  doubt  against  ultimate  loss.  This  could  be  done  by  the  en 
dorsement  of  the  bonds  of  the  company,  by  the  State,  after  a  certain  pro 
portion  of  the  road  is  first  completed,  for  an  amount  sufficient  to  enable 
the  company  to  purchase  iron  for  the  road.  The  bonds  thus  endorsed  should  be 
made  payable  twenty  years  after  date,  with  six  per  cent,  interest,  payable 
semi-annually  :  and  let  the  State  take  a  mortgage  upon  the  entire  road,  and 
all  its  appurtenances,  declared  by  law  to  be  prior  to  all  other  liens  ;  to  be  fore 
closed,  and  the  road  and  its  appurtenances  sold  in  sixty  or  ninety  days  after 
the  failure  of  the  company  to  pay  any  instalment  of  either  interest  or  prin 
cipal  when  due.  And  in  the  event  the  whole  road  and  its  appurtenances 


144  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

should  fail  under  such  mortgage  sale  to  bring  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  the 
entire  amount  for  which  the  State  shall  have  become  liable,  on  account  of  the 
company,  let  the  law  provide  that  each  solvent  stockholder  shall  be  liable  to 
the  State,  according  to  the  number  of  the  shares  he  may  own,  for  his  propor 
tion  of  the  deficiency.  This,  in  my  judgment,  would  make  the  State  secure; 
•while  it  would  enable  each  company  engaged  in  the  construction  of  a  road 
necessary  to  the  development  of  the  resources  of  the  State,  to  obtain  the 
money  requisite  to  its  completion,  upon  such  time  and  terms  as  would  enable 
the  company,  should  the  road  prove  as  remunerative  as  its  projectors  antici 
pated,  to  refund  it  out  of  the  future  net  earnings  of  the  road.  Of  course 
such  a  law  should  be  a  general  one,  alike  applicable  to  all  roads  in  any  part 
of  the  State,  in  the  benefits  of  which,  all  roads  now  in  process  of  construc 
tion,  or  to  be  hereafter  projected,  on  equal  and  well  defined  terms,  conditions 
and  limitations,  might  participate.  Guard  the  State  against  possibility  of 
loss,  and  I  am  decidedly  in  favor  of  State  aid,  by  lending  her  credit  in  the 
construction  of  all  such  roads  as  may  be  necessary  to  the  prosperity  of  her 
people,  and  the  development  of  her  resources." 

A  year  later,  reviewing  and  reiterating  the  opinions 
above  expressed,  and  urging  that  "  the  law  if  passed 
should  be  a  general  one,  giving  to  every  company  in  the 
State,  engaged  in  the  construction  of  a  railroad,  the  same 
aid,  subject  to  the  same  liability,"  and  elaborately  arguing 
the  policy,  he  answers  one  of  the  formidable  objections 
in  the  following : 

"It  is  sometimes  said  that  in  justice  to  the  railroad  companies  already  in 
existence,  the  State  should  not  aid  or  encourage  the  building  of  other  roads 
•which  may  come  in  competition  with  those  now  in  operation.  Some  of 
these  companies  are  now  making  very  large  profits,  and  while  I  desire  to  see 
them  prosper,  and  would  not  wish  to  see  their  dividends  reduced  below  a 
point  where  the  stock  would  be  reasonably  profitable,  no  matter  how  much 
other  interests  might  be  thereby  promoted,  I  am  unwilling  that  such  sections 
of  the  State  as  are  without  railroads  should  be  denied  their  benefits  on  the 
ground  that  the  large  incomes  of  some  of  the  wealthy  companies  now  in  ex 
istence  might  be  reduced  by  giving  these  sections  an  opportunity  to  partici 
pate  in  the  advantages  which  would  result  to  them  from  the  construction  of 
other  roads.  Indeed,  I  entertain  no  doubt  that  the  interest  of  the  people  re 
quires  that  the  number  of  roads  be  increased  till  no  one  shall  have  a  monop 
oly  of  the  business  of  any  very  large  portion  of  the  State,  provided  that  each 
shall  be  left  with  sufficient  business  to  make  its  stock  reasonably  renumera- 
tive.  The  greater  the  competition  between  the  roads  the  lower  will  be 


UNDEK  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWK  ]45 

the  freight  and  fare,  and  the  better  for  the  interest  of  those  who  travel  and 
ship  freight  over  them.  When  there  is  no  competition,  for  the  purpose  of 
accumulating  larger  incomes  the  freights  are  usually  placed  by  the  Company 
at  a  very  high  figure,  and  the  shipper  must  bear  the  loss. 

"  Again,  I  deny  that  any  Company  has  a  right  to  complain  that  injustice 
has  been  done  it  by  the  State  should  she  permit  or  encourage  the  building 
of  such  roads  as  the  interest  of  her  people  in  different  sections  require,  which 
do  not  in  any  manner  violate  the  chartered  rights  of  such  company.  Most 
of  our  railroad  charters  contain  guaranties  to  the  respective  companies  that 
uo  lateral  road  shall  be  built  within  a  certain  number  of  miles  of  the  road  of 
the  company  to  which  the  guaranty  is  given ;  say  twenty  miles,  as  an  in 
stance.  These  corporations  claim  that  the  charter  is  a  contract  between  the 
State  and  the  company,  and  they  cling  with  tenacity  to  every  chartered 
right  given  them  by  this  contract,  and  exercise  it,  if  profitable,  no  matter 
how  onerous  its  exercise,  by  them  may  be  to  other  interests  in  the  State. 
They  should  therefore  be  content  with  the  contract;  and  should  not  be 
heard  to  complain  when  the  State  exercises  rights  reserved  by  her  when  she 
granted  to  them  their  charters.v  The  State,  in  the  case  above  supposed,  as 
an  instance,  when  she  granted  the  charter,  guarantied  to  the  company  an 
exclusive  right  over  a  strip  of  her  territory  forty  miles  wide.  With  this 
guaranty  they  were  content,  accepted  the  charter,  invested  their  money,  and 
built  the  road.  The  interest  of  a  large  number  of  persons  outside  of  the  lim 
its  embraced  in  the  guaranty  probably  afterwards  requires  that  they  have  a 
road ;  the  State  encourages  its  construction  and  it  is  built.  What  injustice 
is  done  to  the  first  company  and  how  have  they  been  deceived  ?  They  have 
the  full  measure  of  their  rights,  and  the  full  benefits  of  what  they  insist  upon 
as  their  contract.  It  is  true,  they  may  not  have  so  large  a  monopoly  as  they 
desire,  but  they  have  all  they  contracted  for,  while  another  portion  of  the 
State  is  developed,  and  the  people  have  the  benefits  of  low  freights  resulting 
from  the  competition. 

"  The  State  has  taken  stock  in  two  railroad  companies.  I  oppose  this 
policy,  and  do  not  think  she  should  be  a  partner  with  her  citizens  in  such  an 
enterprise.  My  opinion  is  that  she  should  have  no  interest  in  any  property 
over  which  she  has  not  the  entire  control.  By  endorsing  the  bonds  of  the 
company,  with  ample  security,  she  complicates  herself  with  none  of  its  pri 
vate  management  or  affairs. " 

The  policy  recommended  was  never  fully  adopted ;  the 
intervention  of  war  operated  to  impede  the  progress  of 
internal  improvement  as  well  as  public  and  common  school 
education.  No  general  bill  such  as  that  recommended  by 

Governor  Brown  was  passed  after  the  war,     The  Georgia 
10 


146  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

Air  Line  road,  chartered  in  1856,  obtained  from  the  Legis 
lature  in  1868  an  act  to  lend  the  credit  of  the  State  to 
that  enterprise,  upon  the  plan  of  Governor  Brown,  as  to 
the  security  of  the  State  against  loss  by  first  mortgage 
lien,  and  the  endorsement  of  the  State  of  the  bonds  of  the 
company.  Numerous  bills  of  like  character  in  favor  of 
other  roads  were  enacted.  But,  unfortunately  for  the 
State,  she  wanted  the  sagacity,  care,  vigilance,  and  firm 
ness  of  Governor  Brown  to  protect  her  against  gross 
frauds,  as  will  appear  in  the  history  of  the  administration 
of  Governor  Rufus  B.  Bullock,  from  July,  1868,  to  Octo 
ber,  1871. 

COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION. 

On  account  of  the  revolution  in  public  opinion  and  feel 
ing  in  the  last  twenty  years  in  this  State,  which  presents 
so  widely  different  a  situation  now  from  what  we  know  to 
have  existed  then ;  and  on  account  of  what  has  actually 
been  achieved  in  general  and  popular  education  in  the 
last  decade ;  and  in  view  of  the  neglect  of  previous  Legis 
latures  to  provide  any  system  of  public  education  that  de 
served  the  name,  it  is  difficult  to  realize  and  appreciate 
the  forecast  and  liberal  views  of  the  Governor,  and  the 
boldness  with  which  he  pressed  upon  the  Legislature  the 
subject  of  common  school  education. 

While  he  set  his  head  and  bent  all  his  energies  to  the 
subject  of  retrenchment,  economy,  and  reform  in  every  de 
partment  and  all  the  details  of  government,  and  to  the 
most  rigid  scrutiny  into  everything  to  be  supported  or 
paid  for  by  the  State,  wherein  a  dollar  might  be  saved, 
he  exhibited  views  and  plans  for  the  education  of  the 
people  of  the  State  that  were  by  many  regarded  as  prof 
ligate  and  extravagant,  not  to  say  visionary  ;  and  brought 
them  before  the  Legislature  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  147 

his  administration ;  which  are  set  forth  in  the  following 
extract  from  his  message  of  November,  1858. 

"The  public  debt  of  the  State  amounts  at  present  to  12,630,500,  payable  at 
different  times  during  the  next  twenty  years.  A  large  portion  of  this  debt 
has  been  contracted  from  time  to  time  on  account  of  the  State  Road.  This 
debt,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  subject  by  legislation,  already  had,  to  be  in 
creased  $900,000  on  account  of  the  State's  subscription  for  stock  in  the  At 
lantic  &  Gulf  Railroad  Company.  This  would  make  the  whole  debt  $3,- 
530,500,  should  no  part  of  it  be  redeemed  before  the  bonds  of  the  State  for 
the  above  mentioned  $900,000  shall  have  been  issued.  By  the  terms  of  the 
contract  with  the  bondholders,  $289,500  of  this  debt  is  now  subject  to  be 
paid  at  the  option  of  the  State,  though  payment  cannot  be  demanded  till 
1863  and  1868.  The  Central  Bank  bonds  are  also  falling  due  in  considerable 
sums  annually.  Good  faith  requires  that  the  debts  of  the  State  be  promptly 
met  when  due.  And  sound  policy  dictates  that  such  bonds  as  are  due  or  not, 
at  the  option  of  the  State,  be  taken  up  as  fast  as  she  has  the  means. 

"  The  net  earnings  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  railroad  are  already  pledged 
for  the  payment  of  a  large  portion  of  this  debt.  I  therefore  recommend  the 
passage  of  an  act  setting  apart  $200.000  per  annum  of  the  net  earnings  of 
the  road  to  be  applied  in  payment  and  purchase  of  the  public  debt.  And,  in 
view  of  the  great  and  acknowledged  necessity  existing  for  the  education  of 
the  children  of  the  State,  and  of  the  immense  advantages  which  would  result 
from  the  establishment  of  a  practical  common  school  system,  I  further 
recommend  that  a  sum  as  large  as  the  entire  amount  of  the  public  debt  be 
set  apart  as  a  permanent  common  school  fund  for  Georgia,  to  be  increased  as 
fast  as  the  public  debt  is  diminished ;  and  that  the  faith  of  the  State  be 
solemnly  pledged  that  no  part  of  this  sum  shall  ever  be  applied  to,  or  appro 
priated  for,  any  other  purpose  than  that  of  education.  Let  the  act  make  it 
the  duty  of  the  Governor  each  year  as  soon  as  he  shall  have  taken  up  the 
$200,000  of  the  State's  bonds,  to  issue  $200,000  of  new  bonds,  payable  at 
some  distant  period  to  be  fixed  by  the  Legislature,  to  the  secretary  of  State 
as  trustee  of  the  common  school  fund  of  the  State,  with  semi-annual  interest 
at  six  per  cent,  per  annum,  the  bonds  to  be  deposited  in  the  office  of  the 
secretary  of  State.  As  the  public  debt  is  thus  annually  diminished,  the 
school  fund  will  be  annually  increased,  until  the  whole  debt  is  paid  to  the 
creditors  of  th£  State,  and  the  amount  paid  converted  into  a  school  fund. 
And  as  the  fund  is  increased  from  year  to  year,  the  amount  of  interest  to  be 
used  for  school  purposes  will  be  likewise  increased. 

"  Should  this  plan  be  adopted,  in  a  few  years  the  school  fund  of  Georgia, 
including  the  present  fund  for  that  purpose,  would  be  in  round  numbers 
$4,000,000.  The  amount  of  interest  accruing  from  this  fund,  to  be  expended 
in  erecting  school-houses  and  paying  teachers,  would  be  $240,000  per  annum. 
I  am  aware  of  the  difficulties  which  have  been  encountered  by  those  who 


148  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

have  attempted  heretofore  to  devise  a  practical  and  equal  school  system  for 
the  State,  owing  in  a  great  degree,  it  is  believed,  to  the  fact  that  portions  of 
our  State  are  very  densely,  while  others  are  quite  sparsely  populated.  But 
the  fact  of  our  inability  to  accomplish  all  we  may  desire  is  no  sufficient  rea 
son  why  we  should  neglect  to  do  that  which  is  in  our  power.  Probably  the 
principal  cause  of  our  failure  in  the  past  is  attributable  to  a  lack  of  funds 
and  of  competent  teachers. 

u  With  the  gradual  increase  of  the  fund  proposed,  it  is  not  doubted  that 
the  wisdom  of  our  State  would,  from  time  to  time,  improve  our  present 
defective  system  till  it  would  be  so  perfected  as  to  afford  the  advantages  of 
an  education  to  all  or  nearly  all  the  children  of  the  State.  Let  the  teachers 
be  paid  by  the  State,  and  let  every  free  white  child  in  the  State  have  an 
equal  right  to  attend  and  receive  instruction  in  the  public  schools.  Let  it  be 
a  common  school,  not  a  poor-school  system.  Let  the  children  of  the  richest 
and  the  poorest  parents  in  the  State  meet  in  the  school-room  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality  of  right.  Let  there  be  no  aristocracy  there  but  an  aristocracy 
of  color  and  of  conduct.  In  other  words,  let  every  free  white  child  in  Georgia, 
whose  conduct  is  good,  stand  upon  an  equality  of  right  with  any  and  every 
other  one  in  the  school-room.  In  this  way  the  advantages  of  education  might 
be  gradually  diffused  among  the  people ;  and  many  of  the  noblest  intellects  in 
Georgia,  now  bedimmed  by  .poverty  and  not  developed  for  want  of  educa 
tion,  might  be  made  to  shine  forth  in  all  their  splendor,  blessing  both  church 
and  State  by  their  noble  deeds. 

"  Should  $1,000,000  be  insufficient  to  raise  annually  the  sum  required,  the 
fund  might  be  increased  from  the  incomes  of  the  road  to  any  amount  neces 
sary  to  accomplish  the  object.  The  interest  on  this  fund  should  be  semi- 
annually  distributed  equally,  among  the  counties,  in  proportion  to  the  whole 
number  of  free  white  children  in  each,  between  six  and  sixteen,  or  of  such 
other  age  as  the  Legislature  may  designate.  Authority  should  also  be  left 
with  each  county  to  tax  itself,  at  its  own  pleasure  to  increase  its  school  fund, 
as  at  present.  And  it  should  be  left  to  the  inferior  court,  or  school  commis 
sioners  of  each  county,  to  lay  off  the  county  into  such  school  districts  as  will 
be  most  convenient  to  its  population,  having  due  regard  to  their  number  and 
condition. 

EDUCATION  OF    TEACHERS. 

"  Assuming  that  provision  will  thus  be  made  to  raise  all  the  funds  neces 
sary  to  build  school-houses  and  pay  the  teachers  to  educate  all  the  free  white 
children  of  the  State,  the  next  question  which  presents  itself,  and  perhaps 
the  most  important  one  of  all,  is,  how  shall  the  State  supply  herself  with 
competent  teachers  ?  raised  in  her  midst  and  devoted  to  her  interests  and  in 
stitutions? — southern  men,  with  southern  hearts,  and  southern  sentiments? 

"  For  the  purpose  of  educating  Georgia  teachers  in  Georgia  colleges,  I  pro 
pose  that  the  State  issue  her  bonds  payable  at  such  distant  times  as  the  Leg 
islature  may  designate,  bearing  interest  at  seven  per  cent,  payable  semi-an- 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  149 

nually.  The  interest  to  be  paid  out  of  the  net  earnings  of  the  State  Road ; 
and  the  bonds  be  redeemed  out  of  its  proceeds,  should  it  ever  be  sold.  That 
she  deliver  $200,000  of  these  bonds  to  the  State  University  at  Athens,  as  an 
additional  endowment ;  $50,000  to  the  Georgia  Military  Institute,  at  Mari 
etta,  and  $50,000  to  each  of  the  denominational  Colleges  in  the  State,  in 
consideration  that  each  of  said  five  Colleges  will  bind  itself  to  educate, 
annually,  one  young  man  as  a  State  student  for  every  $200  of  annual  interest 
which  the  endowment  given  by  the  State  pays  to  the  College ;  furnishing 
him  with  board,  lodging,  lights,  washing,  tuition,  and  all  necessary  expenses 
except  clothing,  which  might  be  furnished  by  the  student  himself  or  his  par 
ents.  The  interest  on  this  $400,000  of  bonds  would  be  $28,000  per  annum. 
This  sum  would  maintain  and  instruct  as  above  suggested  one  hundred  and 
forty  young  men  annually,  being  one  from  each  county  in  the  State,  and 
two  from  each  of  the  fourteen  counties  having  the  largest  population,  unless 
other  new  counties  are  formed.  I  propose  that  these  young  men  be  selected 
from  all  the  counties  in  the  State,  from  that  class  only  of  young  men  whose 
parents  are  unable  to  educate  them,  and  that  only  such  be  selected  as  are  of 
good  moral  character,  industrious  and  attentive,  who  desire  an  education, 
and  who  give  promise  of  future  usefulness.  That  the  selection  be  made  in 
each  county  by  a  competent  committee  appointed  by  the  Inferior  Court, 
after  an  examination  at  some  public  place  in  the  county  of  all  such  young 
men  as  desire  to  become  beneficiaries,  and  will  attend  on  a  day  to  be  fixed 
by  the  Inferior  Court,  after  giving  due  notice.  Let  the  committee  be  sworn 
that  they  will  be  governed  in  the  selection  by  the  merits  of  the  applicant, 
without  prejudice  or  partiality ;  and  that  they  will  select  no  one  whose  par 
ents  are  known  to  be  able  to  give  him  a  collegiate  education  without  doing 
injustice  to  the  rest  of  his  family.  And  I  propose  that  the  place  of  any  such 
student  in  college  be  supplied  by  another,  whenever  the  faculty  of  the  college 
shall  certify  to  the  inferior  court  of  his  county  that  he  is  neglecting  his 
studies  or  failing  to  make  reasonable  progress,  or  that  he  has  become  ad 
dicted  to  immoral  habits.  I  propose  that  the  State,  in  this  manner,  give  to 
each  of  the  poor  young  men  thus  selected  his  collegiate  education,  on  condi 
tion  that  he  will  euter  into  a  pledge  of  honor  to  make  teaching  his  profession 
in  the  county  from  which  he  is  sent  for  as  many  years  as  he  shall  have  been 
maintained  and  educated  by  the  State  in  college  ;  the  State  permitting  him 
to  enjoy  the  incomes  of  his  labor,  but  requiring  him  to  labor  as  a  teacher. 

"  Many  of  these  young  gentlemen  would,  no  doubt,  adopt  teaching  as  their 
profession  for  life.  This  would  supply  the  State  after  a  few  years  with  com 
petent  teachers.  And  as  these  young  men  while  teaching  in  various  coun 
ties  in  the  State  would  prepare  others  to  teach  without  going  to  college,  pure 
streams  of  learning  would  thus  be  caused  to  flow  out  from  the  colleges,  and 
be  diffused  among  the  masses  of  the  people  throughout  the  State.  Then 
we  would  not  so  often  hear  the  complaint  that  the  child  must  unlearn  at  one 
school  what  it  has  taken  it  months  perhaps  to  learn  at  another  under  an 


150  GOVEKNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

incompetent  teacher.  This  plan  is  intended  to  equalize,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  poor  with  the  rich,  by  giving  to  as  many  of  them  as  possible,  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  State,  an  opportunity  to  educate  their  sons  in  college,  a  privi 
lege  at  present  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  rich ;  as  poor  men  have 
not  means  to  educate  their  sons,  however  deserving  and  promising  they  may 
be. 

*'  Under  the  plan  above  proposed  it  is  not  intended  to  make  a  donation, 
or  absolute  gift  to  the  colleges,  of  a  single  dollar  of  the  bonds  of  the  State. 
It  is  intended  only  to  deliver  the  bonds  to  the  colleges  and  to  pay  to  them 
the  interest,  semi-annually,  as  a  compensation  for  them  to  maintain  and  edu 
cate  annually,  one  hundred  and  forty  young  men  of  promise,  who  could  in 
no  other  way  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  liberal  education  ;  who  in  turn  are 
to  diffuse  intelligence  among  the  great  body  of  the  people,  thereby  supplying 
the  State  with  Georgia  teachers  well  qualified  to  teach  the  youth  of  Georgia ; 
and  who  would  be,  at  the  same  time,  the  natural  friends  of  her  institutions. 
As  part  of  this  plan  I  also  propose  that  a  General  Superintendent  of  schools 
for  the  State  be  appointed  with  a  salary  sufficient  to  secure  the  best  talent, 
whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  collect  valuable  information  upon  the  subject,  and 
report  annually  to  the  Executive,  to  be  laid  before  the  Legislature ;  and  to 
traverse  the  State  in  every  direction,  visit  the  schools,  address  the  people, 
and  do  all  in  his  power  to  create  a  lively  interest  on  the  subject  of  education. 

"  Carry  out  this  plan  and  who  can  estimate  its  benefits  on  the  State  ?  I 
regard  the  education  of  the  "children  of  the  State  as  the  grand  object  of 
primary  importance,  which  should,  if  necessary,  take  precedence  of  all  other 
questions  of  State  policy.  For  I  apprehend  it  will  be  readily  admitted  by 
every  intelligent  person,  that  the  stability  and  permanence  of  our  republican 
institutions  hang  upon  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  our  people.  No  mon 
arch  rules  here !  And  it  is  the  pride  of  our  system  of  government  that  each 
citizen  at  the  ballot  box  possesses  equal  rights  of  sovereignty  with  every 
other  one.  Thanks  be  to  our  Heavenly  Father,  the  popular  voice  cannot 
here  be  hushed  in  the  silence  of  despotism,  but  the  popular  will  dictates  the 
laws.  May  it  thus  ever  remain !  How  important  it  is,  therefore,  that  the 
masses  of  the  people  be  educated  so  each  may  be  able  to  read,  and  under 
stand  for  himself,  the  constitution  and  history  of  his  country,  and  to  judge 
and  decide  for  himself  what  are  the  true  principles  and  policy  of  his  govern 
ment.  But  how  much  more  important  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  that  every  person 
in  the  State  be  enabled  to  read  for  him  or  herself  the  Holy  Bible,  and  to 
comprehend  the  great  principles  of  Christianity,  in  the  eternal  truths  of 
which,  I  am  a  firm,  though  humble  believer.  Educate  the  masses  and  in 
culcate  virtue  and  morality,  and  you  lay  broad  and  deep,  in  the  hearts  of 
our  people,  the  only  sure  foundation  of  republican  liberty  and  religious 
toleration ;  the  latter  of  which  is  the  brightest  gem  in  the  constitution  of 
our  country. 

"  By  adopting  the  proposed  line  of  policy  we  have  it  in  our  power,  with- 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWK  151 

out  increase  of  taxation  or  burden  to  our  people,  to  place  Georgia,  so  far  as 
education  is  concerned,  in  the  proudest  position  of  any  State  in  the  Union. 
Let  her  educate  every  son  and  daughter  within  her  limits,  and  she  may  then 
justly  boast  that  she  is  the  Empire  State  of  not  only  the  South,  but  of  the 
whole  Union.  By  this  plan  the  public  debt  would  be  reduced,  and  the 
school  fund  increased,  annually,  $200,000  ;  and  the  interest  amounting  yearly 
to  $28,000  on  the  bonds  delivered  to  the  colleges,  would  be  paid  semi- 
annually,  out  of  the  net  earnings  of  the  State  road;  and  there  would  still 
be  left  an  annual  income  from  that  source  of  $72,000,  to  be  applied  to  other 
purposes." 

The  Legislature  did  not  adopt  the  plan  of  the  Governor, 
but  took  what  was  then  regarded  as  an  important  step  in 
the  matter  of  public  education.  The  State's  bank  stock, 
consisting  of  1833  shares  of  the  stock  of  the  Bank  of  the 
State  of  Georgia;  890  shares  of  the  Bank  of  Augusta; 
186  shares  of  the  Georgia  Railroad  and  Banking  Co., 
by  Act  of  the  Legislature  of  January,  1852,  had  been  set 
apart,  as  a  permanent  fund,  for  the  education  of  the  poor. 
The  Legislature  to  which  this  message  was  addressed, 
added  thereto  an  annual  appropriation  of  $100,000  of  the 
net  earnings  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  Kailroad,  to  be 
apportioned  to  the  white  children  of  the  counties  returned 
between  the  ages  of  eight  and  eighteen  years. 

His  views  expanded  with  the  increase  of  intensity  of 
his  mind  and  emotions  upon  the  subject  of  education,  and 
as  official  duty  and  experience  brought  him  to  the  con 
templation  of  the  subject  in  its  limitless  importance  to 
the  welfare  of  the  people,  and  their  descendants  in  the  fu 
ture. 

The  disaster  of  civil  war  intervened  to  prevent  the 
consummation  of  his  plans.  But  justice  to  a  noble  and  far- 
seeing  patriotism  and  statesmanship,  whose  aims  were  thus 
thwarted  and  their  grand  results  withheld  from  the  peo 
ple  of  the  State,  calls  for  the  brief  statement  of  his  scheme 
for  the  promotion  of  the  higher  grades  of  learning,  pre- 


152  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

sented  to  the  General  Assembly  in  November,  1860,  by 
the  permanent  and  liberal  endowment  of  the 

UNIVERSITY   OF   GEORGIA. 

*'  The  far  seeing  wisdom  of  those  who  framed  our  State  constitution  not 
only  grasped  but  fully  comprehended  the  importance  of  promoting  the  Arts 
and  Sciences  when  they  inserted  in  that  instrument  the  following  clause: 

" '  The  Arts  and  Sciences  shall  be  promoted  in  one  or  more  seminaries  of 
learning ;  and  the  Legislature  shall,  as  soon  as  may  be,  give  such  further  do~ 
nations  and  privileges  to  those  already  established  (the  State  University  was 
then  established),  as  may  be  necessary  to  secure  the  objects  of  their  insti 
tution.' 

"  This  is  still  a  portion  of  the  constitution,  which  I,  and  each  of  you,  have 
sworn  to  'observe,  conform  to,  support,  and  defend.'  Have  the  spirit  and 
intention  of  this  provision  of  the  constitution  been  carried  into  effect  by  the 
Legislature  in  the  meagre  endowment  which  the  State  University  has  received 
from  the  State?  Have  the  objects  for  which  the  University  was  instituted 
been  secured?  If  not,  is  the  State  not  abundantly  able  to  carry  the  spirit 
and  intention  of  the  constitution  into  effect  without  embarrassment  to  her 
government  or  burden  to  her  people?  If  so,  can  we  consistently,  with  the 
oaths  which  we  have  taken,  refuse  to  make  the  necessary  appropriation  ? 
These  are  questions  well  worthy  the  serious  consideration  of  each  and  every 
one  of  us.  But,  aside  from  any  obligation  which  the  constitution  imposes 
upon  us,  can  we  doubt  the  wisdom  and  sound  statesmanship  of  such  a  course  ? 
I  cannot  think  that  it  is  sound  policy  for  Georgia  to  refuse  to  endow  her 
University,  while  her  people  send  out  of  the  State  in  a  few  years  for  the 
education  of  their  children  a  sum  of  money  more  than  sufficient  to  make  the 
endowment  which  would  be  necessary  to  draw  large  numbers  of  the  youths 
of  other  States  to  our  University  to  be  educated.  This  would  cause  Georgia 
to  receive  the  money  of  other  States,  for  the  education  of  their  children, 
instead  of  paying  her  money  to  other  States  for  the  education  of  her  own. 

"  That  State  is  always  the  most  wealthy,  powerful,  and  respected  in  which 
knowledge  is  most  generally  diffused  and  learning  in  all  its  branches  most 
liberally  encouraged.  We  cannot  doubt  that  England  is  indebted  in  a  very 
great  degree  to  her  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  to  the  influ 
ences  which  have  gone  out  from  them,  for  her  ability  to  dictate  laws  to  a 
large  portion  of  the  world  and  to  draw  wealth  from  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  Nor  can  we  deny  that  Massachusetts  by  her  liberal  course  towards 
her  Cambridge,  and  Connecticut  by  her  liberality  to  Yale  College,  have  greatly 
enlarged  their  wealth  at  home  and  increased  their  influence  abroad ;  and 
have  been  able  through  the  instrumentality  of  their  Universities  to  instil 
into  the  youthful  minds  of  the  educated  of  all  the  other  States  of  the  Union 
many  of  their  own  peculiar  notions  of  religion  and  government,  while  they 
have  drawn  millions  of  money  from  other  States  for  the  education  of  their 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN.  153 

children.  Georgia  has  contributed  largely  to  build  up  Northern  colleges, 
and  has  purchased  from  them,  or  those  educated  by  them,  most  of  her  text 
and  school  books  and  much  of  her  literature.  Most  of  those  Northern  col 
leges,  which  have  shared  so  largely  the  Southern  patronage,  are  now  hostile 
to  Southern  institutions.  Notwithstanding  all  this  they  still  get  Georgia 
patronage,  because  it  is  believed  they  can  furnish  educational  advantages 
superior  to  those  offered  by  Georgia  colleges.  This  might  not  now  have 
been  the  case  had  the  money  sent  out  of  Georgia  by  parents  and  guardians 
for  education  been^expended  at  our  own  University.  Is  it  not  time  we  had 
learned  wisdom  by  experience?  We  claim  that  ours  is  the  Empire  State  of 
the  South.  Why  then  should  we  refuse  to  endow  and  build  up  our  University 
where  the  sons  of  the  South  may  enjoy  educational  advantages  equal,  if  not 
superior,  to  those  offered  by  New  England  colleges;  where  authors  may  be 
reared  and  literature  and  school  books  produced  which  will  enlighten  and 
elevate  the  minds  of  our  youths  without  subjecting  them  to  abolition  taint  or 
New  England  fanaticism  ? 

"  After  mature  deliberation  upon  this  question,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  recom 
mend  the  appropriation  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  to  be  paid  in  five 
annual  instalments,  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  each,  for  the  endow 
ment  of  our  State  University.  This  sum,  added  to  the  present  endowment, 
would  be  sufficient  to  construct  the  buildings,  purchase  the  library  and  ap 
paratus,  and  endow  the  professorships,  necessary  to  make  it,  in  a  few  years, 
a  first  class  University;  and  would  further  enable  the  trustees  to  pay  such 
salaries  as  would  command  the  services  of  the  most  distinguished  professors 
in  the  country.  This  would  at  once  give  the  University  a  commanding  po~ 
sition  in  the  Southern  States,  and  relieve  us  from  the  necessity  of  further 
patronising  Northern  Colleges.  I  think  the  heart  of  every  Georgian  should 
swell  with  pride  at  the  contemplation.  And  I  do  not  doubt,  when  the  ques 
tion  shall  be  fully  discussed  before  our  people,  that  they  will  be  found  to  be 
in  advance  of  most  of  our  politicians  upon  this  subject.  He  who  does  right 
will  seldom  have  cause  to  fear  the  popular  verdict. 

"  The  aggregate  taxable  property  of  this  State  is  supposed  to  be,  this  year, 
about  $700,000,000.  The  seventieth  part  of  one  percent,  upon  this  sum,  will 
raise,  annually,  the  $100,000.  This  will  be  a  fraction  less  than  one  cent  and 
a  half,  per  annum,  on  each  one  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  taxable  property, 
or  a  fraction  over  seven  cents  on  each  one  hundred  dollars  of  taxable  property, 
to  be  paid  in  fve  annual  instalments. 

"What  Georgian  is  so  destitute  of  State  pride,  apart  from  every  considera 
tion  of  patriotism  and  sense  of  duty,  that  he  would  refuse  to  pay  this  small 
sum  to  see  our  State  University  fully  endowed,  for  all  time  to  come,  and  put 
in  a  position  of  equality  with  any  University  in  the  Union  ?  I  think  I  know 
the  great  masses  of  the  farmers  and  mechanics  of  our  State,  who  are  its  very 
bone  and  sinew,  and  upon  whom  every  other  class  of  citizens  is  dependent  for 
its  support,  well  enough  to  say  for  them,  in  advance,  that  many  of  our  public 


154  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

men  underrate  their  intelligence  and  liberality ;  and  that  not  one  in  every 
twenty  of  them,  who  pays  tax  on  one  thousand  dollars*  worth  of  property, 
would  hesitate  a  moment  to  contribute  a  dime  and  a  half  a  year,  for  Jive  years, 
for  the  purpose  of  building  up  a  University  which  would  place  Georgia  in  the 
very  front  rank  of  all  her  Southern  sisters,  where  the  young  men  of  the  South 
who,  in  future,  are  to  conduct  its  government,  direct  its  energies  and  defend 
its  honor,  may  be  educated,  without  assisting  by  their  patronage,  to  build  up, 
elsewhere,  institutions  at  war  with  our  dearest  rights.  But  it  is  not  indis 
pensably  necessary  that  even  the  small  additional  tax  above  mentioned, 
should  be  collected  from  the  people  for  this  purpose.  Each  annual  payment 
might  be  made  out  of  the  incomes  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  Railroad,  and 
the  tax  at  present  paid  by  the  people  of  this  State,  be  reduced  within  the  five 
years;  and  we  would  still  have  money  enough  to  meet  promptly,  in  times  of 
peace  and  prosperity,  all  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  government. 

"  In  return  for  this  appropriation,  the  University  should  be  required  to 
educate  and  maintain,  from  year  to  year,  such  number  of  poor  young  men  as 
the  Legislature  which  makes  the  appropriation,  may  direct.  I  would  suggest 
that  the  number  be  one  from  each  county  in  the  State;  to  be  selected  in  such 
manner  as  the  Legislature  may  prescribe.  The  young  men  selected  as  bene 
ficiaries  should  be  such  only  as  have  not  the  means  to  educate  themselves, 
and  whose  parents-  are  unable  to  defray  the  expenses  of  a  collegiate  educa 
tion  for  them.  Each  should  be  required,  when  he  enters  the  University,  as 
a  consideration  for  the  instruction  he  is  about  to  receive  from  the  State,  to 
sign  a  pledge  of  honor,  that  he  will,  if  not  providentially  prevented,  teach 
school,  in  Georgia,  as  many  years  next  after  he  leaves  the  University  as  he 
was  instructed  in  the  University,  or  refund  to  the  State  the  money  expended 
in  his  education  with  lawful  interest.  The  benefits  of  a  collegiate  educa 
tion  should  not  be  confined  to  the  sons  of  the  wealthy ;  but  the  State  should 
provide,  as  far  as  possible,  for  the  education  of  moral  young  men  who  are 
talented  and  promising ;  and  who,  by  reason  of  their  poverty,  are  unable  to 
educate  themselves.  From  this  class  would  rise  up  many  of  our  most  dis 
tinguished  and  useful  citizens.  Many  of  the  brightest  and  most  intelligent 
boys  in  Georgia  are  found  among  the  poorest  and  humblest  of  her  citizens. 
Inured  to  labor  from  their  infancy,  when  the  portals  of  the  college  are 
thrown  open  to  them,  they  are  not  unfrequently  found  to  outstrip  the  more 
favored  students;  and  afterwards,  when  they  come  to  enter  the  arena  of 
active  life,  they  are  usually  more  energetic  and  more  likely  to  become  dis 
tinguished  and  useful  than  those  whom  necessity  has  never  taught  the  value 
of  personal  exertion..  Many  of  these  young  men  would  make  teaching  a  pro 
fession  for  life,  which  few  of  the  sons  of  the  wealthy  after  graduating  in  col 
lege  are  willing  to  do. 

"  It  is  generally  admitted  by  the  most  intelligent  and  best  informed,  that 
the  establishment  of  a  State  University  of  a  high  character  would  work  no 
detriment  to  the  denominational,  or  other  colleges  of  the  State.  The  gradu- 


UNDEE  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWN.  155 

ates  of  our  other  colleges,  desirous  of  pursuing  their  studies  beyond  the  col 
lege  course,  and  of  fitting  themselves,  by  still  higher  attainments  in  learning, 
for  the  duties  of  authors,  professors,  etc.,  would  transfer  themselves  to  our 
own  University  without  being  under  the  necessity  of  leaving  our  own  State 
to  secure  the  necessary  advantages.  The  building  up  of  the  University,  upon 
the  plan  proposed,  would  also  do  much  to  advance  our  common  school  pro 
ject,  as  it  would  send  out  in  a  few  years  a  large  number  of  young  men  as 
teachers,  truly  southern  in  sentiment  and  well  qualified  for  the  position. 
This  would  supply,  in  a  great  measure,  what  is  now  a  lamentable  deficiency, 
and  would  elevate  and  give  new  life  and  vigor  to  our  whole  educational 
system." 

In  the  same  message,  the  Governor  recommended  a 
normal  school  for  the  education  of  female  teachers,  upon 
the  plan,  "  that  the  girls  educated  there  divide  among 
themselves  and  do  in  their  turn  all  the  cooking,  washing, 
and  other  labor  necessary  to  be  done  at  the  school. 
Each  would  be  required  to  furnish  her  own  clothes.  The 
actual  cost  of  maintaining  each  in  the  school  would  there 
fore  be  the  prime  cost  of  the  provisions  used  by  each,  to 
gether  with  books,  lights,  and  fuel.  At  this  school,  which 
should  be  located  in  some  healthy  portion  of  our  State, 
large  numbers  of  young  females,  whose  parents  are  una 
ble  to  educate  them,  might  be  prepared  to  teach  our  pri 
mary  schools,  or  indeed  to  teach  in  any  of  our  schools. 
While  receiving  their  scholastic  education  at  the  normal 
school,  these  young  ladies  would  also  receive  a  domestic 
education,  which  would  be  of  great  utility  to  them  in  any 
position  which  they  might  occupy  in  after  life/' 

In  all  the  brilliant  career  of  Governor  Brown,  there 
appears  at  this  day  to  the  writer  nothing  that  invests  his 
sagacity  with  the  appearance  of  prophetic  wisdom 
like  this  of  educating  women  without  elevating  their 
tastes,  habits,  and  dispositions  above  useful  labor,  and 
without  lowering  their  physical  capabilities  below  its  de 
mands.  If  his  theory  could  then  have  been  applied  to 


156  GOVEKNMENT  OF  GEOEGIA 

the  education  of  both  girls  and  boys,  in  all  the  South,  we, 
as  a  people,  should  not  only  have  been  infinitely  better 
prepared  for  the  demands  and  prevention  of  war,  while 
raging,  but  for  the  situation  after  emancipation,  which 
summoned  us  to  self-sustenance  and  self-dependence. 

In  his  zealous  advocacy  of  a  common  school  system  of 
education,  and  for  the  education  of  teachers  he  was  only 
in  advance,  but  in  strict  harmony,  with  his  predecessor 
Governor  Johnson,  who,  in  his  retiring  message,  urged  the 
subject  in  strong  terms  upon  the  consideration  of  the 
Legislature,  as  well  as  the  claims  of  the  State  University 
for  the  promotion  of  learning  in  the  advanced  sciences. 
He  says, "  we  need  a  University  proper.  Such  its  founders 
designed  our  State  college  to  be,  and  the  constitution,  as 
I  have  shown,  has  made  it  obligatory  on  the  General  As 
sembly  to  carry  that  design  into  effect." 

******* 

He  says,  further  quoting  the  Constitution  : — 

"  What  has  been  done  to  carry  into  effect  this  clause  of  your  Constitution? 
How  little  ?  It  has  reference  mainly  to  the  State  University,  which  had  been 
chartered  in  1875.  Hence,  it  is  obvious,  that  it  is  the  sworn  duty  of  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly  to  place  our  State  University  upon  the  footing  contemplated 
by  its  wise  and  patriotic  founders,  or  in  other  words,  '  give  it  such  dona 
tions  and  privileges  as  may  be  necessary  to  secure  the  objects  of  its  institu 
tion.'  Indeed,  the  whole  subject  of  education  is  confided  to  the  General 
Assembly,  with  the  positive  injunction  to  such  action  as  may  be  proper  to 
supply  the  wants  of  the  State.  That  contracted  policy  which  is  ever  stand 
ing  at  the  door  of  the  Treasury,  with  a  flaming  two-edged  sword,  is  but  lit 
tle  better  than  moral  treason  to  the  Constitution,  which,  for  more  than  half 
a  century,  has  been  pleading  for  conformity  on  the  part  of  those  who  swear 
to  obey.  Education  is  the  friend  of  the  State.  It  will  elevate  the  people. 
It  will  diminish  crime  and  the  expense  of  executing  the  laws.  It  will  raise 
out  the  poor  from  the  mire  into  which  innocent  poverty  has  sunk  them,  and 
place  them  on  an  intellectual  equality  with  the  favored  sons  of  fortune.  It 
will  dig  from  the  mine  many  an  unpolished  gern  to  glitter  in  the  crown  of 
cultivated  society.  It  will  stimulate  enterprise,  and  direct  its  energies  to 
profitable  objects.  It  will  dignify  labor,  and  open  new  channels  for  capital. 


UNDER  JOSEPH  E.  BKOWN.  157 

It  will  disinter  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  State,  and  add  millions  to  the  pro 
ductions  of  agriculture.  It  will  bring  into  the  field  of  science  an  array  of 
mind  that  will  adorn  our  escutcheon,  and  dazzle  the  world  by  its  achieve 
ments.  In  a  word,  Georgia  must  fail  of  her  great  mission  without  the  adop 
tion  of  a  wise  and  comprehensive  educational  policy.  Away,  then,  with  that 
narrow  stinginess  which  begrudges  a  dollar  to  such  a  cause,  while  it  is  often 
wasteful  of  thousands  upon  objects  that  possess  little  or  no  merit.  Go  for 
ward  boldly,  firmly,  liberally,  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  State.  Adjust  your 
scheme  to  the  character  of  our  population.  Apply  to  the  task  your  wisest 
deliberations.  Impart  to  it  the  element  of  self- vindication  and  self-support. 
Make  it  simple  in  its  details,  and  dependent,  for  its  success  and  growth,  upon 
the  voluntary  support  of  the  people." 

He  suggested  a  plan  in  pursuance  of  these  views  which 
the  General  Assembly  did  not  adopt. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

STATE  GEOLOGIST  AND  CHEMIST. 

After  two  years  of  executive  experience,  Governor 
Brown,  whose  vast  and  extensive  perception  and  fore 
cast  seem  to  have  extended  to  every  possible  method  of 
promoting  the  material  interest  of  the  State,  and  develop 
ment  of  her  internal  resources,  brought  this  subject  forci 
bly  to  the  attention  of  the  Legislature,  and  to  the  people 
of  the  State.  In  November,  1860,  he  renewed  the  appeal 
in  the  following  strong  terms.  His  plans  in  this,  as  in 
other  vast  interests,  were  defeated  or  delayed  by  the  in 
tervention  of  war. 

"  I  also  renew  my  recommendation  of  last  year,  for  the  appointment  of  a 
State  geologist  and  chemist.  Probably  few  of  our  citizens  living  in  other  sec 
tions  of  the  State  have  formed  a  correct  estimate  of  the  immense  value  of 
the  mineral  region  of  Georgia.  It  is  believed  that  the  quantity  of  iron  ore,  of 
the  very  best  quality,  within  her  borders,  is  sufficient  to  supply  the  demand 
of  all  the  Southern  States,  for  that  most  important  of  all  metals,  for  centu 
ries  to  come.  This  ore  is  chiefly  found  in  a  very  healthy  section  of  the  State, 
where  there  is  abundant  water  power,  of  the  finest  character,  and  upon  never 
failing  streams.  The  great  grain  growing  section  of  the  State  embraces 
these  iron  mines.  Provisions  may  generally  be  had  cheap.  The  coal  fields 
of  Georgia  and  Tennessee  are  in  close  proximity,  and  a  railroad  communica 
tion  is  already  established  between  the  two.  Lime,  charcoal,  and  every  other 
material  necessary  in  the  manufacture  of  iron,  may  be  had  in  great  abun 
dance  near  the  mines.  I  think  I  may  truly  say,  that  no  State  in  the  Union 
possesses  superior  advantages  for  the  manufacture  of  iron.  If  this  interest 
were  fully  developed,  it  would  add  millions  to  the  wealth  of  Georgia,  and  would 
tend  greatly  to  increase  her  population.  It  would  afford  profitable  employ 
ment  to  a  large  number  of  laboring  men,  retain  large  sums  of  money  in  the 
State,  now  sent  out  annually  for  the  purchase  of  iron  ;  and  would  make  the 
State  much  more  powerful  and  independent  in  her  present  or  any  future 
position  she  might  be  called  upon  to  assume. 


CODE  OF  GEORGIA.  159 

"  There  are  also  very  extensive  and  valuable  slate  quarries  in  this  mineral 
region.  One  of  these,  in  Polk  county,  is  already  being  developed  and 
worked  to  advantage  by  its  enterprising  proprietors.  I  commend  these 
valuable  interests  to  the  protecting  care  of  the  Legislature.  Gold,  silver, 
copper,  lead,  manganese,  and  other  valuable  minerals  and  metals,  have  also 
been  found  in  different  sections  of  our  State.  Much  money  has  been  wasted 
in  the  search  after  these  metals  by  persons  lacking  the  necessary  information 
to  guide  their  labors  in  the  right  direction.  If  the  energies  of  practical  men 
engaged  in  the  search  were  directed  by  scientific  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
results  would  no  doubt  be  produced  the  most  interesting  and  valuable  to  the 
State.  To  this  end,  the  importance  of  a  thorough  geological  survey  of  the 
State,  by  a  man  of  eminent  ability,  cannot  be  too  highly  estimated.  The 
appropriation  for  this  purpose,  if  made,  should  be  sufficient  to  secure  the 
services  of  a  man  of  the  highest  character  in  the  profession. 

"  To  the  duty  of  making  a  geological  survey  of  the  State  should  be  added 
that  of  making  a  chemical  analysis  of  the  different  qualities  of  soil  in  the 
different  sections  of  the  State ;  so  as  to  afford  the  planters  in  each  section 
necessary  information  as  to  the  kinds  of  productions  to  the  raising  of  which 
each  kind  of  soil  is  best  adapted,  and  the  kind  of  manures  best  suited  to  each 
different  quality  of  soil.  This,  it  is  believed,  would  be  of  great  value  to  the 
planting  interest.  Certainly  no  class  of  our  population  has  stronger  claims 
upon  the  liberality  and  bounty  of  the  Legislature ;  and  none  has  been  lon 
ger  neglected.  Every  appropriation  necessary  to  the  advancement  and  en 
couragement  of  agriculture  should  be  promptly  and  cheerfully  made  by  the 
Legislature." 

CODE  OF  GEORGIA. 

Of  all  the  vast  progress  of  the  State  under  Brown  there 
is  no  step  to  compare  in  public  utility  with  the  codifica 
tion  of  her  common  law  of  force,  the  principles  of  equity, 
the  British  and  State  statutes,  and  the  penal  code,  with 
all  the  minute  regulations  of  all  the  offices  and  depart 
ments  of  the  government  in  one  methodical  and  concise 
volume.  It  has  reclaimed  the  laws  to  which  the  people 
are  subject  from  the  waste  and  rubbish  of  the  multitudi 
nous  changes  and  from  the  vagaries  and  uncertainties  of 
disjointed  lumber  scattered  through  acts  and  digests,  ele 
mentary  books  and  judicial  reports,  and  placed  before  the 
people  and  the  officers  charged  with  public  duties  one  of 
the  clearest  and  most  easily  to  be  studied  and  understood 


160  THE  CHKISTIAN  SABBATH. 

systems  ever  met  with  in  judicial  history.  It  places  her 
civil  on  a  par  with  her  penal  code,  which  is  one  of  the 
most  perfect  because  the  most  in  harmony  with  human 
frailty,  and  the  principles  of  man's  rights  to  life,  liberty, 
and  property  ever  devised  in  any  country. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Governor  is,  however,  only  manifest 
in  the  forecast  that  urged  the  necessity  of  the  work,  and 
in  the  men  selected  for  its  execution,  David  Irwin,  Rich 
ard  H.  Clark,  and  Thomas  R.  R.  Cobb,  to  whom  the  code 
of  Georgia  is  a  monument  that  ages  will  brighten  and 
burnish,  instead  of  corroding  and  mouldering. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH. 

The  moral  and  religious  tone  of  the  State  government 
under  Governor  Brown  is,  to  the  Christian  philosopher 
who  has  witnessed  the  depravity  in  high  places  which  has 
been  so  prevalent  in  late  years,  one  of  the  truly  grat 
ifying  features  of  her  history.  At  an  early  period  of  life 
he  had  adopted  a  sound  code  of  morals  for  his  own  gov 
ernment  and  practices  in  strict  accord  with  the  code.  His 
face  had  been  set  and  his  energies  directed  against  all 
crimes  of  moral  turpitude — everything  that  was  dishonest. 

These  principles  of  moral  and  legal  conduct  he  carried 
with  full  vigor  and  energy  into  the  public  administration  as 
a  judge,  and  adhered  to  them,  without  faltering,  against  all 
public  clamor  or  private  abuse  and  criticism.  It  was  not  in 
the  nature  of  his  moral  constitution  to  be  overawed  or  in 
timidated  or  driven  from  his  convictions  of  right  and  wrong 
by  any  power  or  influence  whatever ;  and  when  inducted 
into  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  State  he  felt  summoned  by 
the  higher  and  more  weighty  responsibilities  of  the  posi 
tion  to  exercise  them  in  every  department  of  the  service. 

The  General  Assembly,  as  early  as  1859,  acting  under 


KETRENCHMENT  AND  ECONOMY.  161 

his  advice  for  the  protection  of  the  public  morals,  and  to 
prevent  the  desecration  of  the  Sabbath  by  the  general 
preparation  for  elections  on  Monday,  changed  the  general 
election  day  to  Wednesday. 

At  the  session  of  1860,  the  Governor  took  the  follow 
ing  bold  position  which,  however,  he  could  not  adhere  to 
because  the  demands  of  a  war  of  invasion  made  it  wholly 
impracticable : — 

"  The  step  taken  at  the  last  session  for  the  protection  of  the  Sabbath 
against  desecration  is  highly  commendable  and  praiseworthy.  Another 
still  more  important  remains  to  be  taken.  The  railroad  companies  of  this 
State  are  in  the  habit  of  running  their  regular  passenger  trains  on  the 
Sabbath  day.  This  is  generally  excused  on  the  supposed  necessity  of  carry 
ing  the  mails  on  that  day.  I  do  not  think  the  excuse  is  a  sufficient  one,  nor 
do  I  think  any  great  public  necessity  requires  that  mail  service  should  be 
performed  on  the  Sabbath  day.  The  mail  facilities  which  we  enjoy  on  the 
other  days  of  the  week  are  much  greater  than  they  were  a  few  years  since, 
and  are,  in  my  opinion,  quite  sufficient  for  all  the  actual  necessities  of  the 
country.  I  have  permitted  the  mail  trains  to  run  on  the  State  road,  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  in  conformity  to  the  general  usage  of  the  railroad  companies 
of  this  State,  and  in  obedience  to  the  requirements  of  a  contract  with  the 
post-office  department  which  was  made  prior  to  my  term  in  office,  and 
which  continued  in  existence  the  greater  portion  of  the  time  since  I  have 
been  charged  with  the  management  of  the  road.  The  practice  of  running 
trains  on  the  Sabbath  should,  in  my  opinion,  be  prohibited  by  law.  If  it  is 
wrong  for  the  government  of  the  State  to  permit  the  trains  to  run  on  the 
State  road  on  that  day,  it  is  equally  wrong  to  allow  them  to  run  on  any 
company  road  in  the  State.  The  General  Assembly  have  full  power  to 
prevent  this  jtractice  in  the  future.  I  therefore  recommend  the  enactment 
of  a  law  subjecting  the  superintendent  of  each  and  every  railroad  in  this 
State  to  indictment  for  misdemeanor,  in  the  superior  court  of  the  county  in 
which  the  offence  is  committed  ;  and  on  conviction  to  fine  or  imprisonment, 
or  both,  at  the  discretion  of  the  court,  for  each  and  every  engine,  or  train, 
which  shall,  with  his  knowledge  or  consent,  be  permitted  to  run  upon  the 
road  under  his  control,  on  the  Sabbath  day.  « Remember  the  Sabbath  day 
to  keep  it  holy,'  is  addressed  alike  to  the  legislator  and  to  the  private 
citizen." 

KETRENCHMENT  AND  ECONOMY. 
These  were  the  ruling  tenets  of  the  civil  administration 

of   Governor   Brown,  adhered   to  with  a  moral  courage 
11 


162     MILITAEY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BROWN. 

that,  in  the  face  of  the  then  potent  opposition  and  often 
biting  criticisms  by  political  foes,  and  not  unfrequently 
by  men  he  displeased  in  his  own  party,  rose  to  the  height 
of  sublimity,  and  heroic  firmness. 

Not  a  leak  at  which  unlawful  drainage  from  the  public 
treasury  had  been  tolerated,  no  matter  how  respectable 
the  beneficiaries,  or  honored  the  custom  by  age  and  use, 
could  escape  his  sleepless  ken,  or  his  bold  efforts  to  stop 
and  suppress.  And  many  things  that  tended  to  a  waste 
of  the  public  money  that  were  authorized  by  law  were 
assailed,  and  reform  demanded  of  the  Legislature;  even 
to  the  reduction  of  the  members  and  officers  of  that  large 
and  unwieldy  body.  In  this  direction  he  was  hide-bound 
and  impervious  to  sympathy,  charity,  love,  affection,  or 
any  other  method  of  approach  to  the  public  Treasury. 

In  the  opposite  direction  of  using  the  public  money 
and  credit  to  aid  and  advance  all  and  every  enterprise  or 
method  of  benefit  arid  improvement  to  the  State  and  peo 
ple,  which  after  mature  and  critical  examination  met  the 
approval  of  his  judgment,  he  was  liberal,  not  to  say 
profuse. 

MILITARY  ADMINISTEATION  OF  GOVERNOR  BROWN. 

This  extends  over  a  period  of  several  yeais  of  peace 
prior  to  the  revolt  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  through 
the  four  years  of  war  that  ensued. 

When  he  was  first  inaugurated,  like  his  predecessors 
he  was  by  the  Constitution  of  the  State  invested  with  the 
power  of  Commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  with 
out  anything  that  bore  the  resemblance  or  name  of  either 
to  command  in  any  emergency  that  might  have  arisen,  or 
that  he  could  call  into  action  for  the  protection  of  the 
State  against  invasion  from  without  or  disorder  within. 


MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV  BROWN.     163 

He  was  also  by  authority  of  the  Constitution  Comman 
der-in-chief  of  the  Militia  of  the  State  which  was  in  a 
state  of  non-user  and  general  neglect,  without  any  pre 
tended  organization,  officers,  means  of  instruction  in  drill 
and  tactics,  or  the  duties  of  a  soldier  in  service,  and  there 
fore  wholly  inefficient  if  not  useless  in  case  any  occasion 
should  have  arisen  that  required  the  Governor  to  call  the 
citizen  soldiers  to  protect  the  State,  preserve  public  order, 
or  to  execute  the  public  laws.  The  State  almost  literally 
had  no  division,  brigade,  regimental  battalion,  or  com 
pany  officers,  and  no  rolls  of  men  liable  to  do  military 
duty.  Public  drills  and  musters  vaguely  remembered  as 
the  subject  of  ridicule,  and  barren  of  good  results  as  to 
military  order  and  instruction,  had  in  almost  every 
part  of  the  State  been  wholly  discontinued,  and  nothing 
had  been  introduced  to  supply  the  want,  leaving  the 
Commander-in-chief  without  a  force  to  protect  the  State 
except  the  civil  officers  and  the  posse  comitatus,  which 
in  many  places  were  not  reliable  for  even  local  emergen 
cies  had  they  arisen. 

The  great  State  of  Georgia  was  virtually  dependent, 
not  on  any  power  the  Governor  could  have  wielded,  or 
any  organized  force  for  self-protection,  but  was  dependent 
on  the  chances  of  continued  peace  and  order  without  force; 
or  upon  the  prompt  voluntary  action  of  her  people  for  her 
protection  and  defence  through  the  few  amateur  volun 
teer  companies  in  the  towns  and  cities. 

Finding  the  State  in  this  condition,  and  looking  forward 
to  the  possibility  of  things  that  were  precipitated  soon  af 
ter,  he  began  to  press  upon  the  people  of  the  State, 
through  the  Legislature,  the  importance  of  reforms  and 
changes  in  the  militia  system,  and  the  preparation  of 
the  citizen  soldiery  for  the  public  service.  Into  this,  as 


164     MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BROWN. 

many  other  reforms  and  proposed  changes,  he  carried  his 
zeal  and  energy,  guided  by  his  usual  forecast  and  sagacity. 
The  magic  influence  was  felt  throughout  the  State  as  the 
early  culminating  dangers  began  to  be  seen  in  the  distance  ; 
and  the  grand  result  was,  that  Georgia  sent  early  to  the 
field  of  carnage,  when  war  had  been  inaugurated,  an  ex 
cess  in  number  according  to  white  population  over  all  the 
States,  north  and  south ;  and  the  annals  of  battle  and 
marches,  and  of  suffering  and  heroic  endurance,  place  her 
troops  in  the  front  rank  among  her  sister  confederates 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  strife. 

He  pressed  the  importance  of  the  State's  military  school 
at  Marietta,  and  urged  its  re-organization  and  such  pub 
lic  appropriations  as  were  needed  to  make  it  a  success, 
and  enlarge  its  usefulness  in  training  the  young  men  of 
the  country  to  arms. 

He  also  urged  the  Legislature  to  change  the  militia 
laws,?and  to  put  the  State  in  a  situation  to  protect  her 
self,  in  the  following  strong  terms : — 

"  For  the  purpose  of  giving  new  life  and  energy  to  our  military  system 
which  is  now  almost  entirely  neglected,  the  importance  of  affording  to  a  por 
tion  of  the  youth  of  our  State  a  thorough  military  education  cannot  be  too 
highly  appreciated.  The  people  of  many  of  the  States  of  this  Union  are  fall 
ing  behind  most  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth  in  military  training. 
Within  the  last  twenty  years  the  more  powerful  nations  of  Europe  have 
probably  advanced  more  in  military  science  and  skill,  and  in  all  the  arts  of 
•war,  than  they  had  during  any  previous  century.  It  is  believed  that  no  one 
will  doubt  the  correctness  of  this  remark  who  has  observed  attentively  the 
late  struggles  between  the  contending  powers  in  the  Crimea  and  in  Italy. 

"  There  is  not  a  more  brave  and  patriotic  people  on  earth  than  those  of 
the  United  States  ;  and  there  is  probably  no  nation  whose  militia  is  so  relia 
ble  on  the  field  of  battle  ;  yet  in  this  day  of  constant  advancement  in  military 
science,  those  who  depend  alone  upon  patriotism  and  valor  enter  the  field, 
even  in  their  own  defence,  under  great  disadvantage.  Should  our  country 
be  invaded  by  any  of  the  great  powers  of  the  other  hemisphere,  our  people 
would  be  found  at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle  to  be  almost  destitute 
of  military  training.  Until  this  deficiency  could  be  supplied,  they  might  be 


MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BKOWN.     165 

unable  to  contend  with  the  disciplined  troops  of  a  regular  arrny  without 
grent  loss  of  life  and  much  detriment  to  our  national  character. 

"  There  is  probably  no  State  in  the  Union,  certainly  not  one  of  the  old 
thirteen,  in  which  military  training  is  more  neglected  than  in  our  own.  We 
know  not  how  soon  we  may  be  brought  to  the  practical  test  of  defending 
ourselves  against  the  assaults  of  foreign  ambition,  or  the  more  unnatural  at 
tacks  of  those  who  ought  to  be  our  brethren,  but  whose  fanaticism  is  prompt 
ing  them  to  a  course  which  is  daily  weakening  the  ties  that  bind  us  together 
as  one  people.  The  father  of  his  country  has  admonished  us  to  prepare  for 
war  in  time  of  peace.  If  we  would  profit  by  his  advice  it  is  necessary  that 
we  reorganize  our  military  system.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  the  State 
should  offer  every  reasonable  inducement  for  the  organization  and  training 
of  volunteer  military  corps,  as  the  best  and  most  efficient  mode  of  reviving 
the  military  spirit  among  our  people.  This  cannot  be  done  until  she  has 
made  provision  for  arming  such  companies.  At  present,  the  only  provision 
for  this  purpose  is  the  distribution  of  the  small  quota  of  arms  which  the 
State  receives  annually  from  the  General  Government,  and  which  is  wholly 
inadequate  to  the  demand.  The  consequence  is,  that  many  of  our  volunteer 
companies  are  without  arms,  while  many  others  would  be  organized  were  it 
known  that  they  could  be  supplied  with  suitable  arms. 

"  Frequent  applications  are  made  to  this  department  for  arms  with  a  view 
to  the  organization  of  new  volunteer  companies;  and  when  those  who  apply 
are  informed  that  they  cannot  be  supplied,  all  further  attempts  to  organize 
such  companies  are  abandoned. 

"  For  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  organization  of  volunteer  corps,  I 
recommend  that  all  laws  now  in  force  requiring  the  performance  of  military 
service  other  than  that  performed  by  volunteer  corps  be  suspended,  except 
in  case  of  insurrection  or  invasion ;  and  that  a  commutation  tax  be  assessed 
and  collected  from  each  person  of  twenty-one  years  of  age,  or  upwards,  who 
is  subject  to  do  military  duty  in  the  State,  and  who  is  not  a  member  of 
an  organized  volunteer  corps  which  drilled  at  least  once  a  month  through 
out  the  year  preceding  the  collection  of  the  tax.  This  tax  should  be 
large  enough  to  raise  a  sum  sufficient  to  arm  the  entire  volunteer  force  of 
the  State  with  the  latest  and  most  approved  style  of  arms.  As  soon  as  a 
sufficient  sum  shall  be  collected  in  this  way,  I  recommend,  as  a  means  of 
procuring  the  contemplated  arms,  that  it  be  expended  in  the  erection  at  some 
suitable  location  in  the  State  of  a  State  foundry  for  the  manufacture  of 
arms  and  other  munitions  of  war.  This  would  make  the  State  much  more 
independent  in  case  of  emergency.  The  God  of  nature  has  supplied  us,  in 
rich  profusion,  with  all  the  materials  necessary  to  the  accomplishment  of  this 
purpose. 

"  If  ample  provision  were  made  for  arming  our  volunteers,  they  would 
exhibit  much  military  pride;  and  the  young  gentlemen  educated  at  our  State 
military  institute  would,  in  all  probability,  be  elected  to  the  command  of 


166     MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BROWN. 

many  of  the  companies,  who  would  bring  into  practical  operation,  in  training 
our  militia,  the  science  and  skill  which  they  have  acquired  at  the  institute.  In 
case  of  war,  we  could  then  bring  into  the  field  a  large  force  of  well-trained 
volunteers,  commanded  by  officers  of  thorough  military  education,  who 
would,  in  almost  every  case,  be  natives  of  our  soil.  "Our  untrained  militia, 
if  called  into  the  field,  with  such  a  force  and  such  officers  at  their  head,  would 
at  once  become  infused  with  the  military  spirit,  and  soon  with  much  of  the 
military  skill,  of  the  volunteers,  and  would  constitute  with  them  an  invinci 
ble  army." 

Again  he  says,  in  urging  the  claims  of  the  military 
institute,  and  his  plans  for  its  success : — 

"  It  would  not  only  put  the  institute  upon  a  solid  basis,  and  add  largely  to  the 
number  of  educated  persons  in  our  State,  affording  a  collegiate  education  to 
many  of  the  poorest,  though  brightest  and  most  intellectual  boys  in  Georgia, 
but  would  diffuse  a  knowledge  of  military  science  among  the  people  of  every 
county  in  the  State;  which  all  must  admit,  in  these  perilous  times,  is  a 
desideratum  second  in  importance  to  no  other. 

"  We  should  not  only  arm  our  people,  but  we  should  educate  them  in  the 
use  of  arms,  and  the  whole  science  of  war.  We  know  not  how  soon  we  may 
be  driven  to  the  necessity  of  defending  our  rights  and  our  honor,  by  military 
force.  Let  us  encourage  the  development  of  the  rising  military  genius  of  our 
State;  and  guide,  by  the  lights  of  military  science,  the  energies  of  that 
patriotic  valor  which  nerves  the  stout  heart  and  strong  arm  of  many  a  young 
hero  in  our  midst  who  is  yet  unknown  to  fame." 

Following  these  vigorous  and  bold  enunciations  in  his 
general  message  of  November,  1860,  he  urged  the  erec 
tion  of  a  foundry  for  the  manufacture  of  arms  and  other 
munitions  of  war,  and  an  arsenal  for  the  arms  of  the  State. 

The  bold  and  dauntless  spirit  of  the  Governor,  who  had 
the  unrestricted  confidence  of  the  masses  of  the  people, 
produced  a  revolution  in  the  public  mind,  not  only  of 
opinion,  but  sentiment  and  feeling,  upon  the  matter 
of  the  public  preparation  for  defence,  and  the  prompt  use 
of  the  citizen  soldiery  of  the  State,  not  only  with  refer 
ence  to  the  then  possibility  of  a  conflict  with  the  Northern 
people,  but  to  the  public  defence  from  foreign  assaults,  as 
well  as  internal  disorder. 


MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BROWN.     167 

The  people  began  to  wake  up  from  the  many  years  of 
stupor  and  carelessness  and  inactivity  in  military  matters. 
They  knew  with  certainty  that  they  had  the  blood  of 
brave  ancestry  in  their  veins  ;  that  they  individually  were 
endowed  with  dauntless  courage  that  prepared  them  for 
the  imminent  deadly  breach,  and  for  any  feats  of  daring 
to  which  the  public  duty  or  private  demands  of  personal 
honor  might  summon  them. 

But  they  realized  an  almost  total  want  of  the  knowl 
edge  of  arms  and  of  war,  in  any  organized  method  of 
their  u^e,  as  well  as  of  discipline  and  drill  in  camp  and 
field.  Men  of  individual  courage,  but  strangers  to  the 
magic  power  and  effect  of  discipline,  drill,  and  the 
harmonious  movements  of  large  bodies  of  men  in  uni 
form.  Skilled  in  the  single  use  of  the  rifle,  they  knew 
not  its  potency  by  the  regiment  and  corps,  under 
simultaneous  obedience  to  orders. 

The  patriotic  spirit  of  the  Governor  was  caught  by 
the  people,  and  reflected  by  their  representatives  in  the 
Legislature.  And  large  numbers  of  volunteer  companies 
were  organized  in  the  towns  and  cities,  and  incorporated 
by  law,  with  liberal  provision  for  arms  at  the  expense 
of  the  State. 

In  the  course  of  his  three  years  of  administration  prior 
to  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  which  was  followed 
by  prompt  action  on  the  part  of  several  slaveholding 
States  to  secede  from  the  Union,  the  Governor  of  Georgia 
had  rapidly  advanced  from  the  position  of  a  young  and  in 
experienced  mountaineer  to  that  of  a  front  and  control 
ling  rank  among  Southern  governors  and  statesmen.  In 
this  position  he  combined  the  rare  qualities  that  had  en 
abled  him  to  leap  to  it  so  soon :  superior  ability,  sleep 
less  energy,  unequalled  forecast,  boldness,  full  confidence 


168     MILITARY  ADMINISTE ATION  OF  GOV.  BKOWN. 

in  the  great  results,  patriotic  devotion  to  his  section  and 
State  and  ardent  love  of  her  people,  ambition  for  fame 
to  be  achieved  by  faithful  and  beneficial  public  service, 
and  the  esteem  and  admiration  of  the  people  towards 
him.  Under  his  lead,  it  was  natural  for  his  State  to 
hold  an  important  and  controlling  influence  over  the  course 
of  the  Southern  people  in  the  then  approaching  crisis 
of  their  relations  with  the  Federal  government,  and 
States  of  the  North.  The  communications  of  her  Gov 
ernor,  in  connection  with  the  published  opinions  of  her 
leading  statesmen  holding  office  at  Washington,  were 
read  and  accepted  in  this  State,  and  in  every  part  of  the 
South  by  men  not  disposed  to  submit  to  Northern  aggres 
sion.  And  they  exercised  a  vast  and  rapid  influence  in 
preparing  the  public  mind  for,  and  raising  the  public 
temper  to  the  point  of,  armed  resistance  and  organized 
preparations  for  the  public  safety. 

On  the  assembling  of  the  Legislature,  when  the  result 
of  the  presidential  contest  was  not  reached,  the  Governor 
transmitted  the  invitation  of  South  Carolina  to  all  the 
Southern  States  to  meet  in  convention  to  "  concert  meas 
ures  for  united  action,"  which  had  been  accepted  by  the 
States  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  and  declined  by  Vir 
ginia,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Texas.  He  advised 
against  this  movement  because  so  few  States  would  be 
represented  in  it,  and  therefore  but  little  good  could 
be  expected  to  result  from  it. 

In  the  same  special  message  he  used  the  following 
pointed  language  : — 

"  If  it  is  ascertained  that  the  Black  Republicans  have  triumphed  over  us,  I 
recommmend  the  call  of  a  Convention  of  the  people  of  the  State  at  an  early 
day ;  and  I  will  cordially  unite  with  the  General  Assembly  in  any  action, 
which,  in  their  judgment,  may  be  necessary  to  the  protection  of  the  rights 
and  the  preservation  of  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  Georgia  against  the 


MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BROWN.     169 

further  aggressions  of  an  enemy,  which,  when  flushed  with  victory,  will  be 
insolent  in  the  hour  of  triumph. 

"For  the  purpose  of  putting  this  State  in  a  defensive  condition  as  fast  as 
possible,  and  preparing  for  an  emergency  which  must  be  met  sooner  or  later, 
I  recommend  that  the  sum  of  one  million  of  dollars  be  immediately  appropri 
ated  as  a  military  fund  for  the  ensuing  year;  and  that  prompt  provision  be 
made  for  raising  such  portion  of  the  money  as  may  not  be  in  Treasury  as 
fast  as  the  public  necessities  may  require  its  expenditure.  *  Millions  for 
defence,  but  not  a  cent  for  tribute,'  should  be  the  future  motto  of  the  South 
ern  States. 

"  To  every  demand  for  further  concession,  or  compromise  of  our  rights,  we 
should  reply,  *  The  argument  is  exhausted,'  and  we  now  '  stand  by  our 
arms.' " 

This  message  was  sent  to  them  on  November  7th,  and 
on  the  16th  the  Governor  approved  a  bill  appropriating 
$1,000,000  as  a  military  fund  for  the  year  1861,  "  for  the 
protection  of  the  rights  and  preservation  of  the  liberties 
of  the  people  of  Georgia/*  "  to  be  expended  by  the 
Governor  in  such  manner  as  he  may  deem  best  for  the 
purpose  of  placing  the  State  in  a  condition  of  defence/' 
etc. 

In  this  special  message  on  federal  relations  prepared 
pending  the  presidential  contest,  he  presented  the  subject 
of  the  violation  of  constitutional  obligations  by  several 
of  the  Northern  States  by  the  passage  of  severe  laws 
against  reclamation  of  fugitive  slaves,  as  required  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  provided  for  by  Act 
of  Congress,  and  argued  the  matter  with  great  ability  and 
at  length;  and  recommended  retaliatory  legislation  on  the 
part  of  this  State.  But  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  tr.ans- 
pired  ;  and  the  General  Assembly  adopted  the  plan  of  call 
ing  a  State  convention,  and  providing  for  military  defence 
as  recommended  in  that  contingency. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SECESSION   OF    COTTON-GROWING  STATES,  AND   ORGANI 
ZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

The  seventh  day  of  November,  A.  D.,  I860,  the  na 
tional  election  day,  to  which  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  divided  in  interest  and  consequently  in  opinion 
and  feeling,  looked  anxiously,  had  dawned  upon  us.  Its 
sun  had  risen  with  bright  beams  of  hope  and  promise  to 
the  infatuated  and  aggressive  majority  section.  But  a 
deep  gloom  and  oppressive  foreboding  had  settled  on  the 
great  popular  heart  in  the  South.  Conscious  of  numeri 
cal  weakness,  as  the  North  was  of  strength,  the  bitter  cup 
seemed  about  to  be  presented  to  the  unwilling  lips  of  the 
Southern  people  ;  to  drink  which  portended  political  death; 
to  refuse  and  repel  it  was  to  change  the  strife  from  the 
forum  to  the  tented  field  of  war ;  froin  the  hitherto  peace 
ful  and  harmless  pla}T  of  the  ballot  to  that  of  the  direful 
bayonet  and  bullet ;  to  replace  the  eloquence  of  the  hust 
ings  and  legislative  hall  by  the  tread  of  armed  legions, 
and  the  hgarse  music  of  artillery  and  muskets.  Two  great 
peoples,  long  bound  together  by  common  ties  of  mutual 
interest  and  protection,  still  held  together  by  the  tenure 
of  law  and  organized  government,  had  grown  into  im 
mense  sectional  factions,  and  feeling  themselves  separate 
and  distinct,  in  interest,  in  aims,  and  destiny,  were  about 
to  argue  with  each  other,  with  lead  instead  of  logic,  the 
vexed  problems"  the  latter  had  failed  to  solve  ;  were  about 
to  reach  a  final  analysis  in  the  flow  of  the  blood  of  broth- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDEKACY.         171 

ers.  The  love  that  had  long  warmed  the  national  heart, 
and  blended  the  once  weak  and  dependent  sections  in  a 
common  and  apparently  indissoluble  tie  of  friendship  and 
union,  was  already  in  great  part  changed  into  hatred  as 
intense  as  the  human  heart  and  mind  can  feel  without 
special  individual  insult  and  injury. 

The  people  of  the  South  approached  the  polls  of  the 
election  with  a  seriousness  and  earnestness  becoming  the 
great  crisis  which  had  been  reached.  Some  believed  that 
defeat  in  the  election  was  a  foregone  conclusion ;  others 
trusted  that  an  overruling  Providence  would  give  some  di 
rection  to  the  raging  storm  which  would  be  compatible 
with  the  safety  and  honor  of  our  section  and  people,  while 
many  were  credulous  enough  to  believe  that  their  respect 
ive  candidates  would  be  elected.  But  within  a  few  hours 
after  the  ballotings  had  ceased,  the  telegrams  displaced 
all  doubts,  and  broke  to  the  Southern  mind  the  awful 
truth — that  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  nominee  and  standard 
bearer  of  the  great  Northern  Republican  party,  was,  by 
a  triumphant  majority  vote  in  the  electoral  college,  the 
president  elect  of  the  United  States. 

The  pause  that  ensued  was  awful  but  brief;  the  shock 
was  overpowering  and  the  effects  visible  upon  all  classes 
of  our  people.  But  the  chilled  blood  which  had  returned 
to  the  heart,  leaving  paleness  to  the  cheek  and  bringing 
tremor  to  the  nerves,  soon  reacted  under  the  smart  of 
wounded  honor,  and  resumed  its  course  of  circulation 
with  double  speed.  Where  lately  sat  a  shadow  of  dread 
and  gloom,  now  presented  to  every  beholder  a  look  of 
defiance.  Where  hesitation  and  doubt  had  given  a  sickly 
cast  to  every  effort  and  action,  now  all  was  alive  with 
fixed  purpose  and  resolution. 

The  telegrams  which  announced  to  the  South  the  tri- 


172       SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GKOWING  STATES. 

umph  of  the  Republicans  were  almost  instantaneously 
responded  to  by  the  announcement  that  the  legislative 
councils  of  the  States  of  the  South,  in  session,  were  call 
ing  the  people  together  in  State  conventions  to  consider 
the  mode  and  measure  of  their  safety.  And  the  Execu 
tives  of  those  States  whose  Legislatures  were  not  in 
session  were  calling  them  to  assemble  for  the  same  pur 
pose.  There  was  an  earnestness  patent  upon  the  face  of 
the  bulletins  of  that  time  which  could  not  fail  to  impress 
the  victors  of  the  ballot-box  that  their  triumph  was  not 
complete  ;  and  that  a  great  barrier  to  their  aims  was  soon 
to  be  set  up  in  the  form  of  a  concentration  on  the  part  of 
the  cotton  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  to  withdraw 
from  the  Union  and  organize  a  separate  government ; 
and  a  strong  probability  that  the  mother  of  States  and 
statesmen,  the  cradle  and  grave  of  heroes,  old  Virginia, 
would  ally  herself  with  her  Southern  sisters  ;  and  that 
North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas  would  follow ; 
with  a  reasonable  probability  that  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
and  Maryland  would  sooner  or  later  cast  their  fortunes 
with  us.  The  time  to  intervene  between  the  election  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  the  7th  of  November,  and  the  4th  of  March 
when  he  was  to  be  installed  into  office  and  invested  with 
the  executive  authority  of  the  government,  was  not  quite 
four  months.  Hence  the  time  given  by  the  State  Legis 
latures  for  popular  deliberations  was  short,  they  being 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  prompt  and  immediate 
decision  was  necessary  in  the  then  emergency  of  the 
country. 

We  have  already  sketched  the  reasons  and  considera 
tions  moving  the  people  to  action,  in  which,  seemingly  by 
a  general  consent,  the  lead  was  awarded  to  South  Caro- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         173 

lina.  Her  sterling  purpose  for  many  years  past  to  resist 
the  encroachments  of  Federal  authority,  and  the  promi 
nence  which  her  debates  had  given  her,  and  the  general 
confidence  in  the  sincerity  of  her  statesmen,  and  the  virtue 
and  fidelity  of  her  people,  seem  to  have  awarded  to  that 
State  the  front  rank  in  the  movement  of  secession.  Her 
ordinance  of  secession  was  adopted  on  the  20th  of  Decem 
ber,  A.  D.,  1860  ;  that  of  Mississippi  on  the  9th,  and  Ala 
bama  and  Florida  on  the  llth,  Georgia  on  the  19th, 
Louisiana  on  the  26th  of  January,  A.  D.,  1861,  and  that  of 
Texas  on  the  first  day  of  February. 

The  aggregate  vote  of  the  people  against  the  candi 
dates  who  were  in  favor  of  immediate  and  separate  State 
action,  as  well  as  the  vote  of  delegates  in  some  of  the 
State  conventions,  was  large.  The  actions  of  the  conven 
tions  were  generally  made  unanimous,  or  nearly  so,  after  a 
test  vote  had  been  taken  and  the  decision  of  the  respective 
States  for  secession  clearly  ascertained.  By  which  course 
the  dissenting  delegates  gave  in  their  adhesion  to  the  will 
of  the  majority,  and  avowed  their  purpose  to  adhere  to 
and  defend  the  States  to  which  they  respectively  be 
longed.  In  which  example  they  were  generally  followed 
by  the  dissenting  people  at  home.  The  mode  adopted  by 
the  several  seceding  States  to  give  effect  to  the  purpose 
of  secession  was  to  pass  in  their  several  conventions  an 
ordinance  repealing  the  ordinance  by  which  they  became 
attached  to  the  Federal  Union.  To  illustrate  this  form  of 
proceeding  we  annex  here  a  copy  of  the  ordinance  passed 
by  the  Georgia  convention  : — 


174      SECESSION  OF  COTTOX-GKOWING  STATES. 

AN  ORDINANCE 

TO  DISSOLVE  THE  UNION  BETWEEN  THE  STATE  OF  GEORGIA  AND  OTHER 
STATKS  UNITED  WITH  HER  UNDER  A  COMPACT  OF  GOVERNMENT  EN 
TITLED  "  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA." 

We,  the  people  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  in  convention  assembled,  do  declare  and 
ordain,  and  it  is  hereby  declared  and  ordained, 

That  the  ordinance  adopted  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  Georgia  in  con 
vention,  on  the  second  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  seventeen 
hundred  and  eighty-eight,  whereby  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of 
America  was  assented  to,  ratified,  and  adopted ;  and  also  all  acts  and  parts 
of  acts  of  the  General  Assembly  of  this  State  ratifying  and  adopting  amend 
ments  of  the  said  Constitution,  are  hereby  repealed,  rescinded,  and  abrogated. 

We  do  further  declare  and  ordain,  That  the  Union  now  subsisting  between 
the  State  of  Georgia  and  other  States,  under  the  name  of  the  "  United 
States  of  America,"  is  hereby  dissolved,  and  that  the  State  of  Georgia  is  in 
the  full  possession  and  exercise  of  all  those  rights  of  sovereignty  which  belong 
and  appertain  to  a  free  and  independent  State. 

On  the  motion  of  Judge  Nesbit,  the  author  of  the  ordi 
nance,  it  was  engrossed  on  parchment,  signed  by  the 
delegates,  and  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  State. 
The  following  is  a  list  of  the  convention,  those  voting 
against  the  ordinance  marked  with  a  *  the  balance 
voting  for  it.  The  vote  stood  208  to  89. 

AppUng — Seaborn  Hall,  J.  H.  Latimer. 

Banks— *W.  R.  Bell,  S.  W.  Pruett. 

Baker— A.  H.  Colquitt,  C.  D.  Hammond. 

Baldwin — *A.  H.  Kenan,  L.  H.  Briscoe. 

Berrien— *W.  J.  Mabry,  J.  C.  Lamb. 

Bibb — Washington  Poe,  John  B.  Lamar,  E.  A.  Nisbet. 

Brooks — C.  S.  Gaulden,  Henry  Briggs. 

Bryan— C.  C.  Slater,  J.  P.  Hines. 

Bulloch — S.  L.  Moore,  Samuel  Harville. 

Burke— E.  A.  Allen,  E.  B.  Gresham,  W.  B.  Jones. 

Butts — D.  J.  Bailey,  Henry  Hendricks. 

Camden — N.  J.  Patterson,  F.  M.  Adams. 

Campbell— J.  M.  Cantrell,  T.  C.  Glover. 

Calhoun— W.  G.  Sheffield,  E.  Padgett. 

Carrot— B.  W.  Wright,  B,  W.  Hargrave,  Allen  Rowe. 

Cass-*W.  T.  Wofford,  *H.  F.  Price,  *T.  H.  Trippe. 

Catoosa— *Presley  Yates,  J  T.  McConnell. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         175 

Charlton—*F.  M.  Smith,  H.  M.  Mershon. 

Chatham— F.  S.  Bartow,  A.  S.  Jones,  John  W.  Anderson. 

Chatlooga — *  Wesley  Shropshire,  *L.  Williams. 

Cherokee— W.  A.  Teasley,  E.  E.  Fields,  John  McConnell. 

Clark— T.  R.  R.  Cobb,  Asbury  Hull,  Jefferson  Jennings. 

Clayton — *R.  E.  Morrow,  James  F.  Johnston. 

Clay—W.  H.  C.  Davenport,  B.  F.  Burnett. 

Clinch — Benjamin  Sermons,  F.  G.  Ramsey. 

Cobb—G.  D.  Rice,  A.  A.  W^inn,  E.  H.  Lindley. 

Coffee— *Ro\van  Pafford,  *J.  H.  Frier. 

Columbia— W.  A.  S.  Collins,  H.  R.  Casey,  R.  S.  Neal. 

Colquitt — H.  C.  Tucker,  John  G.  Coleman. 

Coweta— A.  B.  Calhouu,  J.  J.  Pinson,  W.  B.  Shell. 

Crawford — W.  C.  Cleveland,  Isaac  Dennis. 

Dade—*S.  C.  Hale,  *R.  M:  Pariss. 

Da Wson—* Alfred  Webb,  *R.  H.  Pierce. 

Decalur — Richard  Simms,  C.  J.  Munnerlyn,  B.  H.  Gee. 

De  Kalb— Charles  Murphy,  *G.  K.  Smith. 

Dooly — John  S.  Thomas,  Elijah  Butts. 

Dougherty— Richard  H.  Clark,  C.  E.  Mallary. 

Early— II.  W.  Sheffield,  James  Buchanan. 

Echols — Harris  Tomlinson,  J.  B.  Prescott. 

Effingham — E.  W.  Solomons,  A.  G.  Porter. 

E/bfrt—J.  C.  Burch,  L.  H.  0.  Martin. 

Emanuel — *A.  L.  Kirkland,  *John  Overstreet. 

Fannin—*W.  C.  Fain,  E.  W.  Cbastain. 

Fayette—hL  M.  Tidwell,  J.  L.  Blalock. 

Floyd — James  Ward,  Simpson  Fouche,  F.  C.  Shropshire. 

Forsyth— Hardy  Strickland,  *H.  P.  Bell. 

Franklin — *John  H.  Patrick,  *Samuel  Knox. 

Fulton — J.  P.  Alexander,  L.  J.  Glenn,  J.  P.  Logan.  i 

Glnsscock — Joshua  F.  Usry,  Calvin  Logue. 

Gilmer—* Joseph  Pickett,  *\V.  P.  Milton. 

Gordon — W.  H.  Dabney,  *James  Freeman,  R.  M.  Young. 

Greene— N.  M.  Crawford,  R.  J.  Willis,  T.  N.  Poullain. 

Gwinnett— *R.  D.  Winn,  *J.  P.  Simmons,  *T.  P.  Hudson. 

I/abersham — R.  C.  Ketchum,  Singleton  Sisk. 

Hall—*E.  M.  Johnson,  *P.  M.  Byrd,  *Davis  Whelchel. 

Hancock— *Linton  Stephens,  B.  T.  Harris,  T.  M.  Turner. 

Haralson— W.  J.  Head,  B.  R.  Walton. 

Harris— D.  P.  Hill,  W.  J.  Hudson,  H.  D.  Williams. 

Hart— R.  S.  Hill,  J.  E.  Skelton. 

Heard— *R.  P.  Wood,  *C.  W.  Mabry. 

Henry— *F.  E.  Manson,  *E.  B.  Arnold,  J.  H.  Low. 


176       SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GROWING  STATES. 

i 

Houston— J.  M.  Giles,  D.  F.  Gunn,  B.  W.  Brown. 

frurin — M.  Henderson,  *  Jacob  Young. 

Jackson — J.  J.  McCulloch,  J.  G.  Pitman,  D.  R.  Lyle. 

Jasper — *Aris  Newton,  *Reuben  Jordan,  Jr. 

Jefferson — *H.  V.  Johnson,  *George  Stapleton. 

Johnson — *  William  Hust,  *J.  R.  Smith. 

Jones — James  M.  Gray,  P.  T.  Pitts. 

Laurens — Nathan  Tucker,  J.  W.  Yopp. 

Lee — W.  B.  Richardson,  Goode  Bryan. 

Liberty— W.  B.  Fleming,  S.  M.  Varnadoe. 

Lowndes — C.  H.  M.  Howell,  Isaiah  Tilman. 

Lumpkin — *Benjamin  Hamilton,  *William  Martin. 

Madison— J.  S.  Gholston,  A.  C.  Daniel. 

Macon — W.  H.  Robinson,  J.  H.  Carson. 

Marion — W.  M.  Brown,  J.  M.  Harvey. 

Mclntofh—J.  M.  Harris,  G.  W.  M.  Williams. 

Meriwether — H.  R.  Harris,  W.  D.  Martin,  *  Hiram  Warner. 

Miller— W.  J.  Cheshier,  C.  L.  Whitehead. 

Milton — *Jackson  Graham,  *J.  C.  Street. 

Mitchell—  William  T.  Cox,  Jesse  Reed. 

Monroe — R.  L.  Roddey,  *Hiram  Phinizy,  Jr.,  J.  T.  Stephens. 

Montgomery — *T.  M.  McRhae,  *S.  H.  Latimer. 

Morgan — Thomas  P.  Saffold,  Augustus  Reese. 

Murray — *Anderson  Farnsworth,  *Euclid  Waterhouse. 

Muscogee — J.  N.  Ramsey,  Henry  L.  Benning,  A.  S.  Rutherford. 

Newton — W.  S.  Montgomery,  Alexander  Means,  *Purmedus  Reynolds. 

Of/lethorpe — D.  D.  Johnson,  Samuel  Glenn,  *Willis  Willinghara. 

Paulding — Henry  Lester,  J.  Y.  Algood. 

Pickens — *James  Simmons,  *W.  T.  Day. 

Pierce— E.  D.  Hendry,  J.  W.  Stevens. 

Pike—R.  B.  Gardener,  G.  M.  McDowell. 

Polk—W.  E.  West,  *T.  W.  Dupree. 

Pulatki— T.  J.  McGriff,  C.  M.  Bozeman. 

Putnam— *R.  T.  Davis,  D.  R.  Adams. 

Quitman — E.  C.  Ellington,  L.  P.  Dozier. 

Rabun— *Samuel  Beck,  *H.  W.  Cannon. 

Randolph — Marcellus  Douglas,  Arthur  Hood. 

Richmond — George  W.  Crawford,  J.  Phinizy,  Sr.,  J.  P.  Garvin, 

ScJdey—K.  L.  French,  W.  A.  Black. 

Scriven — C.  Humphries,  J.  L.  Singleton. 

Spaulding — W.  G.  Dewberry,  Henry  Moor. 

Stewart — James  A.  Fort,  James  Hilliard,  G.  Y.  Banks. 

Sumter — W.  A.  Hawkins,  T.  M.  Furlow,  Henry  Davenport. 

Talbot—*W.  R.  Neal.  W.  B.  Marshall,  L.  B.  Smith. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.        177 

Taliafcrro—* Alexander  H.  Stephens,  *S.  H.  Perkins. 

Tatnall— *Benjamin  Brewton,  *Henry  Strickland. 

Taylor— *W.  J.  F.  Mitchell,  H.  H.  Long. 

Telfair — *H.  McLean,  *James  Williamson. 

Terrell— *William  Harrington,  *D.  A.  Cochran. 

Thomas— A.  H.  Hansell,  S.  B.  Spencer,  W.  G.  Ponder. 

Towns — *John  Corn,  *Elijah  Kimsey. 

Troup— B.  H.  Hill,  W.  P.  Beasley,  J.  E.  Beall. 

Ticiggs — John  Fitzpatrick,  S.  L.  Richardson. 

Union— *J.  H.  Huggins,  *J.  P.  Welborn. 

Upson—*P.  W.  Alexander,  *T.  S.  Sherman. 

Walker— *G.  G.  Gordon,  *R.  B.  Dickerson,  *T.  A.  Sharpe. 

Walton— George  Spence,  *  Willis  Kilgore,  H.  D.  McDaniel. 

Ware—W.  A.  McDonald,  C.  W.  Stiles. 

Warren— ML.  D.  Cody,  N.  A.  Wicker. 

Wayne — Henry  Fort,  H.  A.  Cannon. 

Washington — E.  S.  Langmade,  Lewis  Billiard,  A.  C.  Harris. 

Webster— P.  F.  Brown,  M.  H.  Bush. 

White— Isaac  Bowen,  *E.  F.  Starr. 

Whitfield — *J.  M.  Jackson,  F.  A.  Thomas,  *Dickerson  Taliaferro. 

Wilcox— D.  A.  McLeod,  Smith  Turner. 

Wilkes — Robert  Toombs,  J.  J.  Robertson. 

Wilkinson— *N.  A.  Carswell,  *R.  J.  Cochran. 

Worth— II.  G.  Ford,  Sr.,  T.  T.  Mounger. 

Before  the  introduction  of  the  ordinance  a  test  vote 
was  had  upon  a  simple  resolution  offered  by  Judge  Nes- 
bit,  in  these  words  : — 

Resolved.  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  Convention,  it  is  the  right  and  duty 
of  Georgia  to  secede  from  the  present  Union,  and  to  co-operate  with  such  of 
the  other  States  as  have  or  shall  do  the  same,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a 
Southern  Confederacy  upon  the  basis  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

The  vote  on  this  was  the  test  of  the  question  of  imme 
diate  secession  and  stood  166  to  130.  Forty-one  mem 
bers,  after  the  main  question  had  been  thus  decided,  left 
the  eighty-nine,  voting  with  the  majority.  They  were 
Messrs.  Adams,  Beasley,  Black,  Bowen,  Briscoe,  Brown 
of  Marion,  Brown  of  Webster,  Bullard,  Bush,  Casey, 

Cody,  Collins,  Crawford  of  Green,  French,  Haines,  Harris 
12 


178      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GROWING  STATES. 

of  Hancock,  Henderson,  Hill  of  Harris,  Hill  of  Troup, 
Hudson  of  Harris,  Johnson  of  Clayton,  Ketchum,  Lamar 
of  Lincoln,  Langmade,  Low,  Long,  McDaniel,  Means, 
Mershon,  Neal  of  Columbia,  Saffold,  Sisk,  Smith  of  Tal- 
bot,  Spence,  Stephens  of  Monroe,  Teasley,  Thomas  of 
W  bitfield,  Tucker  of  Hancock,  Wicker,  Williams  of  Har 
ris,  and  Yopp. 

OCCUPATION  OF  FORT  PULASKI. 

The  two  channels  of  Savannah  river  at  its  mouth  are 
commanded  by  Fort  Pulaski,  on  Cockspur,  a  low,  marshy 
island  a  half  mile  wide,  situated  at  the  head  of  Tybee 
roads.  It  is  a  five  sides  work,  of  seven  and  a  half  feet 
walls  twenty-five  feet  above  water,  surrounded  by  a 
forty-eight  feet  wet  ditch.  The  fort  is  capable  of  mount 
ing  one  hundred  and  forty  guns.  It  had  only  twenty 
thirty-two  pound  guns,  with  limited  supply  of  ammunition 
and  stores,  and  without  a  military  force,  being  in  charge 
of  an  ordnance  sergeant  and  his  assistants. 

It  was  manifest  that  the  policy  of  the  United  States 
was  coercion  by  armed  forces  in  case  the  secession  move 
ment  should  be  carried  into  effect,  and  the  States  seced 
ing  disregard  the  authority  of  the  general  government, 
and  that  the  arms  and  fortifications  of  the  government 
would  be  placed  in  condition  to  be  promptly  used  for  that 
purpose.  The  occupation  of  this  fort,  by  the  State,  was 
regarded  by  Governor  Brown,  and  all  the  leading  men  of 
the  State,  as  of  the  first  importance  in  the  event  of  an  at 
tempt  to  invade  and  subjugate  it.  It  was  also  regarded 
as  scarcely  less  important  that  it  should  be  done  promptly, 
while  there  were  no  forces  there  to  resist,  and  the  taking 
of  it  would  be  unattended  with  violence  and  bloodshed, 
and  consequent  popular  exasperation  North  and  South. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         179 

While  secession  was  the  fixed  purpose,  it  was  only  first 
in  magnitude  and  importance  to  the  preservation  of 
peace  between  the  sections,  if  indeed  such  were  possible 
and  practical,  and,  whatever  doubt  any  may  have  then 
entertained,  the  prudence  and  wisdom  of  this,  by  some 
called  rashness  and  folly,  were  soon  after  fully  verified 
by  transpiring  events. 

Governor  Brown,  who  had  established  headquarters 
at  the  city  of  Savannah  in  order  to  act  promptly  in  any 
emergency  as  cominander-in-chief,  on  the  second  day  of 
January,  1861,  issued  to  Colonel  Alexander  E.  Lawton 
commanding  1st  regiment  Georgia  volunteers,  an  order 
reciting,  among  other  things : — 

"  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  government  at  "Washington  has,  as  we  are 
informed  upon  high  authority,  decided  on  the  policy  of  coercing  a  seceding 
State  back  into  the  Union,  and  it  is  believed  now  has  a  movement  on  foot  to 
reinforce  Fort  Sumter  at  Charleston,  and  to  occupy  with  Federal  troops  the 
Southern  forts,  including  Fort  Pulaski  in  this  State,  which  if  done  will  give 
the  Federal  government  in  any  contest  great  advantages  over  the  people 
in  this  State,  to  the  end  therefore  that  this  stronghold,  which  commands 
also  the  entrance  into  Georgia,  may  not  be  occupied  by  any  hostile  force 
until  the  convention  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  which  is  to  meet  on  the 
16th  instant,  has  decided  on  the  policy  which  Georgia  will  adopt  in  this  emer 
gency,  you  are  ordered  to  take  possession  of  Fort  Pulaski,  as  by  public  order 
herewith,  and  to  hold  it  against  all  persons,  to  be  abandoned  only  under  or 
ders  from  me,  or  under  compulsion  by  an  overpowering  hostile  force." 

On  the  morning  of  the  third  of  January,  Colonel  Law- 
ton,  in  obedience  to  the  Governor's  order,  embarked  on 
board  a  steamer  at  Savannah,  in  command  of  detachments 
from  the  Chatham  artillery,  Captain  Cleghorn ;  the  Sa 
vannah  volunteer  guards,  Captain  Screven;  and  Ogle-4 
thorpe  light  infantry,  Captain  Bartow ;  numbering  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  men  and  officers ;  and  at  noon 
of  that  day  took  formal  possession  of  the  fort  in  the  name 
of  the  State  of  Georgia,  and  without  encountering  any  re- 


180      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GKOWING  STATES. 

sistance.  Her  flag  was  raised  and  saluted  above  the  bat 
tlements  of  the  fort,  where  it  continued  to  float  over  her 
troops  until  they  were  transferred  to  the  Confederacy, 
with  the  command  of  the  fort ;  and  was  lowered  to  give 
place  to  that  of  the  newly  formed  government. 

This  independent  and  prompt  action  by  the  Executive 
was  sanctioned  by  the  secession  convention  on  the  18th 
of  the  same  month,  by  the  following  resolution : — 

"  That  this  convention  highly  approves  the  energetic  and  patriotic  conduct 
of  Governor  Brown  in  taking  possession  of  Fort  Pulaski  by  Georgia  troops, 
and  requests  him  to  hold  possession  until  the  relations  of  Georgia  with  the 
Federal  government  be  determined  by  this  convention." 

Two  STATE  KEGIMENTS  ANTERIOR  TO  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

The  convention  after  adopting  the  secession  ordinance 
with  the  view  to  provide  for  the  defence  of  the  State  by 
ordinance  authorized  the  Governor  to  raise  and  equip  a 
military  force  not  to  exceed  two  regiments  of  infantry,  or 
infantry  and  artillery  in  such  proportion  as  he  should  di 
rect.  He  proceeded  to  raise  and  equip  one  regiment  of 
regulars,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Charles  J.  Wil 
liams,  and  a  regiment  of  volunteers  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Paul  J.  Semmes.  He  had  continued,  after  tak 
ing  possession,  to  hold  the  fort  and  garrison  the  river 
approaches  to  Savannah,  and  to  project  and  carry  forward 
such  improvements  as  he  was  able  to  do  by  the  aid  of 
slave-laborers  tendered  by  planters,  and  by  the  troops 
under  his  command,  mainly  the  volunteer  companies  of 
Savannah,  up  to  the  time,  in  April  following,  when  the 
first  regiment  of  regulars  was  distributed  at  Savannah, 
Fort  Jackson,  on  the  river,  Fort  Pulaski,  and  on  Tybee 
Island.  These  regiments  by  ordinance  of  the  Convention 
had  been  transferred  to  the  Confederate  Governor,  and 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         181 

early  in  the  summer  of  1861  were  sent  to  the  Virginia 
front. 

TRANSFER  TO  CONFEDERACY. 

By  ordinances  of  the  convention  of  March  20,  all  the 
military  operations  in  the  State  having  reference  to  or 
questions  between  this  State  or  any  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America  and  powers  foreign  to  them,  and  the 
arms  and  munitions  of  war  acquired  from  the  United 
States  with  the  forts  and  arsenals,  and  which  were  then 
in  the  said  forts  and  arsenals,  were  transferred  to  the  Con 
federate  States;  and  that  government  was  authorized  to 
occupy,  use,  and  hold  possession  of  all  the  forts,  navy 
yards,  arsenals,  custom  houses,  and  other  public  sites  and 
their  appurtenances  within  the  limits  of  this  State,  and 
lately  in  possession  of  the  United  States  of  America ;  and 
to  repair,  rebuild,  and  control  the  same  at  its  discretion, 
until  said  ordinance  be  repealed  by  a  convention  of  the 
people  of  Georgia. 

EXERCISE  OF  SEPARATE  STATE  SOVEREIGNTY. 

After  the  passage  of  the  ordinance  of  secession  by  the 
several  conventions  composed  of  delegates  representing 
the  people  of  the  seceding  States  respectively,  the  Execu 
tives  thereof  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  new  union  rep 
resented  by  common  government  acted  upon  the  theory 
that  each  for  the  time  intervening  was  a  separate  and 
distinct  sovereign  power,  having  withdrawn  all  delegated 
powers  and  rehabilitated  themselves  with  all  the  attributes 
of  sovereignty  as  if  each  had  been  a  free  and  independent 
nation.  This  was  in  full  accord  with  the  doctrine  and 
theory  of  State  rights  as  understood  by  the  great  and 
gifted  leaders  of  Southern  opinion,  and  consequently  the 
Governors  of  seceded  States  were  well  upheld  and  sus- 


182      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GBOWING  STATES. 

tained  by  the  judgment  and  sympathy  of  statesmen  and  by 
the  great  volume  of  public  virtue  and  intelligence. 

In  Georgia  this  was  strikingly  illustrated  in  several  ex 
citing  instances.  The  government  had  at  the  arsenal  at 
Augusta  a  company  of  United  States  troops  under  the 
command  of  Capt.  Arnold  Elzey,  with  the  government 
flag  waving  over  them  on  Georgia  soil,  a  battery  of  can 
non,  twenty  thousand  stand  of  muskets,  and  large  quanti 
ties  of  ammunition. 

Governor  Brown  determined  that  this  state  of  affairs 
was  inconsistent  with  the  sovereignty  and  independence 
of  the  State,  and  decided  upon  the  seizure  of  the  arsenal, 
arms,  and  military  stores  and  holding  them  under  the  au 
thority  of  Georgia.  Hon.  Henry  E-.  Jackson  who  had  been 
judge  of  the  Savannah  district  in  early  life,  commanded  the 
regiment  of  Georgia  volunteers  in  the  Mexican  war  at  a  still 
earlier  period,  and  was  later  a  minister  to  the  court  of  Aus 
tria  under  President  Buchanan,  and  a  life-long  prominent 
Democratic  leader  in  the  State,  enthused  by  the  novel 
and  threatening  aspect  of  piiblic  affairs,  became  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Governor's  staff  as  aid-de-camp,  as  did  Gen 
eral  William  Phillips.  Attended  by  these  and  a  small 
force  the  Governor  in  person  demanded  to  occupy  the  ar 
senal,  arms,  and  stores.  Captain  Elzey,  a  brave  officer  but 
not  hostile  in  feeling  to  the  South,  at  first  refused  under 
'a sense  of  duty  to  the  government;  but  at  last  and  with 
out  violent  collision  yielded  to  the  necessity  which  would 
have  forced  the  surrender,  in  the  conduct  of  which  he 
was  treated  with  all  courtesy  and  consideration  due  to 
himself,  his  men,  and  the  United  States  government. 

About  the  time  of  the  secession  of  this  State  there 
were  shipments  of  arms  being  made  from  New  York 
which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  authorities  there. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         183 

Some  of  the  arms  were  claimed  and  proven  to  be  private 
property  shipped  for  sale  by  merchants.  But  all  the  cir 
cumstances  indicate  that  the  authorities  of  this  State 
were  preparing  for  the  emergency  which  in  fact  soon  after 
arose.  These  arms  were  seized  at  New  York  under  the 
authority  of  the  police  of  the  city,  held  adversely  and 
against  the  authority  and  people  of  Georgia. 

It  was  an  occasion  for  and  which  summoned  the  prompt 
action  of  her    Governor   and   commander-in-chief.     He 
made  his  demand  direct  upon  Governor  Morgan  of  the 
State  of  New  York  for  the  release  of  the  arms.     The  man 
ner  of  the  United  States  government   had   been    most 
contemptuous    toward   the    seceding    States,    and  Gov 
ernor  Morgan  at  first  so  treated  the  Governor's  demand 
for  the  arms ;  paying  no  attention  and  making  no  reply. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  days  of  this  contemptuous  silence, 
Governor  Brown  determined  to  enforce  his  demand  by  re 
prisal  upon  the  property  of  citizens  of  New  York  in  this 
State.     There  were  several  vessels  at  the  port  of  Savan 
nah,  which,  by  order  of  the  Governor,  Colonel  Henry  R. 
Jackson  promptly  seized  and  held,  under  the  military  au 
thority  and  in  the  custody  of  the  State,  until  the  restitu 
tion  of  the  arms  demanded  by  Governor  Brown  should 
be  made  by  the  Governor  of  New  York,  and  which  were 
forcibly  held  by  the  police  of  New  York  city.     This  led 
to  a  correspondence  between  the  two  Governors,  which, 
after  much  cavil  and  some  delay,  resulted  in  conceding 
the  demand  on  the  part  of  Governor  Morgan,  the  release 
and  sending  forward  of  the  captured  arms;  and  the  final 
release  of  the  New  York  vessels  held  under  the  Governor's 
order  by  Colonel  Jackson  in  the  river  at  Savannah. 

The  State  convention,  as  a  provisional  measure  of  pub 
lic  safety,  as  elsewhere  stated,  authorized  the  Governor 


184      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GKOWING  STATES. 

to  raise  and  equip  two  regiments,  to  act  under  his  author 
ity  as  commander-in-chief.  The  first,  known  through 
the  war  as  the  first  regiment  of  Georgia  regulars,  was 
recruited  and  formed  by  individual  enlistments,  they  be 
ing  formed  into  companies  and  officered  by  his  appoint 
ment.  He  was  also  authorized  to  purchase  steamboats 
for  the  defence  of  the  river  approaches.  These  were 
placed  under  the  command  of  Commodore  Tatnall,  a  na 
tive  of  Georgia,  who,  having  resigned  his  place  in  the 
United  States  navy,  accepted  service  under  Georgia  by 
the  appointment  of  her  Governor. 

These  land  and  naval  forces,  weak  and  crude  as  they 
were  compared  with  those  of  the  United  States  govern 
ment  then  being  put  in  order  and  marshalled  to  subjugate 
the  South,  were  all  under  the  command  of  Henry  R.  Jack 
son,  whom  the  Governor  had  appointed  brigadier-general, 
who  held  the  command  until  the  organization  of  the  Con 
federacy,  and  the  transfer  of  the  forces  to  the  Confederate 
States  of  America. 

ASSEMBLING  OF  THE  PROVISIONAL  CONGRESS. 

The  convention  of  the  State  of  Alabama,  having  adopted 
a  similar  ordinance  to  those  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Mississippi,  and  Florida,  invited  the  States  by  delegates,  to 
a  convention  to  be  holden  at  the  city  of  Montgomery  on 
the  4th  day  of  February,  proximo,  to  which  invitation 
they  responded  by  the  several  conventions  as  they  se 
ceded. 

In  this  State,  they  were  elected  by  the  convention  in 
numbers  corresponding  with  our  members  of  Congress; 
two  from  the  State  at  large,  and  one  for  each  representa 
tive. 

The  result  of  which  was  that  ROBERT  TOOMBS,  of  the 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.        185 

county  of  Wilkes,  and  HOWELL  COBB,  of  the  county  of 
Clarke,  were  duly  elected  for  the  State  at  large,  and  the 
following  named  persons  for  the  several  districts  affixed 
to  their  names,  to  wit  : 

FRANCIS  S.  BARTOW,  for  the  1st  Congressional  District. 

MARTIN  J.  CRAWFORD,       "  2d  "  " 

EUGENIUS  A.  NESBIT,        "  3d  " 

BENJAMIN  H.  HILL,           "  4th  "  " 

AUGUSTUS  R.  WRIGHT,      "  5th  "  " 

THOMAS  R.  R.  COBB,         "  6th  "  " 

AUGUSTUS  H.  KENAN,       "  7th  "  " 

ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS,"  8th  "  " 

In  the  mean  time,  the  authorities  of  the  seceding  States 
took  control  of  and  held  the  United  States  arsenals,  navy 
yards,  forts,  and  all  places  and  property  of  the  govern 
ment,  within  their  respective  limits,  in  opposition  to  the 
authorities  of  the  United  States ;  Forts  Sumter,  in  South 
Carolina,  and  Pickens,  in  Florida,  having  been  timely  gar 
risoned  by  United  States  troops,  were  still  held  by  the 
Federal  government  against  these  States,  and  continued 
to  be  held  in  opposition  to  the  new  government  when  or 
ganized. 

The  State  of  South  Carolina  sent  to  Georgia,  as  a  spe 
cial  commissioner,  the  Honorable  James  L.  Orr,  commis 
sioned  by  his  Excellency,  Governor  F.  W.  Pickens,  who 
communicated  to  the  Georgia  convention  on  its  first  meet 
ing,  the  16th  of  January,  the  official  action  of  South  Car 
olina — her  ordinance  of  secession  adopted  on  the  20th 
of  December,  preceding. 

Ex-Governor  John  Gill  Shorter,  commissioned  by  Gov 
ernor  A.  B.  Moore,  represented  Alabama,  and  communi 
cated  the  action  of  that  State  and  her  secession  ordinance 


186      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GROWING  STATES. 

adopted  in  convention  on  the  llth  of  January,  six  days 
prior  to  the  assembling  of  our  convention ;  and  also  the 
invitation  of  that  State  to  meet  in  convention  at  Mont 
gomery,  on  the  4th  of  February. 

The  Honorable  Thomas  W.  White,  commissioned  by 
Governor  John  Q.  Pettus  of  Mississippi,  represented  that 
State,  communicating  to  our  convention  the  proceedings 
of  that  State,  which  had  seceded  on  the  9th  of  January. 

The  State  of  Georgia,  after  following  the  States  which 
had  seceded,  appointed  Honorable  D.  C.  Campbell  a  spe 
cial  commissioner  to  the  State  of  Delaware,  with  a  view 
to  induce  that  State  to  join  her  slaveholding  sisters. 

In  like  manner,  and  for  the  same  purpose,  General  John 
W.  A.  Sanford  was  commissioned  to  Texas  ;  Honorable 
A.  R.  Wright,  to  Maryland;  Honorable  Samuel  Hall  was 
commissioned  to  his  native  State,  North  Carolina ;  Hon 
orable  Hiram  P.  Bell,  to  the  State  of  Tennessee;  Dr.  W. 
C.  Daniel,  to  the  State  of  Kentucky  ;  and  Honorable  W. 
.  Vason,  to  the  State  of  Louisiana. 

The  State  of  South  Carolina,  after  her  secession,  had 
made  the  fruitless  attempt  to  settle  by  peaceful  negotia 
tions  all  matters  of  probable  conflict  and  dispute  to  grow 
out  of  her  separation  and  withdrawal  from  the  Union,  by 
sending  commissioners  to  Washington  charged  with  au 
thority  to  do  so.  This  mission,  notwithstanding  the  high 
character  of  the  gentlemen  accredited,  and  the  respect 
ful  manner  in  which  they  demeaned  themselves  toward 
the  authorities  of  the  government,  failed  to  accomplish 
any  of  its  objects;  but  tended  to  confirm  the  already 
well-grounded  apprehension  of  the  hostile  aims  of  the 
United  States  toward  the  States  preparing  to  withdraw. 

As  we  have  seen,  no  organized  convention  or  co-opera 
tion  of  States  existed  prior  to  the  separate  action  of  each. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         187 

They  recognized  the  legal  power  of  the  United  States  over 
the  citizens  so  long  as  the  States  remained  in  the  Union. 
But  it  was  not  by  any  State  or  any  portion  of  the  people 
anticipated  that  the  sovereignty  resumed  by  the  seceding 
States  would  be  continued  to  be  separately  exercised  by 
any. 

All  eyes  turned  with  solicitude  therefore  to  the  conven 
tion  invited  by  Alabama  at  Montgomery. 

That  body  was  promptly  organized  by  making  Ex- 
Governor  HowellfCobb,  of  Georgia,  president.  This  gen 
tlemen  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  Presi 
dent  Buchanan  after  serving  his  State  as  Governor,  and 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  Congress.  He  was  a 
popular  Democratic  leader  from  his  youth,  was  a  Union 
man  in  1850  ;  but  became  an  ardent  secessionist  upon 
the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  exerted  the  utmost  of  his 
powers  and  large  influence  over  the  public  mind  to  bring 
about  the  separation.  He  had  himself  been  often  and 
highly  spoken  of  for  President  of  the  United  States.  His 
ability,  firmness  and  moderation,  as  well  as  his  distinc 
tion  and  popularity,  eminently  fitted  him  for  the  deli 
cate  and  responsible  position. 

ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT  AND  VICE-PRESIDENT. 

The  deliberations  of  this  body  were  conducted  in  secret, 
and  whatever  differences  in  judgment  and  plans  may 
have  sprung  up,  they  did  not  embarrass  the  people,  who 
regarded  it  as  a  harmonious  and  eminently  patriotic  assem 
bly;  and  were  prepared  in  mind  and  heart  to  accept  and 
promptly  co-operate  in  its  action. 

The  convention  having  assumed  the  title  of  Confeder 
ate  States  of  America,  proceeded  to  elect  Hon.  Jefferson 
Davis  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  provisional  President, 


188      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GROWING  STATES. 

and  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  provisional  Vice-Presi 
dent  of  the  Confederate  States. 

These  appointments  were  received  and  cordially  ap 
proved  by  all  classes  of  people.  There  were  other  able 
and  competent  leaders  who  would  no  doubt  have  ac 
cepted  the  position  of  president,  and  whose  respective 
friends  and  admirers  would  have  been  more  gratified  for 
the  time  being  to  see  honored  than  Mr.  Davis ;  but  to 
him  no  objection  was  publicly  urged,  if  any  existed. 

His  private  life  and  character  had  ever  been  without 
reproach.  He  had  given  proof  of  his  gallantry  and  ability 
in  the  field  during  the  war  between  his  country  and  the 
republic  of  Mexico.  He  had  been  long  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Mississippi,  discharged  with  ability  and  to 
the  great  satisfaction  of  the  United  States  the  duties  of 
secretary  of  war  during  the  administration  of  President 
Pierce ;  and  had  been  an  eminent  leader  of  the  Southern 
people  upon  the  subject  of  State  rights,  and  Southern 
rights,  and  the  issues  that  had  now  divided  the  Union. 

He  united  in  himself  in  the  opinion  of  his  people  in  a 
rare  degree  the  qualities  of  unsullied  honor,  devotion  to 
the  South,  moral  and  physical  courage,  ability  as  a  states 
man  and  no  ordinary  military  talents,  with  a  firmness 
and  integrity  of  purpose  and  strength  of  will  seldom  to 
be  found,  as  well  as  energy  and  perseverance  equal  to 
the  crisis.  The  opinions  of  many  were  much  modified 
and  changed  as  to  some  of  the  points  above  mentioned 
during  the  four  years  of  severe  trial  that  ensued ;  but 
in  nothing  that  related  to  his  honor,  courage,  firmness, 
patriotism,  or  devotion  to  the  South  and  her  people. 
But  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  his  appointment  the 
effect  was  the  very  best  upon  the  people  generally,  who 
believed  that,  all  things  considered,  he  was  the  best  man 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE   CONFEDERACY.        189 

in  the  confederacy  then  formed  for  its  presidency.  Those 
who  had  favored  the  claims  of  other  men  soon  settled 
down  in  the  patriotic  and  satisfactory  conviction  that  the 
convention  had  acted  wisely  in  selecting  him. 

The  appointment  of  Mr.  Stephens  vice-president,  and 
his  acceptance  of  the  second  place  were  equally  gratifying 
to  all  the  friends  of  the  revolution.  His  clear  head  and 
honest  heart,  his  great  experience  in  public  life,  forecast, 
and  practical  wisdom,  and  unsullied  private  life  and  char 
acter  had  given  him  large  influence  over  statesmen  North 
and  South,  and  upon  the  people  of  the  South.  He  had 
been  long  the  object  of  pride  in  his  State,  and  of  a  warmth 
of  admiration  rarely  felt  for  any  public  political  leader. 
Up  to  the  secession  of  Georgia  he  had  been  bitterly  and 
firmly  opposed  to  the  movement,  was  a  delegate  from 
his  county  in  the  secession  convention,  where  he  spoke 
and  voted  against  it,  but,  impelled  by  his  loyalty  to  his 
State  and  his  theory  of  State  rights  and  sovereignty,  so 
soon  as  she  acted  he  ceased  his  opposition  and  joined  the 
movement.  His  appointment  by  the  Congress  was  com 
mended,  not  only  commended  upon  the  ground  that  the 
public  men  and  people  esteemed  him  eminently  fitted,  but 
also  upon  the  ground  that  it  afforded  additional  proof  of 
the  good  faith  of  the  secession  party  and  promoted  the 
best  of  feelings  and  cordial  relations  between  them  and 
those  who  had  opposed  secession.  All  the  people  had 
reason  to  realize  that  the  conflicts  between  them  were 
ended,  and  the  antagonisms  engendered  by  them  buried 
with  the  past,  and  were  replaced  by  fraternity,  and  united 
and  harmonious  and  earnest  counsels  looking  to  the  suc 
cess  of  the  cause  and  the  good  of  the  people. 

The  convention  proceeded  with  great  dispatch  to  frame 
a  provisional  constitution,  and  to  organize  the  depart- 


190      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GBOWING  STATES. 

ments  of  government.  On  the  llth  day  of  March  the 
provisional  Congress,  composed  of  the  delegates,  assembled 
as  a  convention,  adopted  a  permanent  Constitution,*  and 
proposed  the  same  for  ratification  to  the  several  State 
conventions  represented  in  that  Congress,  which  was  by 
each  promptly  ratified  and  thus  became  the  organic  law 
of  the  Confederate  States  of  America. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  CHANGES. 

The  new  government  is  founded  upon  the  model  of 
the  old,  being  identical  in  the  leading  characteristics — the 
executive,  legislative  and  judicial  branches. 

The  general  enumeration  of  delegated  and  reserved 
powers,  in  the  main,  are  copied  from  the  old  constitution 
with  only  a  few  modifications  and  express  restrictions. 

The  preamble  contains  the  significant  clause  not  in  the 
old  constitution :  "  each  State  acting  in  its  sovereign  and 
independent  character ;  "  and  also  the  clause  :  "  invoking 
the  favor  and  guidance  of  Almighty  God."  The  Confed 
erate  Constitution  provides  that  no  person  of  foreign  birth, 
not  a  citizen  of  the  Confederate  States,  shall  vote  for  any 
officer,  State,  or  Federal ;  and  provides  that  army  officers 
of  the  general  government,  residing  and  acting  solely 
within  any  State,  may  be  impeached  by  the  Legislature 
thereof.  That  no  bounties  shall  be  granted  from  the  pub 
lic  treasury,  nor  duties  laid  upon  importations  from  'for 
eign  countries  to  foster  any  branch  of  industry;  and  that 
duties,  imposts,  and  excises  shall  be  uniform  throughout 


*  The  provisional  Constitution  being  only  temporary,  and  the  permanent  Constitution 
having  been  overthrown  by  the  armed  power  of  the  United  States,  the  copies  of  those  in 
struments  inserted  in  this  chapter  written  in  1861  are  here  omitted,  retaining  the  notes 
of  difference  between  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  that  of  the  Confederate 
States. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         191 

the  Confederate  States ;  denies  to  Congress  the  power  to 
appropriate  money  for  any  internal  improvement  intended 
to  facilitate  commerce,  except  for  furnishing  lights,  bea 
cons,  and  buoys,  and  other  aids  to  navigation  upon  the 
coast ;  and  the  improvement  of  harbors,  and  the  removal 
of  obstructions  in  river  navigation ;  in  all  which  cases,  it 
is  provided  that  the  duties  shall  be  laid  on  the  navigation 
facilitated  thereby. 

It  requires  that  after  a  given  day  the  post-office  depart 
ment  shall  be  self-sustaining,  and  prohibits  the  passage  of 
any  bankrupt  law  to  discharge  any  debts  contracted  be 
fore  the  passage  thereof;  or  any  law  impairing  the  right 
of  property  in  negro  slaves. 

It  requires  that  all  bills  appropriating  money  shall  spec 
ify  in  Federal  currency  the  amount  of  each  appropriation, 
and  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  made  ;  and  prohibits  Con 
gress  from  granting  extra  compensation  to  any  public  con 
tractor  or  agent  after  the  contract  is  made  or  the  service 
rendered.  It  specifies  the  powers  and  duties  of  Congress 
in  reference  to  the  territories  of  the  Confederate  States ; 
and  particularly  recognizes  and  establishes  the  institution 
of  slavery  therein.  It  changes  the  presidential  term  from 
four  to  six  years,  making  the  President  ineligible  for  a  sec 
ond  term,  and  gives  Congress  the  power  to  grant  to  the 
heads  of  executive  departments  the  privilege  to  sit  in 
either  House  of  Congress,  and  discuss  questions  appertain 
ing  to  their  respective  departments.  It  provides  that 
Congress,  upon  the  demand  of  any  three  States  concur 
ring  in  the  proposal  of  any  amendment,  shall  summon  a 
convention  of  all  the  States,  to  take  into  consideration  the 
amendments  to  the  constitution  thus  proposed. 

It  restricts  the  limitation  in  the  old  constitution  that 
"  no  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  on  articles  exported  from 


192      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GKOWING  STATES. 

any  State,"  and  provides,  that  it  may  be  done  by  a  vote 
of  two-thirds  of  both  houses. 

It  prohibits  the  importation  of  negroes  of  the  African 
race  except  from  the  slaveholding  States  or  territories  of 
the  United  States,  and  gives  Congress  power  to  prohibit  it 
from  any  State  or  territory  not  of  the  Confederate  States. 

It  omits  the  prohibitory  clause,  "  nor  shall  vessels 
bound  to  or  from  one  State  be  obliged  to  enter,  clear,  or 
pay  duties  in  another."  Omits  the  prohibition  to  the 
States  to  "  emit  bills  of  credit."  It  restricts  the  prohibi 
tion  to  the  States  without  the  consent  of  Congress  to  lay 
any  duty  on  tonnage,  so  as  to  except  "  sea-going  vessels,  for 
the  improvement  of  its  rivers  and  harbors,  navigated  by 
aid  vessels,"  but  provides  that  such  duties  shall  not  con 
flict  with  any  treaties  of  the  Confederate  States  with  for 
eign  nations ;  and  requires  that  any  surplus  revenue  thus 
derived,  after  making  such  improvements,  be  paid  into 
the  common  treasury.  It  provides  also  that  where  any 
river  divides  or  flows  through  two  or  more  States  they 
may  enter  into  compact  with  each  other  to  improve  the 
navigation  thereof. 

It  requires  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  Congress  to  appro 
priate  money,  and  the  yeas  and  nays  recorded,  unless  the 
appropriation  is  asked  by  the  head  of  a  department  and 
submitted  to  Congress  by  the  President ;  or  for  the  pur 
pose  of  paying  its  own  expenses  and  contingencies ;  or 
for  the  payment  of  claims  against  the  Confederate  States, 
the  justice  of  which  shall  have  been  judicially  declared  by 
a  tribunal  for  the  investigation  of  claims  against  the 
government,  which  tribunal  it  is  made  the  duty  of  Con 
gress  to  establish.* 


*Such  are  the  leading  features  which  distinguish  the  Confederate  States'  Constitution 
from  that  of  the  United  States,  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  former.    The  author's 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         193 

But  the  author's  main  objection  to  this,  as  to  the  old 
constitution,  was  that  it  did  not  provide  absolutely  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  doctrine  of  perfectly  equal  rights,  im 
munities,  exactions,  and  burdens  to  all  States,  sections, 
classes  of  people,  and  of  occupations  and  callings,  so  far 
as  they  are  affected  by  the  common  government;  and 
that  odious  and  oppressive  discriminations  may  be  made 
by  statute  law  without  a  violation  of  the  constitution. 
The  conclusion  of  the  elaborate  chapter  was  in  these 
words : — 

MVhen  we  shall  have  waded  through  years  as  we  already  have  through 
months  of  sore  conflict,  privation,  slaughter,  and  waste — if  a  favoring  Provi 
dence  shall  see  fit  to  so  afflict  us — when  we  shall  have  gained  our  independ 
ence  of  the  United  States,  with  whose  powerful  and  increasing  armies  our 
gallant  kindred  now  contend,  then  we  shall  have  gained  an  extension  merely 
of  the  old  charter  of  liberty.  We  shall  then  have,  as  a  boon  to  ourselves  and 
to  bequeath  to  our  children,  the  right  to  cavil  and  debate  as  to  what  is 
meant  by  the  grants  and  restrictions  in  the  Confederate  constitution, 
until  the  deep  wells  of  passion  are  stirred  up,  sectional  or  internal  jealousies 
form  into  factions  and  parties  based  upon  opposing  interests.  Then  the 
descendants  of  the  heroes  of  Bethel,  Manassas,  and  Oak  Hill  will  be  called 
on  to  again  solve  in  blood  the  still  unsettled  problem  of  human  rights  and 
wrongs." 


voluminous  criticism  upon  the  tlien  apparent  want  of  completeness  in  constitutional  re 
form,  and  the  insufficiency  of  this  organic  law  to  prevent  another  revolution  in  case  of  the 
success  of  this,  are  here  omitted,  as  the  work  of  organic  change  in  favor  of  the  rights  of 
the  State  and  people  has  been  effectually  arrested  by  arms.  He  then  thought,  and  at 
tempted  to  show,  that  the  powers  and  prerogatives  of  the  Executive,  and  of  Congress,  as 
well  as  the  reserved  rights  and  powers,  the  duties  and  obligations  of  the  States,  should  have 
been  clearly,  specifically  and  unmistakably  denned,  and  the  remedy,  if  any  was  intended, 
indicated  for  wrongs  and  insupportable  violations  of  the  common  compact.  They  were 
forming  another  confederacy  of  co-equal  and  sovereign  States.  The  mooted  questions  of 
the  old  Union  related  mainly  to  these  subjects,  and  led  to  separation  and  war  between  the 
States.  It  seems  remarkable  that  there  was  a  total  omission  to  provide  any  remedy  for  ag 
gressions,  assumptions,  and  intolerable  grievances ;  not  even  the  question  of  secession  is 
referred  to  in  the  new  organic  law,  upon  the  right  or  wrong  of  which,  as  a  remedy,  depended 
the  right  or  wrong  of  the  collision  that  was  to  ensue,  in  a  constitutional  view. 
13 


194      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GROWING  STATES. 

CONFEDERATE  CONSTITUTION. — How  ADOPTED. 

The  Confederate  constitution  never  came  before  the 
people  for  ratification.  The  delegates  to  the  State  con 
ventions  were  elected  by  the  people  to  decide  upon  the 
issue  whether  the  States  calling  them  would  submit  to 
the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President  of  the  United 
States  and  the  placing  in  power  a  sectional  party  and  ad 
ministration  hostile  to  the  institution  of  slavery  and  upon 
the  mode  and  measure  of  redress.  After  passing  seces 
sion  ordinances  and  separating  the  respective  States  from 
the  Union,  as  understood  by  us,  they  proceeded  to  ap 
point  delegates  to  a  convention  of  seceded  States  upon 
the  invitation  of  Alabama.  In  many  instances  persons  of 
their  own  body  were  appointed.  In  Georgia  all  the  dele 
gates  to  Congress,  except  Howell  Cobb,  Martin  J.  Craw 
ford,  and  Augustus  R.  Wright,  were  delegates  from  their 
respective  counties  in  the  State  convention. 

The  convention  of  States  or  provisional  Congress  framed 
the  Confederate  Constitution  ;  referred  it  back  to  the  same 
State  Conventions  by  which  alone  it  was  ratified.  The 
people  did  not  appoint  the  members  of  the  provisional 
Congress,  and  never  by  their  vote  upon  it  ratified  the 
Constitution  enacted  by  it. 

But  while  there  was  no  formal  specific  ratification  ex- 
CQpt  by  the  Secession  convention,  the  hearts  of  the  peo 
ple  generally  were  in  full  sympathy  and  accord  with  the 
movement,  and  approved  the  apparent  haste  under  the 
pressing  emergencies  with  which  it  was  effected.  The 
convention  desired  no  popular  discussion  on  the  form  and 
details  of  a  constitution  in  the  face  of  a  vital  struggle  for 
national  life  itself.  And  the  people  generally  having 
full  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of  the  pro 
visional  Congress  did  not  desire  to  have  it  discussed.  It 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.        195 

had  met  on  the  4th  of  February  and  made  and  organized 
a  provisional  government;  and  by  the  llth  day  of  March 
framed  and  submitted  to  the  State  conventions  for  ratifi 
cation  the  form  of  a  permanent  Constitution. 

The  Congress  proceeded  to  organize  a  post  office  de 
partment,  war  department,  the  attorney-general's  or  de 
partment  of  justice,  treasury  department,  and  department 
of  state,  and  to  adopt  such  enactments  as  the  situation  of 
affairs  seemed  to  require  in  order  to  carry  on  the  machin 
ery  of  the  new  government,  and  for  the  public  defence  in 
case  war  should  result  from  the  separation. 

EFFORTS  TO  NEGOTIATE. 

It  was  the  settled  purpose  of  the  new  government,  and 
a  large  and  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people,  now 
that  the  States  had  withdrawn  and  formed  a  new  union, 
to  maintain  it  even  at  the  hazard  of  war  between  the  se 
ceded  States  and  the  United  States.  But  it  was  intensely 
desired  by  many  of  the  people  that  it  should  be  evaded,  and 
the  separation  result  in  the  establishment  of  peace  and 
amity  between  the  two  governments.  To  this  end  a  com 
mission  was  sent  to  Washington  with  powers  and  instruc 
tions  to  adjust  and  settle  all  conflicting  claims  and  com 
plicated  affairs  between  the  United  States  and  the  Confed 
erate  States  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  both,  provided  the 
former  would  negotiate  upon  the  basis  of  the  independ 
ence  of  the  latter.  This  commission  necessarily  failed, 
as  that  government  was  fully  determined  to  treat  the 
seceding  people  as  rebel  subjects,  and  in  no  sense  whatever 
to  recognize  any  legal  status  or  any  claim  or  demand  of 
the  seceding  States  as  a  separate  and  independent  govern 
ment.  Alleged  perfidy  and  duplicity  and  contemptuous 
treatment  by  the  officials  at  Washington  toward  the  com- 


196      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GROWING  STATES. 

missioners  afforded  grounds  for  severe  criticism  and 
tended  further  to  add  to  the  provocations,  and  inflame  the 
passions  of  the  Southern  people. 

EFFORTS  FOR  RECOGNITION. 

The  Confederate  States  also  sent  a  commission  to  Eu 
rope  headed  by  William  L.  Yancey  of  Alabama,  with  a  view 
to  procure  the  recognition  by  England  and  France  of  the 
independence  of  the  Confederate  States. 

It  had  been  often  urged  by  speakers  and  writers  to  the 
people  of  the  South,  when  favoring  secession,  and  in  con 
troverting  the  probability  that  war  would  result,  that  the 
United  States  were  too  deeply  interested  in  our  products 
to  go  to  war  with  us;  and  that  England  and  France  be 
ing  manufacturing  countries,  and  largely  interested  in  the 
growth  of  raw  fabrics  in  the  Southern  States,  would  be  by 
sympathy  based  on  interest  and  jealousy  toward  the 
United  States,  the  only  remaining  part  of  this  country 
that  offered  them  competition,  would  become  our  friends 
and  allies,  and  upon  the  formation  of  a  Southern  govern 
ment  would  promptly  recognize  us;  and  thus  tend  to 
prevent  war.  Our  people,  as  well  as  our  government 
were  sadly  disappointed,  when  by  the  entire  failure  of 
those  governments  to  move  on  that  line,  they  suddenly 
realized  their  fixed  purpose  of  neutrality  in  form,  but 
quasi  hostility  in  fact  and  effect;  and  that  from  these  pow 
erful  and  controlling  European  nations  all  the  recognition 
we  could  get,  until  our  independence  should  be  achieved, 
was  that  of  "  belligerents ;"  for  whatever  of  sympathy 
may  have  been  felt  by  English  and  French  people  toward 
the  Confederate  States,  it  became  more  and  more  appar 
ent  that  we  had  no  well  grounded  hope  of  any  from  those 
governments. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.         197 

EFFORTS  AT  COMPROMISE. — PRESIDENT  BUCHANAN. — AC 
TION  OF  THE  BORDER  STATES. 

The  work  of  separation  and  reorganization  having  been 
completed  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  friends  of  the  revolu 
tion,  there  seemed  to  be  but  one  check  to  the  general  joy 
and  happiness  of  the  people  ;  one  fearful  barrier  to  the 
immediate  national  prosperity.     Our  house  was  easily  set 
in  order ;  our  affairs  among  ourselves  were  adjusted  with 
out  an  apparent  element  of  strife  or  discord ;  for,  as  to  all 
the  elements,  moral,  religious,  social  and  material,  all  that 
exert  any  control  in  politics  and  government,  we  were 
then  a  united,    earnest,    and    enthusiastic   people.     The 
great  check  was  in  the  terrible  truth,  that  our  relations 
with  the  government  of  the  United  States  with  which 
the  Southern  States  had  been  so  long  bound  by  fraternal, 
social,  material,  and  constitutional  ties  were  not  settled. 
The  great  problem  was  still  to  be  solved — whether  our  de 
mand  to  depart  in  peace,  live  separate,  and  be  an  inde 
pendent  nation,  was  to  be  allowed  without  force  by  that 
government.     The  public  awaited  the  determination  of 
the  issue  with  deep  anxiety,  and  with  mixed  emotions  of 
hope,  dread,  and    fear.     Maryland,    Delaware,  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Arkansas,  and  Mis 
souri,  all  slaveholding  Southern  States,  had  not  seceded. 
Strong  hopes  seemed  to  be  entertained  by  the  leading 
statesmen  of  most  of  those  States  that  terms  of  adjust 
ment  and  reconstruction  might  still  be  agreed  on ;  and 
that  by  wise  and  prudent  councils  the  final  dismember 
ment  of  the  Union  might  be  prevented. 

These  hopes,  however,  were  not  based  on  any  overtures, 
propositions,  or  manifestation  of  amiable  temper  or  peace 
ful  designs  by  the  Republican  party,  in  or  out  of  Congress, 


198      SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GKOWING  STATES. 

or  from  the  executive  department  of  the  government. 
Their  leaders  seemed  defiant ;  their  political  press  con 
temptuous  in  tone ;  while  the  members  in  Congress 
promptly  voted  down  every  proposal  that  sprang  from 
Southern  men  seeking  to  conciliate  and  reunite  the  sec 
tions. 

The  seats  of  the  members  from  the  seceding  States  had 
all  been  vacated  upon  the  passage  of  the  ordinance  of  se 
cession  by  the  respective  States.  The  members  from  the 
border  slave  States  not  seceded,  were  left  to  contend 
against  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  Republicans  and 
War  Democrats  in  Congress. 

A  peace- Congress  composed  of  delegates  from  those 
border  States  was  held,  and  presided  over  by  the  vener 
able  Ex-President  John  Tyler  of  Virginia,  to  which  many 
looked  with  anxious  hope,  but  was  unavailing.  Hon. 
John  C.  Breckenridge,  senator  from  Kentucky,  the  hon 
ored  leader  of  the  southern  wing  of  the  old  Union  Democ 
racy,  remained  in  his  seat,  and  brought  to  bear  his 
powerful  logic  and  eloquence  to  no  purpose  but  to  satisfy 
himself  and  the  country  that  there  was  but  one  alterna 
tive  left  the  South — submission  to  the  new  administra 
tion,  and  the  rule  of  the  sectional  Republican  party,  and 
the  influence  and  logical  sequences  of  its  teachings  and 
doctrines  on  the  institution  of  slavery  and  the  people 
interested  in  and  identified  with  it,  or  prompt  prepara 
tions  to  resist  its  aggressive  and  coercive  power.  Proposi 
tions  for  compromise  conciliation  were  submitted  by  the 
venerable  and  sage  leader  of  the  old  southern  Whigs, 
Hon.  John  C.  Crittenden  of  Kentucky.  They  too  were 
spurned  by  the  unyielding  Republicans. 

President  Buchanan  had  been  defeated  in  his  efforts  to 
preserve  the  constitution  of  his  country  and  prolong  its 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE   CONFEDERACY.         199 

unity  and  peace.  His  policy  was  condemned  by  the 
omnipotent  voice  of  the  people  of  his  own  section  of  the 
Union.  His  administration,  like  his  long  and  eventful 
public  life,  was  drawing  to  a  close.  He  had  lost  prestige 
to  a  large  extent,  and  fallen  between  the  contending 
hosts,  not  looked  to  as  a  leader  of  the  North,  not  relied 
on  as  a  friend  of  the  South,  or  dreaded  as  among  her 
strongest  foes.  He  provoked  the  ire  of  the  Northern  peo 
ple  by  an  alleged  inclination  to  favor,  or  to  be  too  lenient 
towards  the  South.  He  provoked  the  animadversions  of 
Southern  people,  by  what  appeared  to  be  a  vacillating 
policy  and  course  of  conduct.  A  patriot  desiring  to 
prevent  dissolution  and  strife,  and  to  see  a  peaceful  ter 
mination  of  the  pending  troubles,  but  without  power  to 
control  the  storm  which  he  would  not  aggravate  by  what 
appeared  would  be  a  futile  attempt  at  prompt  suppression. 
His  long  and  able  services  to  his  country  and  govern 
ment  in  Congress,  in  the  cabinet,  as  minister  abroad  and 
as  President  of  the  United  States,  begun  in  the  brighter 
and  purer  days  of  the  republic,  characterized  by  unfalter 
ing  devotion  to  what  he  regarded  the  public  good, 
through  sunshine  and  shade,  amid  the  storms  of  public 
passion,  and  in  the  calm  and  serene  days  of  the  peaceful 
past,  was  now  about  to  terminate  with  the  violent  sever 
ance  of  the  Federal  Union  he  had  so  long  loved  and 
cherished. 

SECESSION  AND  ACCESSION  OF  BOEDER  STATES. 

All  efforts  to  reconcile  the  alienated  sections  having 
failed,  and  the  people  of  the  border  slaveholding  States 
having  left  to  them  the  choice  of  their  own  course,  to 
remain  in  the  Union  and  abide  the  consequences  to  flow 
to  themselves  from  a  government  regarded  as  to  a  large 


200       SECESSION  OF  COTTON-GKOWING  STATES. 

extent  hostile  to  them,  and  their  institutions,  and  to  be 
compelled  as  citizens  subject  to  that  government  to  aid 
in  subjugating  those  who  had  withdrawn,  and  with  whom 
they  had  common  cause  of  complaint, — or  to  unite  their 
fortunes  and  destiny  with  them, — did  not  long  hesitate. 

As  South  Carolina  had  led  the  cotton-growing  States, 
and  seemed  by  common  consent  to  bear  the  palm  for  the 
unanimity  and  promptness  of  her  people,  Virginia  now 
seemed  to  be  looked  to  with  deep  interest  as  likely  to 
affect  the  action  and  course  of  the  border  States.  Many 
of  the  people  of  the  cotton  States  had  favored  and  voted 
for  secession  as  a  remedy  under  the  hope  and  belief  that 
it  would  be  peaceful.  But  Virginia  adopted  it,  after  its 
peaceful  features  had  vanished;  and  when  her  people 
knew  that  grim-visaged  wrar  was  at  her  gates  as  an  alter 
native,  threatened  and  morally  certain,  to  submission ; 
and  with  a  strong  probability  that  her  own  bosom  would 
be  the  seat  of  the  deadly  and  wasteful  conflict. 

Her  ordinance  of  secession  was  adopted  on  the  17th  of 
April.  Her  sublime  example  was  followed  by  Arkansas 
on  the  6th  of  May  ;  by  North  Carolina  on  the  20th,  and 
by  Tennessee  on  the  8th  of  June. 

Maryland  cast  her  lot  on  the  side  of  the  Union,  not 
withstanding  many  of  her  noblest  people  were  true  to 
the  South ;  and  many  of  her  brave  sons  voluntarily  as 
sumed  the  labor  and  danger  of  defending  her  cause. 

The  Executive  of  Missouri  declared  that  State  seceded 
on  the  8th  of  August.  But  the  people  were  opposed  to 
the  movement,  and  went  with  the  Union.  'Still  a  few  of 
the  noble  and  brave  joined  our  standard. 

In  Kentucky,  a  provisional  southern  government  was 
organized  after  it  was  known  that  the  State  authorities 
would  not  act,  and  when  it  was  strongly  probable  that  the 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE   CONFEDERACY.         201 

majority  of  her  people  favored  the  old  Union.  Both 
Kentucky  and  Missouri,  however,  sent  members  who 
acted  as  such  in  the  Confederate  Congress,  and  troops  to 
our  armies.* 


*If  those  States,  with  their  vast  resources  of  men  and  stock,  of  meat  and  bread,  had  gone 
promptly  with  the  other  border  States,  and  joined  heartily  in  it,  as  did  Virginia,  Tennessee, 
and  Arkansas,  there  can  be  no  ground  to  doubt  that  the  achievement  of  Confederate  inde 
pendence  would  have  been  the  result  of  a  short  war  bet  ween  the  North  and  South.  And 
even  if  she  had  had  Kentucky  without  Missouri  the  cause  would  not  have  been  lost. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PREPARATIONS  FOR  WAR. — COMPARATIVE  STRENGTH  AND 
RESOURCES.  —  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. — FIRST 
YEAR'S  OPERATIONS  IN  THE  FIELD. — SITUATION  OF 
THE  PEOPLE. 

After  the  secession  of  the  cotton  States  and  the  organ 
ization  of  the  Confederacy,  in  most  of  those  States  the 
military  spirit,  in  anticipation  of  warlike  movements,  be 
gan  to  be  kindled.  Volunteer  companies  in  the  towns 
and  cities  began  to  inure  themselves  to  drill  and  discipline, 
and  new  ones  to  form  in  every  direction.  It  was  not  to 
cast  lots  upon  whom  the  burden  should  fall  of  defending 
the  South,  but  the  questions  were,  who  can  soonest  get 
ready,  organize,  and  equip  for  the  post  of  danger  ?  Who 
can  get  arms,  and  who  shall  be  the  favorites  of  the  gov 
ernment  in  being  allowed  the  honor  of  going  first  to  the 
war — of  repelling  by  force  the  invading  foe  ? 

The  government  of  the  United  States  had  garrisoned 
Fort  Sumter,  which  commanded  the  approach  of  the  city 
of  Charleston  ;  and  Fort  Pickens,  which  commanded  the 
approach  to  the  navy  yard  at  Pensacola.  The  State  of 
South  Carolina,  while  indignant  at  the  action  of  the  gov 
ernment  in  covering  her  designs,  and  in  trifling  with  that 
State,  and  in  garrisoning  Fort  Sumter  contrary  to  repre 
sentations  held  out  to  her  commissioners  at  Washington; 
and  wrhile  many  of  her  people  desired  and  urged  a  differ 
ent  course,  very  wisely  forbore  to  make  any  assault  upon 
the  fort  or  attempt  to  regain"  it  by  force,  but  contented 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  203 

herself  with  preparations  to  prevent  the  reinforcement 
of  the  garrison.  Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when 
the  conduct  of  them  by  the  State  was  relinquished  to 
Confederate  authority.  Major  Anderson  of  the  United 
States  army  was  in  command  of  the  garrison  in  the  fort, 
while  its  reduction  was  confided  to  the  command  of  Brig 
adier-General  G.  T.  Beauregard  of  the  Confederate  States 
provisional  army,  then  composed  of  such  State  military 
organizations  as  had  been  turned  over  to  the  Confederacy, 
and  of  such  volunteer  companies  as  had  been  tendered  to 
and  accepted  by  the  Confederacy.  The  South  Carolinians 
guarded  the  approach  of  United  States  vessels  which  might 
be  intended  to  provision  or  reinforce  the  fort  while  the 
works  projected  for  the  reduction  of  it  were  being  con 
structed.  Major  Anderson  contented  himself  to  witness 
these  hostile  demonstrations  without  attempting  to  disturb 
them  although  they  were  under  the  range  of  his  guns. 

The  artillery  fire  from  one  of  the  Confederate  batteries, 
erected  to  command  the  approach  to  the  fort,  upon  a 
United  States  vessel  approaching  the  fort  with  supplies 
in  violation  of  the  faith  of  the  United  States  government 
not  to  attempt  to  provision  or  reinforce  it  but  under 
orders  from  her  military  authorities,  may  be  denominated 
the  first  shot  of  the  revolution.  This  was  followed  within 
a  few  days  by  the  opening  of  General  Beauregard's  bat 
teries  upon  the  fort,  which  resulted  in  its  reduction.  All 
efforts  that  peaceful  inclination  or  honor  required  having 
been  exhausted,  the  single  alternative  was  left  of  reducing 
the  fort,  or  suffering  it  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  the 
United  States  forces  in  a  threatening  posture  towarcls 
Charleston. 

The  question  as  to  who  begun  hostilities  depends  upon 
the  right  of  secession.  If  secession  was  an  act  of  rebellion 


204  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

the  attempt  to  occupy  the  fort  and  expel  the  forces  of 
the  United  States  was  an  attack  upon  that  government 
and  clearly  an  act  of  war.  If  secession  was  the  exercise 
of  a  right  to  which  the  States  were  entitled,  then  Fort 
Sumter  was  within  the  jurisdiction  and  limits  of  a  govern 
ment  foreign  to  that  of  the  United  States,  and  the  occu 
pation,  garrisoning,  and  holding  it  in  a  threatening  post 
ure,  and  the  attempt  to  provision  and  reinforce  it 
against  the  consent  of  the  new  government  were  all  acts 
of  war  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  •  and  the  reduc 
tion  by  force,  and  the  occupation  of  the  fort,  and  the  ex 
pulsion  of  the  troops  of  the  United  States  on  the  part  of 
the  Confederate  States,  were  acts  of  self-defence. 

The  right  of  secession  was  a  foregone  conclusion  with  us 
and  we  could  not  hesitate  as  to  the  proper  course  to  pur 
sue  in  that  emergency.  That  right  was  denied  by  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  The  authorities  of  that 
government,  therefore,  held  that  the  firing  upon  the  vessel 
in  their  service  and  upon  the  fort  in  the  occupancy  of 
their  troops  were  acts  of  war.  This  difference  of  opinion 
and  different  line  of  action  in  consequence  of  it  brought 
the  two  nations  to  the  conflict  of  arms.  But  there  was 
underlying  this  ostensible  issue  of  forces,  and  antecedent 
to  it.  a  settled  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  United  States 
government  to  resort  to  coercion.  If  she  had  been  peace 
fully  inclined,  there  can  be  no  possible  doubt  that  she 
could  without  dishonor,  and  would  without  hesitation, 
have  given  the  matter  a  direction  which  would  have  met 
the  ardent  wishes  of  the  South  by  avoiding  the  resort  to 
arms.  Our  only  mode  of  avoiding  the  issue  of  battle  was 
to  submit  unconditionally,  and  of  this  our  people  and 
government  were  fully  sensible. 

The  works  projected  for  the  reduction  of  Fort  Sumter 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  205 

as  well  as  the  bombardment  are  said  to  have  been  con 
ducted  with  consummate  skill,  and  the  latter  was  attended 
with  scarcely  any  serious  casualties  upon  either  side. 
The  great  God  of  battles  seemed  unwilling,  even  after  the 
peace  of  a  continent  was  broken  in  the  thunders  of  battle, 
that  the  red  tide  of  war  should  be  opened  upon  such  a 
country. 

The  success  of  General  Beauregard's  operations  against 
Sumter  raised  him  to  the  full  measure  of  public  confi 
dence,  and  the  acts  of  hostilities  had  the  effect  to  raise 
the  blood  of  both  sections  to  fever  heat.  All  hope 
of  avoiding  war  was  now  blighted,  and  the  purpose  of 
cultivating  peaceful  measures,  abandoned.  The  de 
mand  of  the  South  to  be  let  alone,  she  had  lawfully  de 
termined  to  enforce  if  possible,  regardless  of  the  cost  in  re 
sources,  treasure,  and  blood.  Invasion  an<J  conquest  under 
the  guise  of  suppressing  the  rebellion  and  restoring  the 
Union  engrossed  the  great  Northern  mind,  and  stirred 
the  passions  of  that  people  to  the  utmost  capacity.  Their 
public  journals  were  the  daily  chronicles  of  busy  prep 
arations  for  war.  The  gates  of  Janus  closed  amid  the  pro 
found  peace  of  the  United  States  for  thirteen  years  were 
now  fully  open.  The  storm  of  popular  passion  had  now 
reached  the  point  of  madness,  and  devoted  the  people  of 
both  sections  to  destruction,  and  the  "  red  right  hand  "  of 
Omnipotence  was  upraised  to  smite  them. 

COMPARATIVE  POPULATION. 

By  the  census  report  of  the  United  States  for  the  year 
1860,  the  total  population  was  31,646,869;  that  of  the 
non-slaveholding  States  was  18,950,759  ;  that  of  the  non- 
slaveholding  territories,  262,701 ;  white  and  black  popula 
tion  of  the  slaveholding  States,  12,433,409.  This,  however, 


206  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

is  not  the  estimate  of  peoples  as  they  stand  opposed  in  this 
war.  The  population  of  the  eleven  States  of  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Ala 
bama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Texas,  and 
Tennessee,  which  are  the  States  properly  embraced  in 
the  Confederacy,  are  whites  5,671,723  ;  slaves  3,570,987; 
to  which  add  a  liberal  estimate  of  the  people  of  Missouri, 
Kentucky,  and  Maryland,  who  co-operated  with  us,  say 
one-third  of  the  people  of  Missouri  and  Kentucky,  and 
one-fifth  of  those  of  Maryland,  added  to  the  white  popula- 
lation  South  797,793  whites,  and  130,776  slaves,  making 
6,468,516  whites,  and  3,701,763  slaves  and  a  total  popu 
lation  in  the  South  in  that  war  of  10,170,279.  Add  to 
the  northern  population  the  remainder  of  the  people  of 
Missouri,  Kentucky,  and  Maryland  not  included  on  the 
southern  side  by  our  estimate,  1,967,766,  makes  the  grand 
total  for  the  North  21,181,226. 

In  addition  to  the  fact  that  more  than  one-third  of  the 
10,170,279  on  the  side  of  the  South  were  slaves,  liable  to  be 
abducted  or  corrupted  and  rendered  useless,  and  an  element 
of  weakness  upon  the  near  approach  of  the  enemy,  the  fore 
going  is  a  more  than  liberal  estimate  in  favor  of  the  South 
when  it  is  remembered  that  Western  Virginia  and  a  ma 
jority  of  the  people  of  East  Tennessee  were  opposed  to  us, 
and  co-operated  with  the  other  side  whenever  opportunity 
offered,  and  there  were  numerous  persons  along  the  border 
in  other  States  thus  disaffected.  When  it  is  considered  that 
President  Davis  adopted  the  policy  of  defensive  war  and 
declined  generally  to  invade  the  enemy,  it  is  apparent  at 
once  that  the  efficient  number  for  the  South  was  decreased 
at  every  advance  of  the  enemy.  For  those  who  were  thus 
cut  off  from  us  and  left  within  the  line  of  the  enemy's  occu 
pation  were  powerless  to  aid  us,  even  if  they  did  not  be- 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  207 

come  disaffected  by  the  presence  of  the  enemy  among 
them,  and  their  resources  in  provisions  were  not  only  thus 
cut  off  from  us  but  were  converted  to  the  use  of  the 
Federal  army. 

It  is  not  practicable  to  present  a  precise  estimate  of  the 
strength  of  the  two  sections  in  people.  The  North  in 
creased  rapidly  by  immigrants,  and  when  we  consider  the 
extent  of  the  Union  sections  of  the  South,  and  the  fact 
that  so  large  an  element  were  slaves  and  unavailable  for 
bearing  arms,  it  was  thought  fair  to  estimate  three  for 
one  in  favor  of  the  United  States  against  the  Confederate 
States. 

The  superficial  area  of  the  Confederate  States  was 
741,990  square  miles  ;  that  of  the  United  States,  includ 
ing  the  four  slave  States  of  Delaware,  Maryland,  Ken 
tucky  and  Missouri,  was  1,045,820  square  miles;  and  that 
of  the  territories  of  the  United  States,  1,580,000  square 

miles. 

DIVISION  OF  TERRITORY. 

The  dividing  line  between  the  two  confederacies,  if 
fixed  on  the  northern  boundary  of  the  eleven  States 
mentioned,  was  upwards  of  two  thousand  miles  in  length. 
By  far  the  greater  portion  is  a  dry  line ;  and  upon  the 
balance  the  Eed,  the  Mississippi,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Poto 
mac  rivers  mark  the  boundary.  There  were  no  moun 
tains  forming  a  line  of  boundary,  except  a  part  of  that 
between  Virginia  and  Kentucky.  The  line  of  sea-coast  to 
be  defended  was  still  greater  in  length  than  the  bound 
ary  line  by  land,  reaching  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
Grande  to  that  of  the  Potomac,  from  which  any  one  of 
the  eleven  States  could  be  directly  invaded  except  Ar 
kansas  and  Tennessee.  The  States  of  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  Texas  and  Tennessee  furnished  a  large  surplus 


208  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

of  beef  and  bacon,  corn  and  wheat,  while  a  considerable 
portion  of  these  essentials  were  drawn  from  other  States. 
The  resources  of  the  South  in  sugar,  syrup,  and  rice 
seemed  ample  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  people  and  the 
army.  The  large  area  of  the  cotton  crops  occupying 
the  most  valuable  lands  of  the  cotton  States  rendered  the 
supply  of  grain  and  meat,  in  those  States,  somewhat 
sparse.  But  the  planters  wisely  determined  to  curtail 
the  cotton,  and  largely  increase  the  crops  of  grain,  and 
there  was  but  little  ground  to  fear  that  the  confederacy 
would  be  self-sustaining  in  all  the  articles  needed  to  feed 
the  people  and  the  army  for  an  indefinite  period. 

COMPARATIVE  RESOURCES  AND  VALOR. 

It  was  apparent,  however,  that  the  resources  of  the 
United  States  were  vastly  superior  to  ours  in  cattle,  hogs, 
corn  and  wheat,  from  the  middle  and  western  States. 
The  facilities  for  internal  transportation  of  troops  and 
army  stores  by  railroads  and  rivers,  seemed  to  be  abun 
dant  in  both  sections.  The  North  also  possessed  great 
advantages  over  the  South  in  the  supply  of  mules  and 
horses  for  wagons,  artillery,  and  cavalry.  The  supply  in 
the  South  was  ample  for  immediate  use,  and  for  some 
time  to  come  ;  but  as  the  war  became  long  protracted, 
this  became  an  embarrassing  subject  to  us.  For  war  is 
as  destructive  to  horses  and  mules  as  to  men,  and  we  had 
comparatively  few  facilities  in  the  South  for  raising  these 
animals. 

Great  reliance  was  placed  in  the  South  upon  the  supe 
rior  courage  and  bravery  of  our  troops  over  those  of  the 
North.  While  there  was  no  apparent  reason  to  doubt  the 
prowess  of  the  South,  or  the  skill  of  her  rising  military 
chieftains,  but  great  reason  to  be  proud  of  both,  there 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  209 

did  not  seem  to  be  good  grounds  to  doubt  the  soldierly 
qualities  of  the  northern  men.  The  vigorous,  physical 
and  mental  constitutions  of  the  western  men,  in  connec 
tion  with  their  habits  and  mode  of  life,  did  not  seem  to 
warrant  the  conclusion  that  they  would  prove  deficient 
in  courage,  endurance,  or  skill.  Drill,  exposure  to  hard 
ships  and  privations,  and  familiarity  with  danger,  did 
much  to  improve  the  prowess  of  the  troops  from  the 
middle  and  eastern  States.  The  large  element  of  Irish 
composition  in  the  federal  army,  together  with  the  pres 
ence  of  the  troops  of  the  regular  army  who  had  seen 
much  service,  were  things  which  an  impartial  and  con 
siderate  spectator  could  not  overlook  in  order  to  reach 
the  conclusion  that  federal  troops  in  that  war  would  be 
formidable  in  battle.  There  were,  however,  apparent, 
well-settled  facts  which  warranted  the  conclusion  that  the 
Confederates  would  be  a  match  for  the  Federals,  man  for 
man.  The  fiery  impetuosity  of  their  temper,  the  fact 
that  personal  physical  courage  in  private  life  was  esteemed 
in  the  South  a  higher  virtue  than  it  was  in  the  North,  the 
familiarity  of  all  our  people  with  the  use  of  firearms,  and 
their  consequent  skill  as  marksmen,  and  above  all,  the- 
consideration  that  they  were  fighting  in  defence  of  their 
country,  homes,  firesides  and  families,  against  an  invad 
ing  army — stimulants  which  must  be  wanting  to  the 
northern  troops — seemed  to  warrant  this  conclusion. 

They  were  vastly  our  superiors  in  mechanical  skill  and 
in  their  resources  and  preparations  for  the  manufacture 
of  machinery,  clothing,  shoes,  blankets,  tents,  arms,  am 
munition,  wagons,  rolling  stock  for  railroads,  boats  for 
river  service,  transports,  gun-boats,  and  all  manner  of 
ships  of  war,  and  also  in  navigation.  They  had  a  navy, 
we  had  none.  They  had  an  army  which  they  retained, 


14 


210  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

except  that  most  of  the  army  officers  of  southern  birth 
quitted  their  service  to  join  ours,  while  we  had  no  army 
and  but  comparatively  few  arms  or  ordnance  stores. 
They  had  a  government  fully  organized  and  a  full  repre 
sentation  at  foreign  courts  ;  we  had  to  supply  the  former, 
but  were  wanting  in  the  latter  because  foreign  govern 
ments  did  not  recognize  our  nationality.  They  had  a 
national  credit  which  we  had  to  supply  by  a  judicious  use 
of  the  resources  at  our  command.  They  had  the  open 
markets  of  the  world  in  which  to  buy  and  sell,  and  enlist 
hireling  troops  to  take  the  place  of  their  citizen  soldiers, 
while  we  were  blockaded  and  our  ports  of  entry  sealed 
up  except  to  such  ships  as  were  fortunate  enough  to  carry 
on  a  trade  through  the  blockading  squadron  of  the  enemy. 

Such  were  some  of  the  difficulties  that  seemed  to  en 
viron  the  Confederate  States  and  stand  between  us  and 
the  independence  of  our  country.  But  we  had  a  deter 
mined  will  to  be  free.  We  had  the  peace  and  security  of 
our  homes,  the  safety  of  our  women  and  children,  the 
weal  of  the  present  and  future  generations  at  stake ;  we 
had  truth,  justice,  honor,  and  humbly  trusted  that  we  had 
the  just  God  of  battles  on  our  side  and  would  ultimately 
prevail. 

For  the  causes  and  with  the  auspices  we  have  endeav 
ored  faithfully  to  set  forth,  the  government  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  sustained  by  their  people,  boldly  ventured 
upon  the  expedient  of  war  for  that  independence. 

The  occupation  of  Forts  Pickens  and  Sumter  by  the 
forces  of  the  United  States,  as  we  have  seen,  was  cause 
of  irritation  to  the  people  of  the  Confederacy.  The  gov 
ernment  took  early  steps  to  expel  them.  While  the  com 
mand  of  the  forces  and  works  for  the  reduction  of  Fort 
Sumter  was  confided,  as  we  have  seen,  to  General  Beau- 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  211 

regard,  those  at  Pensacola  for  the  purpose  of  reducing 
Fort  Pickens  were  confided  to  the  command  of  Gen. 
Braxton  Bragg.  The  country  waited  for  several  weeks 
in  vain  to  see  the  success  at  Fort  Sumter  repeated  at 
Fort  Pickens ;  but  after  weeks  of  delay  the  people  ascer 
tained,  what  was  probably  much  sooner  known  to  the 
commanding  general,  that  the  enterprise  was  impracti 
cable. 

In  the  mean  time  the  question  absorbed  the  attention 
of  the  people,  and  doubtless  of  the  government,  as  to 
what  mode  of  attack  the  Federals  would  employ ;  whether 
they  would  invade  us  from  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast, 
or  organize  land  forces  and  invade  the  border  States. 

That  the  military  councils  of  the  enemy  were  guided 
by  able  and  experienced  men  who  had  seen  much  service 
could  not  be  doubted ;  while  the  capacity  of  those  in  our 
service  to  command  large  forces  with  success  was  a  prob 
lem  which  time  and  trial  alone  could  solve.  It  was  ex 
pected  of  Lieutenant-General  Winfield  Scott,  who  was  at 
the  head  of  the  United  States  army,  that  he  would  be 
faithful  to  his  government  while  in  its  service ;  but  by 
many  it  was  doubted  whether  he  would  consent  to  con 
tinue  in  that  service  if  it  should  involve  the  invasion  of  Vir 
ginia,  his  native  State ;  and  which  contained  beneath  her 
sod  the  ashes  of  his  own  children.  The  struggle  between 
the  pride  of  an  eminent  and  lifelong  soldier ;  the  love  of 
military  glory  ;  the  ardent  attachment  he  cherished  to  the 
union  of  that  country,  beneath  whose  flag  he  had  so  often 
led  her  sons  to  victory,  on  the  one  hand ;  and  the  behests 
of  a  sympathy  which  would  have  moved  a  less  stern  heart 
than  his,  and  which  is  common  to  the  most  of  mankind, 
on  the  other,  must  have  been  one  of  sore  trial  to  the  vet 
eran  chieftain.  But  the  country  was  soon  made  acquainted 


212  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

with  the  stern  reality  that  Virginia  was  to  be  immediately 
invaded  under  the  supreme  command  of  General  Scott. 
The  occupation  of  Fortress  Munroe  and  other  outposts  on 
the  Virginia  border  along  the  Chesapeake  bay,  and  the 
Potomac  river,  was  soon  followed  by  the  advance  of  United 
States  troops  across  the  river  opposite  the  city  of  Wash 
ington  ;  and  the  occupation  of  Alexandria  and  other 
places  on  the  soil  of  Virginia.  All  doubt  was  now  dis 
pelled  ;  whereupon  the  Confederate  government,  in  order 
to  be  near  the  scene  of  action,  removed  from  the  city  of 
Montgomery  in  Alabama,  and  fixed  its  temporary  location 
at  the  city  of  Richmond  in  Virginia.  Most  of  the  troops 
in  the  service  and  those  being  tendered  and  received  were 
hurried  to  the  Virginia  frontier  by  railroad,  to  aid  in  ar 
resting  the  progress  of  and  repelling  General  Scott's 
forces. 

The  requisitions  for  troops  by  the  President  upon  the 
States  were  promptly  filled  by  volunteers ;  who  were  so 
eager  to  engage  in  the  active  campaign,  and  so  impatient 
to  reach  the  post  of  danger,  that  they  could  barely  be  re 
strained  in  the  camps  of  instruction  until  they  could  be 
taught  the  ordinary  commands  and  evolutions  of  the  com 
pany  and  regimental  drill.  In  most  instances,  the  ex 
penses  of  fitting  out  the  volunteers  for  the  field  were  borne 
by  the  men  themselves,  and  by  contributions  freely  made 
by  citizens.  The  sympathy  of  the  people  for  the  absent 
and  departing  soldiers  was  deep  and  universal.  The  tears 
of  multitudes  of  people  in  all  conditions  and  circumstances 
in  life,  and  even  of  the  slaves,  flowed  copiously,  betoken 
ing  the  warmth  of  their  devotion  to  the  departing  compa 
nies  and  regiments.  The  men  of  the  towns  and  cities, 
and  along  the  lines  of  railroad,  greeted  them  with  shouts 
and  huzzas ;  and  the  women  with  the  waving  of  miniature 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  213 

flags  and  handkerchiefs,  and  with  smiles  of  admiration, 
and  words  of  comfort  and  cheer ;  and  lavished  upon  them 
the  substantiate  and  luxuries  of  life.  In  most  houses  where 
a  sick  soldier  might  chance  to  lodge,  he  was  an  object  of 
more  tender  regard  than  a  sick  inmate.  The  bodies  of 
the  dead  were  returned  under  escort  to  the  bereaved  rel 
atives  at  home.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  people  was  only 
surpassed  by  that  of  the  soldiers  themselves,  and  they  re 
sponded  to  the  greetings  of  the  people  everywhere  with 
shouts  and  yells  that  rent  the  air,  and  spoke  a  language 
of  determination  and  zeal  which  nothing  could  surpass, 
and  which  no  one  could  misunderstand.  The  pay  of  a 
soldier  was  no  part  of  the  inducement  to  volunteer,  in  per 
haps  a  large  majority  of  cases.  Of  the  troops  who  were 
entering  the  army  at  this  period,  it  is  probable  that  there 
were  as  many  who  would  have  paid,  if  necessary,  for  the 
privilege  of  getting  into  service  as  there  were  who  would 
have  declined  to  go  for  want  of  pay.  In  cases  not  a  few, 
where  the  poor  men  who  had  not  subsistence  to  leave  with 
their  families  at  home,  and  who  desired  to  volunteer, 
found  no  difficulty  in  procuring  the  promises  of  their  more 
opulent  neighbors  to  provide  for  them  in  their  absence ; 
and  thousands  departed  for  the  field  upon  the  faith  of  such 
unsubstantial  reliances  whose  families  were  dependent 
upon  their  daily  labor  for  food  and  raiment,  and  unable 
to  procure  these  without  them.  The  spirit  of  volunteer 
ing  was  only  equalled  by  the  willingness  and  anxiety  of 
the  people  at  home,  of  both  sexes,  to  aid  in  whatever  work 
or  contribution  seemed  necessary  to  forward  the  good 
cause ;  in  a  word,  for  the  first  few  months,  war  went  in 
silver  slippers,  and  wore  only  an  aspect  of  glory  and  re 
nown. 

The  young  men  on  their  way  to  the  war,  sported,  by 


214  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

their  sides,  savage  looking  dirks  and  pistols,  some  anti 
quated,  others  of  the  more  recent  improvements,  as  if 
they  expected  to  fight  the  enemy  with  them ;  and  many 
doubtless  expected  that  sort  of  rencounter,  and  desired 
the  opportunity  to  display  their  superior  prowess  in  the 
imminent  deadly  breach. 

There  was  extant,  a  great  mania  for  what,  in  the  par 
lance  of  this  day  is  denominated  "  Zouave,"  which  means, 
so  far  as  I  can  comprehend  it,  that  feature  in  the  military 
which  delights  in  exhibiting,  to  the  admiring  gaze  of 
spectators,  a  fantastical  and  gay  military  suit,  of  which 
there  seems  to  be  no  settled  model,  and  of  actions  and 
evolutions,  equally  fantastic,  as  if  the  whole  was  intended 
to  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  country  people. 
For  certainly  a  brave  and  disclipined  army  on  either  side 
would  not  run  from  the  fantastical  array  of  colors  and 
costumes  until  those  who  wore  them  should  show  either 
superior  courage  or  skill  in  the  use  of  arms,  but  would 
delight  in  the  advantages  of  vision  this  gay  dress  would 
afford  them  on  the  field.  As  to  the  manual  exercises  and 
quirkish  motions  of  the  Zouaves,  if  it  should  ever  occur 
that  a  battle  is  fought  hand  to  hand  with  the  bayonets, 
gun-stocks  and  barrels,  instead  of  bullets,  they  might  be 
of  great  benefit,  for  the  reason  that  the  men  in  that  case 
will  already  have  been  taught  to  strike  and  dodge  the 
enemy — to  run  from  and  pursue  him,  as  the  casualties  of 
the  scuffle  might  render  either  tactics  necessary. 

In  reference  to  most  men  whom  the  world  calls  patriots 
it  may  be  noted,  that  there  is  a  singular  mixture  of  devo 
tion  to  country  with  devotion  to  self.  I  am  not  able  to 
analyze  it  so  far  as  to  designate  the  exact  parts  and  pro 
portions  of  each  which  constitute  the  great  military  hero, 
the  great  politician  and  statesman,  and  the  demagogue. 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  215 

I  am  certain,  however,  that  the  proportions  differ  in  the 
different  classes,  and  in  different  men  of  the  same  class. 
There  is  no  doubt  but  there  were  some  few  men  who 
raised  companies  and  regiments  for  service  in  this  war, 
and  many  privates  who  volunteered,  from  a  sense  of  duty 
to  the  country,  realizing  at  the  same  that  it  was  at  the 
sacrifice  of  their  personal  and  private  interests.  It  was 
evident,  however,  from  the  beginning  of  hostilities,  that  a 
man  who  did  not  take  part  in  the  war  would  stand  no 
chance  whatever  for  promotion  in  the  civil  department, 
after  it  should  have  terminated.  Men  love  wealth  be 
cause  it  gives  power,  and  in  popular  governments  they 
love  office  for  the  same  reason.  This  prevailing  mania 
has  made  a  majority  of  the  intellectual  portion  of  our 
countrymen  place-hunters  and  office-seekers;  universal 
suffrage  and  eligibility  to  offices  of  honor  and  profit  has 
the  effect  to  stimulate  thousands  of  the  ignorant  and 
uneducated  to  seek  promotion  to  the  lower  grades  of 
office.  The  volunteering  and  raising  of  military  forces  is 
more  a  matter  of  calculation  than  most  persons  engaging 
in  them  would  be  willing  to  confess. 

If  the  war  should  be  of  short  duration  then  they  ex 
pect  to  wear  their  laurels  with  gratification  and  profit 
to  themselves.  If  it  should  last  long,  then  it  were  better 
to  have  gone  into  it  while  there  was  opportunity  to  se 
cure  the  positions  oflieutenants,  captains,  majors,  colonels, 
etc.,  than  to  ultimately  have  to  go  as  private  soldiers  to 
fill  up  the  decimated  companies.  Then  this  love  of  office 
and  power  was  the  very  salt  of  the  country,  for  it  stimu 
lated  the  aspiring  men  not  only  to  volunteer  but  to  bring 
to  bear  all  their  personal  influence  upon  their  fellow  citi 
zens  to  induce  them  to  enter  the  service.  Thus  the  cause 
of  the  country  had  its  advocates  and  orators  of  different 


216  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

caliber,  and  upon  as  widely  variant  processes  of  reason  and 
logic,  in  every  neighborhood  throughout  our  whole  bor 
ders.  This  same  spirit  coupled  with  natural  bravery  and 
the  love  of  martial  glory  was  a  safe  guaranty  for  the  good 
conduct  qf  these  men  after  they  had  entered  the  service. 
It  was  a  little  humiliating,  however,  to  observe  that  while 
the  change  from  the  walks  of  civil  life  to  the  exposures 
and  associations  of  the  camp,  removed  in  a  great  measure 
from  the  restraints  of  religion  and  female  influence,  there 
were  sad  changes  in  the  moral  bearing  of  many  men. 
Yet  at  the  same  time  they  had  not  discarded  petty  jeal 
ousies  and  contentions  for  place.  This  natural  weakness 
of  human  nature  had  much  to  do  in  developing  the  causes 
which  led  to  the  dismemberment  of  the  old  government, 
and  its  effects  upon  the  cause  in  which  we  were  strug 
gling  were  to  be  dreaded  if  the  war  should  continue  for 
many  years. 

The  rapidity  of  increase  in  the  forces  on  both  sides 
during  the  months  of  May,  June,  and  July  evinced  to  all 
that  the  campaign  of  Virginia  was  to  be  upon  a  much 
larger  scale  than  perhaps  either  government  at  first  an 
ticipated.  It  is  probably  true  that  the  exaggeration  by 
the  press  and  people  for  sensational  purposes  and  in  a 
spirit  of  braggadocio  had  the  effect  from  each  side  to 
stimulate  the  other  to  double  diligence  to  raise  and  send 
forward  countervailing  forces.  The  chief  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  the  South  was  in  furnishing  arms  to  the  troops  who 
were  willing  and  anxious  to  volunteer.  Hence  the  atten 
tion  of  the  government  was  at  an  early  stage  of  the  war  di 
rected  to  the  subject  of  importing  arms  through  the  block 
ade  from  Europe,  and  of  manufacturing  them  within  the 
Confederacy.  In  this  department  it  appears  that  no  time 
was  lost  or  energies  spared  to  meet  the  pressing  demand. 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  217 

The  policy  of  President  Lincoln  seems  to  have  been 
different  from  that  of  President  Davis  in  reference  to 
appointments  to  high  military  rank.  The  former  seemed 
willing  in  many  instances  to  trust  civilians  with  impor 
tant  commands,  while  the  latter  seemed  to  adhere  with 
great  pertinacity  to  men  of  military  education  and  expe 
rience  in  the  field.  His  fondness  and  partiality  for  gradu 
ates  of  the  United  States  military  school  at  West  Point, 
where  he  was  educated,  had  early  become  a  subject  of 
general  remark,  and  of  complaint  among  those  gentlemen 
who  held  high  political,  professional  and  social  stations, 
and  who  had  not  had  in  early  life  the  advantages  of  West 
Point, and  of  whose  fitness  to  command  armies  the  president 
had  not  been  fully  impressed.  Mr.  Lincoln  had,  how 
ever,  found  a  countercheck  to  the  evils  of  his  policy  in 
that  of  promptly  removing  the  appointees  when  they  gave 
proof  of  incompetency. 

The  plan  of  General  Scott's  campaign  in  Virginia  was 
to  invade  from  four  material  points  at  the  same  time. 
Generals  McClellan  and  Rosecrans  advanced  into  that 
portion  of  the  State  west  of  and  among  the  Alleghany 
mountains,  known  as  Western  Virginia,  with  forces  vari 
ously  estimated  from  five  to  fifteen  thousand  men.  Gen 
eral  Patterson  commanding  a  larger  force  advanced  from 
the  upper  Potomac  into  that  fair  and  fertile  region  along 
the  Shenandoah  river  known  as  the  valley  of  Virginia. 
General  McDowell  with  the  principal  column  moved  from 
the  direction  of  Washington  on  the  northeast  of  the 
State  towards  Richmond,  while  General  Butler  held  the 
command  in  the  peninsula.  General  Huger  of  the  Con 
federate  States  provisional  army  held  the  command  of 
our  forces  at  Norfolk;  General  John  B.  Magruder  those 
in  the  peninsula ;  those  fronting  the  enemy's  advance 


218  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

from  Washington  were  under  Major-General  G.  T.  Beau- 
regard  ;  while  the  army  of  the  Shenandoah  in  the  valley 
was  confided  to  the  command  of  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johns 
ton.  The  forces  sent  to  Western  Virginia,  and  which 
seemed  to  have  remained  in  detached  portions  under  Gen. 
J.  B.  Floyd,  and  other  subordinate  commanders,  were 
under  the  command  of  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee.  Thus  it 
appears  the  government,  with  a  commendable  magnanim 
ity  and  zeal,  but  with  questionable  propriety,  undertook 
the  defence  of  the  whole  State.  The  impression  of  the 
country  seems  to  have  been  that  Western  Virginia  was 
not  only  disloyal  to  us,  but  that  the  expulsion  of  the 
Federal  troops  from  it  was  impracticable,  and  that  the 
occupation  of  it  by  the  enemy  would  prove  comparatively 
harmless  to  us,  as  the  people  -there  were  separated  by 
mountains  from  the  true  and  loyal  people  of  Virginia, 
over  which  it  was  as  difficult  for  the  enemy  to  advance 
and  invade  further,  as  General  Lee  found  it  to  carry  his 
troops  and  their  supplies.  The  detachments  of  the  forces, 
when  they  met  the  enemy,  it  was  generally  against  supe 
rior  numbers  and  sometimes  against  superior  skill.  .  The 
hardships  and  exposures  to  rain  and  mud  during  the 
prevalence  of  the  camp  diseases  of  the  new  troops,  sick 
ness  and  deaths,  retreating  before  superior  forces,  and 
notwithstanding  occasional  successes  and  partial  advan 
tages  gained  over  the  enemy,  the  general  want  of  success 
of  the  campaign  in  the  mountains  had  a  demoralizing 
tendency  upon  the  troops;  foiled  to  accomplish  the  expul 
sion  of  the  enemy  from  the  country,  or  any  substantial 
good  to  the  cause  of  the  South. 

The  surprise  and  defeat  of  Confederate  forces  at  Lau 
rel  Hill,  an  advanced  out-post  under  the  command  of  Brig 
adier-General  Garnett  who  was  killed  in  the  action,  and 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  219 

succeeded  in  command  by  Col.  James  N.  Kamsey  of  the 
first  regiment  of  Georgia  volunteers,  by  the  Federal  forces 
under  General  McClellan  may  be  recorded  as  the  first 
reverse  of  our  arms.  The  manifestation  of  high  soldierly 
qualities  and  talents  on  the  part  of  General  McClellan, 
and  of  great  cunning  and  energy  on  the  part  of  his  Ger 
man  subaltern,  General  Rosecrans,  caused  no  little  trepi 
dation  in  the  Southern  heart  as  foreshadowing  that  we 
had  to  combat  with  military  skill  as  well  as  superior 
mumbers. 

The  splendid  air-castles,  built  by  men  of  sanguine  tem 
perament,  of  easy  victory,  were  vanished  into  thin  vapor, 
and  the  unwarranted  calculations  of  thousands  of  good 
and  true  men,  that  only  a  few  months  were  necessary  to 
demonstrate  to  the  enemy  our  superior  prowess,  and  com" 
pel  him  to  desist  from  his  vain  attempt  at  subjugation, 
were  modified  by  the  sober  second  thought  that  our  suc 
cess  was  to  cost  more  toil  and  tribulation,  and  a  greater 
outlay  of  blood  and  treasure,  than  was  at  first  anticipated. 
The  birth  of  the  nation  was  to  be  attended  with  pro 
tracted  anguish. 

And  now  candor  compels  the  confession  that  the  cam 
paign  of  1861  in  Western  Virginia  ended  in  ill-success, 
while  in  connection  with  the  current  events  of  the  year 
it  had  not  impaired  the  general  confidence  of  the  people. 

So  far  as  is  known,  the  war  was  opened  in  Virginia,  and 
the  first  shot  was  fired  from  a  battery  at  Sewell's  point, 
under  the  command  of  Capt.  Peyton  Colquitt  of  Colum 
bus,  Georgia,  upon  a  Federal  gun-boat.  The  battalion  to 
which  Captain  Colquitt's  company  was  attached  was  the 
first  organized  force  sent  from  Georgia  to  Virginia,  and 
perhaps  the  first  from  any  other  State.  As  an  illustra 
tion  of  the  spirit  of  the  people,  and  the  energy  of  Gov- 


220  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

ernor  Brown  of  Georgia,  I  will  be  pardoned  for  the 
allusion  to  the  manner  in  which  this  battalion  was  raised 
and  sent  off. 

Governor  Letcher  of  Virginia  telegraphed  from  Rich 
mond  to  Governor  Brown  at  Milledgeville  that  four  com 
panies  were  needed  immediately  at  Norfolk,  and,  not 
having  them  ready,  he  desired  to  know  if  Georgia  could 
despatch  them  at  once.  Having  no  organized  forces  in 
camp,  the  governor  went  to  the  office  and,  through  the 
operators  of  the  wires,  got  captains  of  city  volunteer  com 
panies,  Collins  and  Hardeman  of  Macon,  Doyall  of  Griffin, 
and  Colquitt  of  Columbus,  to  their  respective  telegraph 
offices,  and  asked  them  if  they  would  respond  to  Gov 
ernor  Letcher' s  call.  All  answered  in  the  affirmative ; 
but  some  asked  one,  and  some  two  days  to  get  ready, 
the  members  of  their  companies  being  citizens  and  not 
being  in  camp.  The  governor  informed  them  that  they 
must  decline,  or  go  immediately.  "  Then  we  are  ready," 
was  the  unanimous  reply.  And  on  the  following  day 
Governor  Brown  had  the  gratification  to  announce  to 
Governor  Letcher,  by  the  telegraph,  that  the  four  com 
panies  were  on  the  railroads  en  route  to  Virginia.  In 
one  or  two  cases  the  ladies  of  the  city  met  and  made  up 
uniform  suits  for  the  whole  companies  before  the  hour  for 
their  departure  the  next  morning. 

The  movements  of  the  enemy  on  the  peninsula  brought 
them  in  collision  with  General  Magruder's  forces  on  the 
tenth  day  of  June,  1861,  at  Bethel  church,  where  a  bril 
liant  success  was  achieved  by  the  Confederates,  attended 
with  considerable  slaughter  of  the  Federals,  and  a  re 
markable  escape  from  casualties  on  our  part.  In  this 
engagement,  Col.  D.  H.  Hill,  of  a  North  Carolina  regi 
ment,  acted  so  gallant  a  part  as  to  attract  the  attention 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  221 

and  applause  of  the  public  and  honorable  promotion 
by  the  government.  The  result  of  the  battle,  while  it 
checked  and  discouraged  the  enemy  on  the  peninsula, 
had  the  effect  to  electrify  the  South,  and  served  greatly 
to  mature  the  growing  assurance  of  the  army  and  peo 
ple.  The  battle  of  Bethel  was  but  a  skirmish  compared 
with  other  fields  already  made  memorable  in  the  annals 
of  the  war;  and  is  likely,  on  account  of  the  smallness 
of  the  force  engaged  in  it,  to  sink  into  insignificance. 
But  its  consequences  and  effects  are  not  to  be  measured 
in  the  faithful  records  of  the  revolution  by  the  numbers 
of  the  slain,  or  the  extent  of  the  temporary  advantages 
gained  over  the  foe.  For  in  the  morale  of  the  army 
much  depended  upon  the  results  of  the  first  conflict  of 
arms;  and  the  effect  of  this  success  told  wonderfully 
upon  the  bearing  of  other  troops  upon  other  fields  distant 
from  Bethel  church. 

Courage  in  battle  nerves  men  to  act  and  endure,  but 
when  separated  from  confidence  of  success  it  is  of  but 
little  avail.  There  are  doubtless  thousands  of  men  who 
at  the  outset  would  not  fight  in  single  combat,  but  having 
confidence  in  those  associated  with  them  in  line  of  battle 
they  did  not  yield  to  the  promptings  of  fear,  but  stood 
firm  and  discharged  their  duty  well  until  familiarity  with 
danger  made  them  careless  of  its  approach,  trained  and 
inured  them  to  action  and  endurance,  and  made  them 
good  soldiers. 

From  the  tone  of  the  public  journals  in  the  United 
States  from  the  early  part  of  the  summer  it  was  evident 
that  there  was  a  strong  outside  pressure  upon  General 
Scott  towards  a  forward  movement  for  the  purpose  of  cap 
turing  Richmond,  the  seat  of  the  Confederate  government. 
But  this  time-honored  chieftain,  well  aware  of  the  obsta- 


222  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

cles  in  the  undoubted  valor  of  Southern  troops  and  the 
skill  of  Southern  commanders,  better  known  to  him  than 
to  the  country  at  large,  prudently  awaited  the  maturity 
of  his  ample  preparations  in  the  accumulation  of  men, 
munitions,  and  transportation,  upon  which  he  relied  for  a 
successful  campaign  which  should  crown  his  brilliant  ca 
reer.  The  public  anxiety  was  intense.  General  Johnston, 
with  characteristic  caution,  maneuvered  against  General 
Patterson  in  the  valley,  and  awaited  his  advance  in  a  state 
of  preparation  to  give  him  battle  should  he  return  to 
make  the  attack  which  the  public  was  led  to  expect  for 
several  weeks.  On  the  19th  of  July  a  portion  of  General 
McDowell's  forces  had  been  put  in  motion  and  were  en 
countered  and  signally  repulsed  by  a  part  of  General 
Beauregard's  forces  along  the  east  bank  of  Bull  Eun  creek. 
The  intention  to  attack  General  Beauregard  in  large  force 
being  apparent  to  General  Johnston  he  quickly  transferred 
his  command  to  the  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  by  a 
forced  march  formed  a  junction  with  General  Beauregard 
in  time  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  general  engage 
ment  occasioned  by  the  advance  of  General  McDowell  in 
force  on  Sunday  morning,  July  21st,  near  Manassas  junc 
tion.  General  Johnston,  with  a  courtesy  as  rare  as  his 
genius,  awarded  to  General  Beauregard  the  command  of 
the  field  although  he  was  of  superior  rank.  The  battle 
raged,  with  dreadful  loss  on  both  sides,  from  early  in  the 
morning  until  the  afternoon  was  considerably  advanced, 
and  with  fortune  seeming  rather  to  favor  the  Federals. 
The  regular  army  as  well  as  the  volunteer  forces  fought 
with  a  heroism  worthy  of  any  cause,  which,  with  the  ad 
vantage  of  largely  superior  numbers,  accounts  for  the 
advantages  gained  over  the  Confederates. 

It  is  said,  that  the  enemy  were  unaware  of  the  fact  that 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  223 

Johnston  had  formed  a  junction  with  Beauregard  prior  to 
the  engagement,  and  that  they  were  fighting  against  their 
combined  forces;  and  that  "the  arrival,  at  an  opportune 
moment  and  place,  of  General  Kirby  Smith  with  a  divi 
sion  of  reinforcements,  in  sight  of  the  contending  armies, 
was  supposed  by  the  Federals  to  be  the  coming  of  Gen 
eral  Johnston's  army  from  the  valley.  From  this  suppo 
sition  or  some  unknown  cause,  a  general  panic  seized  the 
Federal  army,  followed  by  a  disgraceful  stampede  of  the 
whole  force,  leaving  everything  in  disorder,  and  complete 
victory  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederates. 

It  is  said,  that  to  the  Federal  army,  at  a  respectful  dis 
tance  in  the  rear,  there  were  attached  a  number  of  per 
sons  of  rank  in  both  sexes  who  had  come  out  to  witness 
the  sport  of  driving  the  rebels  before  the  grand  Federal 
army ;  the  capture  of  Richmond,  and  the  suppression  of 
the  rebellion  by  the  planting  of  the  United  States  flag 
upon  the  dome  of  the  Capitol  building.  Numerous  amaz 
ing  relics  have  been  preserved  by  our  troops,  gathered 
from  the  field  of  disorder,  which  with  articles  of  more  value 
were  scattered  in  the  track  of  their  retreat.  Among  them 
envelopes  of  letters  with  mottoes  printed  announcing  the 
fall  of  Richmond ;  others  with  the  picture  of  a  woman 
placing  the  flag  upon  the  Capitol  dome.  So  certain  were 
the  «United  States  army  and  Northern  people  of  an  easy 
victory,  and  an  almost  unobstructed  march  through  our 
country. 

Hence  it  is  by  no  means  unnatural  that  dismay  should 
have  suddenly  seized  the  public  mind  upon  the  announce 
ment  of  this  unexpected  disaster. 

It  is  a  misfortune  to  be  regretted,  that  after  the  hard 
marches  and  exposures  of  the  Southern  troops  our  army 
was  not  in  a  condition  to  advance,  follow  up,  and  improve 


224  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

the  advantages  thus  gained.  The  troops  had  evidently 
been  chafed  by  the  restraints  imposed  either  by  the  pol 
icy  of  the  administration  in  not  carrying  the  war  into  the 
enemy's  country,  and  resting  our  cause  upon  the  defensive; 
or  by  the  want  of  means  and  outfit  to  invade.  Our  army 
was  made  of  volunteers  who  went  out  for  action ;  the  de 
moralizing  effect  of  keeping  them  idle  in  camp  was  palpa 
ble,  especially  when  they  feel  that  the  opportunities  of 
success  wrere  diminishing  with  the  constant  increase  of  the 
enemy's  forces.  Thus  they  had  lain  comparatively  idle, 
and  seen  General  McClellan  take  the  place  of  General 
McDowell,  and  by  his  military  character  restore  confidence 
to  the  broken  spirits  of  the  enemy ;  and  by  his  iskill  and 
energy  they  had  not  only  recovered  from  the  deadly  blow 
stricken  at  Manassas,  but  become  more  formidable  than 
before ;  and  our  forces  were  again  thrown  upon  the  de 
fensive. 

In  this  action  at  Manassas,  South  Carolina  lost,  among 
others  her  gallant  son, Brigadier-General  Barnard  H.  Bee; 
while  the  hearts  of  all  Georgians  were  made  sad  by  the 
fall  of  her  intrepid  son,  Brigadier-General  Francis  S.  Bar- 
tow.  A  number  of  officers  before  but  little  known,  by 
their  gallantry  and  ability  attracted  the  public  notice ; 
among  them  Brigadier-General  James  Longstreet,  of  Ala 
bama  ;  Brigadier-General  Thomas  J.  Jackson,  of  Virginia; 
and  Brigadier-General  Bonham,  of  South  Carolina. 

The  public  confidence  in  Generals  Johnston  and  Beau- 
regard  was  strong  and  abiding,  and  the  country  bowed 
with  a  becoming  reverence  and  resignation  to  the  policy 
of  the  administration,  supposing  and  believing  that  the 
facts,  if  fully  known,  would  show  the  superior  wisdom  of 
the  executive  counsel  in  restraining  the  further  advance 
of  our  army  after  the  victory  of  Manassas.  There  were 


FIRST  YEAK  IX  THE  FIELD.  225 

many  able  men  among  us  who  believed  that,  even  if  we 
were  prepared  to  strike  the  enemy  by  invading  him,  the 
true  policy  for  us  in  the  end  was  still  to  act  on  the  de 
fensive  ;  while  numerous  others  were  very  restive  under 
the  policy,  believing  that  the  only  true  mode  for  us  to  de 
fend  was  to  advance  and  strike  blows  thick  and  heavy. 
They  preferred  to  make  the  enemy's  country  the  seat  of 
the  war ;  and  to  make  them,  as  far  as  possible,  not  only 
sustain  the  losses  and  submit  to  the  depredations  neces 
sarily  following  from  the  presence  of  large  armies,  but 
draw  our  support  from  their  territory.  They  urged  their 
policy  especially  as  the  question  of  provisions  was  likely 
to  become  a  vital  one  in  the  South  if  the  war  was  long 
protracted.  It  was  supposed  that  under  this  policy4  the 
northern  people  would  soon  feel  .themselves  directly  in 
terested  in  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  in  which  event  the 
popular  pressure  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  for  peace 
instead  of  war.  It  was  insisted  that  upon  the  defensive 
policy  the  government  had  adopted  we  not  only  would 
have  our  entire  army  to  feed  from  our  own  resources,  but 
must  necessarily  suffer  all  the  damage  that  would  result 
from  the  presence  of  two  large  armies  upon  our  soil. 
Those  who  agreed  with  the  President  upon  his  defensive 
policy  argued  in  this  wise :  We  only  asked  to  depart  in 
peace  and  to  be  left  alone  prior  to  the  war,  and  that  is  all 
we  desire  now.  We  do  not  desire  to  lay  waste  the  ene 
my's  country  or  to  subjugate  the  northern  people.  To 
act  upon  this  high  moral  theory  must  make  for  us  friends 
abroad  and  even  in  the  enemy's  country.  If  we  were  to 
invade  the  North  the  case  would  be  radically  changed; 
our  enemies  will  then  be  fighting  in  the  defence  of  home 
and  all  that  is  dear  or  sacred  to  a  people,  and,  therefore, 
whatever  differences  may  exist  among  them  as  to  the 

15 


226  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

propriety  of  the  war  will  be  immediately  forgotten  and 
they  will  present  to  us  an  unbroken  front.  That,  in  a 
word,  it  would  be  folly  to  think  of  invading  a  country 
like  the  United  States,  with  a  population  as  intelligent  as 
our  own,  three  times  our  numbers,  and  vastly  superior  to 
us  in  arms  and  provisions.  However  much  we  desired  to 
see  the  evils  of  the  war  turned  upon  the  invaders  them 
selves,  these  reasons  seemed  to  possess  great  weight  and 
rather  commended  the  prudence  of  the  President  and 
his  Cabinet  to  the  more  thinking  and  cautious  of  our 
people. 

The  reverse  of  the  Federals  at  Manassas  seemed  to  have 
had  the  effect,  after  the  first  shock  of  disaster  and  disap 
pointment,  to  arouse  the  energies  of  the  government  at 
Washington  and  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  who 
had  up  to  that  time  not  realized  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  suppressing  the  rebellion  and  restoring  the  Union. 
This  effect  was  manifest  from  the  general  and  extensive 
preparation  upon  sea  and  land  to  invest  the  whole  Con 
federacy.  In  the  Sbuth  the  effect  was  in  a  certain  sense 
injurious.  It  is  true  it  established  general  belief  in  the 
success  of  the  revolution  and  had  the  desired  effect  in 
building  up  the  confidence  of  the  army,  which  were  so 
much  accomplished  in  the  right  direction  if  kept  within 
proper  bounds ;  but  when  it  caused  a  relaxation  in  the 
energies  of  the  people  it  could  not  be  otherwise  than  dele 
terious.  Abroad,  Confederate  stock  went  up  and,  from 
the  tone  of  European  journals,  it  was  evident  our  cause 
had  made  a  rapid  stride  at  foreign  courts.  The  prospect 
of  early  national  recognition  seemed  to  dawn  upon  us 
with  a  most  encouraging  lustre.  The  anxiety  of  the 
Washington  cabinet  upon  this  subject  was  too  apparent 
to  be  concealed,  and  all  the  arts  of  diplomacy  were  brought 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  227 

to  bear  upon  the  governments  of  England  and  France  to 
prevent  recognition. 

In  view  of  the  prospect  of  opening  diplomatic  relations 
with  those  governments,  and  for  the  purpose  of  expedit 
ing  that  desirable  end,  President  Davis  appointed  Mr. 
Mason  of  Virginia  and  Mr.  Slidell  of  Louisiana  as  minis 
ters  to  their  courts.  The  gentlemen  succeeded  in  evad 
ing  the  blockaders  upon  our  coast,  and  reached  Havana, 
in  Cuba,  where  they  embarked  on  a  British  steamer 
bound  for  Europe.  The  vessel  containing  the  ministers 
was  captured  by  the  United  States  naval  forces  on  the 
8th  of  November,  forcibly  entered,  and  the  ministers  were 
carried  away  and  confined  in  a  northern  prison.  The 
insult  thus  offered  to  the  flag  of  Great  Britain  was  made 
the  subject  of  complaint  against  the  government  through 
Her  Majesty's  minister  at  Washington,  and  a  rupture 
between  those  governments  was  expected  by  many,  and 
ardently  wished  for  by  most  of  our  people.  But  they 
misunderstood  the  genius  of  the  prime  minister  at  Wash 
ington,  and  the  spirit  of  the  government.  For  the 
amende  was  promptly  made,  Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell 
released  and  forwarded  on  their  mission  to  Europe,  in 
pursuance  to  the  demands  of  the  English  government. 

The  government  of  the  United  States  had  hitherto, 
prior  to  this  war,  refused  to  accede  to  the  proposals  of 
European  powers  to  abolish  privateering  between  civilized 
nations  at  war — regarding  it  as  a  relic  of  barbarism,  and 
inconsistent  with  the  present  advanced  stage  of  Chris 
tianity  and  civilization — and  to  place  it  upon  the  same 
footing  with  piracy.  And  now  that  President  Davis  had 
adopted  that  among  other  legitimate  modes  of  warfare, 
and  inasmuch  as  the  Confederates  had  no  maritime  com 
merce,  and  could  not  therefore  be  damaged  in  case  the 


228  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

enemy  should  adopt  it,  the  policy  of  abolishing  it  by  the 
code  governing  belligerent  nations  became  desirable  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States.  It  had  been  a  weapon  in 
their  own  hands  heretofore,  and  now  its  keen  edge  was  to 
be  turned  against  them.  But  the  governments  of  Europe, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  a  point  between  the  dismembered  sec 
tions  of  the  government  which  had  declined  to  accede  to 
their  wishes  to  abolish  it,  prudently  and  sagaciously  de 
clined  at  this  juncture  to  interpose  in  the  matter.  And 
as  the  case  stood,  while  we  were  subjected  to  the  ravages 
of  invading  enemies  upon  land,  the  authors  of  those  mis 
chiefs  felt  the  fangs  of  a  deadly  serpent  upon  the  high 
seas. 

If  the  enemy  had  confined  his  depredations  in  prop 
erty  to  that  belonging  to  or  in  the  service  of  our  govern 
ment,  and  his  war  upon  persons  to  those  in  arms  or 
otherwise  in  the  government  service,  the  moral  sensibili 
ties  of  the  South  would  have  been  strongly  appealed  to 
to  respect  private  property  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  whether  on  sea  or  land.  But  it  was  difficult  to  see 
how  a  merchant's  cargo  of  goods  on  board  an  ocean 
steamer  should  be  held  more  sacred  than  a  farmer's  smoke 
house  or  corn-crib  in  Virginia ;  or  the  ship  upon  which 
the  goods  are  carried  entitled  to  any  more  courtesy  at  the 
hands  of  our  people  than  the  private  residence  of  non- 
combatants,  their  fences,  growing  crops,  stock  and  poultry, 
received  at  the  hands  of  our  invaders. 

It  is  one  of  the  evils  of  war  in  its  most  refined  sense, 
and  where  all  the  conventionalities  of  civilized  belligerent 
nations  are  strictly  observed,  that  the  innocent  must,  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent,  suffer  with  the  guilty;  and  it 
should  address  itself  to  the  Christian  and  humane  senti 
ments  of  mankind  as  one  of  the  strongest  reasons  why  the 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  229 

martial  disposition  of  nations  should  be  replaced  by  a  sen 
timent  more  in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  the  New 
Testament ;  but  hope  in  this  direction,  which  had  sprung 
up  under  the  general  spread  of  biblical  knowledge  in 
America,  had  taken  its  exit.  There  was  no  alternative; 
the  regeneration  of  the  nations  in  this  respect  lies  through 
the  ordeal  of  a  baptism  of  the  people  in  each  other's  blood. 
When  the  appetites  of  the  Americans  for  power,  plunder^ 
and  glory  shall  be  satiated  on  the  one  hand ;  or  the  love 
of  justice  and  freedom  be  extinct  on  the  other;  then,  and 
probably  not  till  then,  will  they  cease  to  resort  to  arms 
to  settle  their  debates. 

A  great  Southern  Senator,  Mr.  Toombs,  said  in  his  place, 
"  The  last  analysis  of  liberty  is  the  blood  of  the  brave/' 
This  liberty  of  which  the  Senator  spoke  is  a  divinity  that 
has  been  worshipped  under  different  guises  and  forms  in 
all  ages  of  the  world.  Altars  have  been  erected  to  her  in 
almost  every  part  of  the  habitable  globe,  which  have 
smoked  with  the  blood  of  millions  upon  millions  of  vic 
tims,  and  still  her  cormorant  appetite  is  unsatisfied ;  her 
rites  and  ceremonies  are  as  variegated  under  different  cir 
cumstances  and  in  different  countries  and  ages  as  the  color 
and  form  of  the  clouds  She  has  an  elder  and  younger 
sister  who  have  ever  remained  close  by  her  on  either  side ; 
and  who  each,  ever  and  anon,  have  passed  by  her  name, 
and  borne  her  image ;  they  are  despotism  and  licentious 
ness.  Upon  their  altars  too,  have  untold  millions  been 
offered.  It  would  have  been  equally  true  if  the  Senator 
had  said — "  They  have  their  last  analysis  in  the  blood  of 
the  brave ;  and  brave  men  when  once  aroused,  provoked 
and  enlisted  will  fight  as  well  for  the  one  as  for  the  other ; 
and  upon  abstract  as  well  as  concrete  ideas  of  either." 

At  an  early  stage  of  hostilities,  the  Federals,  to  hide  a 


230  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

deeper  scheme  and  more  deadly  purpose,  began  to  treat 
fugitive  slaves  as  contraband  of  war ;  and  to  afford  them 
shelter  and  protection.  They  held  that  inasmuch  as  slaves 
were  laborers  producing  supplies  for  the  South,  and  thus 
upholding  the  so-called  rebellion,  it  was  legitimate  to  de 
prive  us  of  that  support ;  that  argument  followed  to  its 
logical  sequences  would,  in  case  such  a  step  should  prom 
ise  a  more  speedy  termination  and  certain  success  of  their 
enterprise,  naturally  lead  to  a  general  blow  at  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery — not  by  statute,  but  by  the  bayonet.  Thus 
this  struggle  for  political  independence  wound  up  in  one 
to  prevent  our  enemies  from  enslaving  us,  in  order  to  lib 
erate  our  slaves.  The  struggle  unfortunately  took  that 
direction,  and  was  attended  with  partial  success  to  the 
Federals ;  and  they  were  able  to  penetrate  the  interior  of 
the  country,  and  it  necessarily  entailed  great  suffering 
upon  the  people  on  account  of  the  failure  of  bread  crops 
from  the  deficiency  in  the  labor  department ;  while  the 
issue  appearing  to  be  for  and  against  the  institution  of 
African  slavery  in  the  eyes  of  all  foreign  nations,  those 
who  were  against  slavery  sympathized  with  the  Federals ; 
hence,  as  the  leading  nations  of  the  world  at  that  time 
were  opposed  to  slavery,  the  conclusion  was  that  they 
rather  took  sides  with  our  enemies,  irrespective  of  the 
true  merits  of  our  quarrel. 

At  an  early  stage  of  hostilities,  the  scheme  of  a  produce 
loan  was  put  on  foot  by  the  Confederate  government,  by 
which  agents  were  sent  through  the  country  to  appeal  to 
the  people  to  come  up  and  meet  the  wants  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  enable  her  to  negotiate  for  arms  and  munitions 
of  war,  and  such  articles  as  were  indispensable,  by  pledg 
ing  each  a  given  quantity  of  their  produce  of  corn,  wheat, 
cotton,  rice,  sugar,  syrup,  bacon,  beef,  etc.,  to  be  deliv- 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  231 

ered  by  a  certain  day  at  certain  specified  points  on  the 
lines  of  public  transportation.  To  this  appeal,  thousands 
made  a  liberal  response  and  large  amounts  were  sub 
scribed,  for  which  government  securities  were  to  be  taken 
by  the  people  in  payment. 

One  of  the  chief  difficulties  under  which  we  labored  at 
that  time  was  the  diffuse  nature  of  our  military  opera 
tions,  rendered  necessarily  so  by  the  many  and  far  dis 
tant  points  at  which  the  enemy  had  seen  fit  to  assail  us. 
It  was  considered  a  piece  of  masterly  strategy  on  the  part 
of  the  enemy  to  make  demonstrations  in  every  possible 
direction,  and  thereby  call  off  and  weaken  our  small 
forces,  and  make  them  a  prey  to  their  larger  forces. 

The  people  of  the  Confederacy  had  manifested  a  pecu 
liar  sensitiveness  where  the  enemy  approached  them,  and 
seemed  to  insist  that  the  government  should  send  forces 
wherever  the  enemy  «made  a  demonstration.  By  this 
means  the  President  was  harassed  between  the  desire  to 
concentrate  his  forces,  and  the  disposition  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  people  in  every  direction.  Those  upon  the 
threatened  coast  seemed  to  think  the  energies  of  the  gov 
ernment  should  be  mainly  directed  to  the  protection  of  our 
seaports,  while  the  people  more  remote  thought  the  cities 
and  sandy  plains  upon  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast  were 
of  little  importance  compared  with  the  grain-growing 
regions  of  the  border  States. 

While  the  campaign  in  Virginia  to  which  we  have  al 
luded  was  in  progress  during  the  current  year  1861,  scenes 
were  enacted  and  operations  conducted  in  other  parts  of 
the  Confederacy  of  deep  and  absorbing  interest.  The 
work  of  fortifying  the  cities  of  Wilmington,  Charleston, 
Savannah,  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  and  numerous  other  places 
had  gone  bravely  on,  and  the  public  mind,  for  a  long  time 


232  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

anxious  upon  the  subject,  seemed  to  rest  in  the  belief  that 
the  approaches  to  these  important  points  were  sufficiently 
guarded  and  fortified  to  justify  the  hope  that  they  would 
be  held  against  any  attack  likely  to  be  made  upon  them. 
It  seemed  to  be  a  matter  of  the  first  importance  to  pre 
vent  the  entrance  of  the  enemy  into  the  Mississippi  river 
from  above  or  below ;  as  the  occupation  by  them  of  that 
stream  would  sever  the  Confederacy  and  destroy  the  com 
munication  between  the  States  east  and  west  of  it.  Hence 
the  strong  garrisons  that  were  sent  to  the  forts  command 
ing  the  river  below  New  Orleans,  and  the  fortifications  at 
different  points  from  Memphis  to  the  neighborhood  of  the 
confluence  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers.  The  dem 
onstrations  of  the  enemy  early  in  the  summer  made  it 
necessary  to  establish  a  line  upon  the  southern  border  of 
Kentucky  to  repel  the  advance  of  the  enemy  at  the  sev 
eral  points  that  were  threatened.  Major-General  Zolli- 
koffer,  of  Tennessee,  with  a  Confederate  force  held  the 
command  of  the  southeast  part  of  Kentucky  near  the 
Cumberland  Mountains.  General  Albert  Sydney  John 
ston,  with  his  headquarters  at  Bowling  Green  in  Kentucky, 
had  command  of  the  troops  at  that  point  and  others  thence 
west  to  the  Mississippi  river,  where  he  succeeded  Brigadier- 
General  S.  B.  Buckner  in  command.  Major-General  Har- 
dee,  of  Georgia,  and  Brigadier-General  Gideon  J.  Pillow, 
of  Tennessee,  had  for  several  months  held  commands 
along  the  same  line  west  of  the  river  and  in  the  southeast 
portion  of  Missouri.  The  entrance  of  the  Cumberland 
and  Tennessee  rivers  into  the  State  of  Tennessee  had  been 
provided  against  by  the  erection  of  Forts  Henry  and 
Donaldson  near  the  border  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky. 
The  high  military  character  of  Gen.  Sydney  Johnston  had 
given  confidence  to  the  public  that  the  farther  advance 


FIRST  YEAE  IN  THE  FIELD.  233 

from  that  region  would  be  effectually  guarded,  and  that 
if  Major-General  Buell  in  command  of  the  Federal  forces 
should  attack  him,  the  victory  of  the  Southern  troops 
would  be  confidently  relied  on. 

On  the  7th  of  November,  Brigadier-General  Pillow 
achieved  a  brilliant  success  over  the  Federal  forces,  at 
Belmont,  west  of  the  Mississippi  river,  after  a  desperate 
conflict,  driving  them  hotly  pursued  for  several  miles  to 
their  gunboats.  In  this  action  Brigadier-General  Frank 
Cheatham,  of  Nashville,  bore  a  gallant  and  conspicuous  part; 
and  also  Bishop,  now  General,  Leonidas  Polk,  of  Louisiana. 

Upon  the  invasion  of  Missouri  by  the  Federal  General 
Lyon,  and  his  capture  and  dispersion  of  the  organized 
State  militia,  General  Jackson  tendered  to  Ex-Governor 
Sterling  Price  the  chief  command  of  the  whole  Missouri 
State  forces,  with  the  rank  of  major-general,  which  posi 
tion  he  accepted ;  and  by  his  eminent  soldierly  qualities 
and  vast  personal  popularity  succeeded  in  collecting 
around  him  a  band  of  determined  Missourians  and  entered 
upon  a  series  of  skilful  operations  against  Lyon  which 
endeared  him  to  the  hearts  of  the  Confederate  people. 
Brigadier-General  Jeff.  Thompson,  a  native  of  Virginia, 
and  a  bold  and  skilful  pioneer  of  the  West,  residing  in  Mis 
souri,  upon  the  call  for  the  State  troops  by  Governor 
Jackson,  organized  early  in  the  summer  of  1861  a  brigade 
of  2,500  men  as  a  separate  command  with  which  he,  with 
a  sleepless  vigilance,  annoyed  the  Federals  during  the  fall 
months,  skirmishing  with  them  almost  continually.  His 
engagements  at  Bloomington,  Pattonville,  Black  Water 
Station,  Big  River  Bridge,  and  Frederickstown  in  October 
had  given  the  name  of  Jeff.  Thompson  an  early  celebrity 
in  the  annals  of  the  war  in  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and 
rendered  it  a  terror  to  the  Federals  in  that  region. 


234  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

The  Federal  General  Lyon,  by  force  of  superior  num 
bers,  activity,  perseverance  and  energy,  succeeded  in 
driving  General  Price  before  him  nearly  to  the  south 
west  border  of  the  State,  when  he  united  his  forces  with 
those  of  Gen.  Benjamin  McCulloch,  the  partisan  leader, 
whose  laurels  won  in  the  Mexican  war  were  still  green, 
and  pointed  to  him  as  a  rising  star  in  the  revolution. 
McCulloch's  forces  consisted  of  troops  from  Texas,  his 
adopted  State,  Arkansas  and  Louisiana.  A  severe  and 
sanguinary  engagement  took  place  on  the  9th  of  August 
at  Oak  Hill  near  Springfield,  west  of  the  Ozark  moun 
tains,  in  Missouri,  in  which  General  McCulloch  held  the 
ranking  command,  and  bore  himself  with  a  boldness  and 
intrepidity  never  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  the  war. 
The  superior  gallantry  and  skill  of  the  Southern  men 
were  everywhere  conspicuous,  and  resulted  in  a  complete 
victory  over  the  forces  of  General  Lyon.  The  announce 
ment  was  received  with  great  joy  throughout  the  Con 
federacy.  The  beauty  of  the  picture,  however,  was 
greatly  marred  by  the  fact  that  the  two  commanders, 
Generals  Price  and  McCulloch,  fell  into  a  dispute  which 
was  made  public,  about  the  honors  of  the  day's  achieve 
ments,  and  the  parts  respectively  borne  by  the  Missou- 
rians,  and  McCulloch's  troops. 

Brig.-Gen.  John  S.  Williams,  a  native  of  Kentucky,  re 
siding  at  the  opening  of  the  war  in  southern  Illinois, 
being  driven  out  for  his  Southern  sentiments,  came  to 
Kentucky,  and  under  authority  of  the  President  raised  a 
force  of  about  1,500  men  armed  with  shotrguns  and  coun 
try-rifles  to  operate  against  the  Federals,  and  rendezvoused 
at  Prestonsburg.  General  Nelson,  in  command  of  5,000 
Federal  troops,  approached,  and  Williams  retreated  to 
Piketon,  whither  Nelson  followed.  Williams  selected  a 


FIRST  YEAE  IN  THE  FIELD.  235 

strong  position  at  Ivy  Creek,  where  Nelson  was  disas 
trously  repulsed,  and  his  army  disorganized.  Williams 
only  lost  eight  men. 

The  autumn  months  were  enlivened  by  an  engage 
ment  at  Dranesville  in  northern  Virginia ;  the  surprise 
and  capture  by  night  of  the  Federal  garrison  on  Santa 
Rosa  Island  in  Florida,  and  numerous  conflicts  and  skir 
mishes  on  different  parts  of  the  extended  field  of  operations. 

On  the  20th  day  of  October,  a  sanguinary  engagement 
was  followed  by  a  splendid  victory  for  the  Confederate 
arms  under  the  command  of  General  Evans  of  South 
Carolina,  at  Leesburg,  near  the  Potomac  river  in  Virginia. 
The  Federal  forces  that  had  crossed  at  that  point  were 
under  the  command  of  Generals  Stone  and  Baker,  the 
latter  of  whom  was  killed  upon  the  field.  The  battle  is 
said  to  have  been  conducted  with  skill  upon  the  part  of 
the  Confederate  commanders,  and  with  inordinate  gal 
lantry  on  the  part  of  officers  and  troops.  The  retreat  of 
the  enemy  from  the  field  was,  if  possible,  more  disgrace 
ful  than  that  at  Manassas  in  July  before.  Discarding 
arms  and  everything  which  could  retard  their  flight,  leav 
ing  artillery  on  the  field,  and  a  large  number  of  prisoners 
in  our  hands,  they  crowded  down  the  hill  to  the  river  in 
the  most  promiscuous  and  confused  masses  to  escape  by 
their  boats  across  the  river,  pursued  by  the  Confederates, 
and  mown  down  at  every  step,  while  the  well,  the  sick, 
wounded  and  dying  were  crowded  into  the  boats  to  over 
flowing,  and  all  in  the  wildest  consternation  and  dismay. 
One  densely  crowded  boat  sunk  in  the  middle  of  the 
stream,  and  many  of  the  unfortunates  were  drowned.  It 
adds  to  the  disgrace  of  the  Federals  at  Leesburg  that  they 
fought,  and  were  whipped,  with  a  force  largely  superior  to 
that  of  the  Confederates  under  General  Evans.  .The 


236  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

slaughter  of  Federal  troops  is  described  as  immense,  and 
their  public  journals  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  the  fact 
that  the  defeat  was  overwhelming  and  disgraceful. 

The  first  of  November  was  the  time  fixed  by  law  for 
the  election  of  a  president  and  vice-president  of  the  Con 
federate  States  to  be  installed  in  February  next,  under 
the  permanent  constitution,  when  the  provisional  govern 
ment  should  have  expired  by  its  own  limitation.  It  was 
evident  from  the  general  tone  of  public  journals  in  the 
South,  and  from  every  source  of  information,  that  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  retained  their  confidence  in  the 
wisdom  and  fidelity  of  President  Davis  and  Vice-president 
Stephens,  and  were  content  to  have  them  elected  and 
placed  in  power  for  the  next  six  years,  but  were  averse 
to  agitation  and  controversy,  such  as  would  be  likely  to 
flow  from  opposition  in  the  approaching  election.  Such 
opposition  could  not  spring  out  of  any  difference  in  the 
principles  and  aims  of  the  revolution.  No  great  issues 
had  sprung  up,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  grounds  for  a 
contest  except  it  should  be  based  upon  a  want  .of  confi 
dence  in  the  administration,  or  a  personal  preference  for 
other  men.  Hence  no  opposing  ticket  was  offered,  and 
the  incumbents  were  elected  by  the  unanimous  vote  of 
the  people,  so  far  as  they  chose  to  exercise  the  elective 
franchise.  It  cannot  be  overlooked,  however,  that  there 
was  an  unorganized  element  of  opposition,  which  was  not 
only  espoused  by  men  of  ability,  but  found  expression  in 
numerous  severe  criticisms  in  such  leading  journals  as  the 
Richmond  Examiner  and  the'  Charleston  Mercury.  The 
talents  employed  in  the  conduct  of  these  journals  for 
bade  their  being  treated  with  contempt,  and  rendered 
them  a  source  of  real  annoyance  to  the  friends  of  har 
mony,  who  believed  that  the  opposition  was  not  founded 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  237 

upon  the  highest  motives  of  patriotism.  But  of  its  merits 
we  did  not  undertake  to  determine,  feeling  that  time  alone 
could  fully  enable  an  impartial  public  to  decide. 

The  effect  of  the  enemy's  blockade  was  everywhere 
visible  upon  the  people  in  all  grades  and  conditions  in  life 
in  the  South ;  and  in  nothing  was  it  more  striking  than 
in  the  dress  of  ladies,  and  the  curtailing  of  table  luxuries. 
The  display  of  homespun  skirts  by  ladies  of  wealth  and 
position  had  a  wonderful  effect  upon  the  lovers  of  style 
and  fashion  in  the  less  affluent  grades  of  society.  Knitting 
of  socks  and  sewing  upon  garments  for  soldiers  became 
elegant  employments  in  the  female  circle ;  while  those 
who  had  not  servants  to  work  for  them,  plied  their  busy 
hands  daily  in  the  manufacture  of  cloth  for  their  own 
families,  and  their  absent  relatives  in  the  army.  The 
cutting  off  of  the  supply  of  coffee,  and  consequent  sus 
pension  of  its  use,  and  the  substitution  of  teas  made  from 
wheat,  rye,  barley,  potatoes,  and  other  articles  according 
to  the  tastes  of  the  people,  was  rapidly  curing  a  national 
disease  of  the  people  in  the  Confederate  States;  and  the 
effects  were  everywhere  visible  in  the  improved  complex 
ion  of  female  cheeks  and  in  the  general  diminution  of  ner 
vous  headaches,  after  the  first  effects  of  the  privation  sub 
sided.  The  use  of  coffee  as  a  stimulant  and  sedative,  for 
its  pleasurable  temporary  effects,  had  produced  a  general 
disease  of  the  nervous  constitution,  requiring  the  applica 
tion  periodically  according  to  habit  to  allay  the  nervous 
irritability  which  coffee  itself  produced ;  hence  the  sus 
pension  of  its  use  was  a  sore  trial  generally  to  females, 
and  most  persons  of  a  nervous  temperament ;  but  there 
was  scarcely  a  case  occurred  under  my  observation  in 
which  the  general  health  was  not  benefited  as  soon  as 
the  constitution  could  rally  and  recuperate  from  the  inju- 


238  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

rious  effects  which  coffee,  through  years  of  indulgence, 
had  produced. 

If  the  war  should  have  had  the  effect  also  to  prevent 
the  general  use  of  spirituous  liquors  and  tobacco,  we  should 
have  been  richly  repaid  in  a  national  point  of  view  for  the 
losses  we  sustained;  but  these  articles  being  so  largely 
produced  within  the  Confederacy,  there  was  but  little 
ground  to  hope  for  this  reform.  There  was  ground  to 
hope  that  the  general  improvement  in  the  physical  con 
dition  of  the  women  in  the  South,  from  quitting  the  use 
of  coffee,  and  resorting  to  industrial  habits  and  pursuits, 
would  tell  wonderfully  upon  the  mental  and  physical  con 
stitution  of  the  generation  to  follow  us.  Now  if  the  men 
could  be  induced  or  forced  to  quit  the  dirty  and  delete 
rious  use  of  tobacco,  and  the  brutalizing  practice  of  drunk 
enness,  what  a  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  race  would 
grow  up  to  take  the  place  of  the  present  diseased  and  de 
praved  set  of  men  and  women ! 

I  should  be  untrue  to  my  record  of  latent  and  visible 
causes  and  effects  to  pass  in  silence  the  wide-spread  con 
tagion  of  drunkenness  among  the  officers  of  the  Confed 
erate  army ;  or  to  express  the  apparently  well-grounded 
fact  that  the  well-earned  laurels  of  many  a  gallant  and 
otherwise  promising  Confederate,  sooner  or  later  faded 
from  their  brows  under  the  blossoms  of  bestializing  whis 
key  and  brandy. 

The  first  effects  of  these  stimulants  are  well  calculated 
to  mislead  the  good  and  true,  as  well  as  to  accelerate  the 
wicked  tendencies  of  the  naturally  bad  and  vicious.  They 
affect  the  spirits  agreeably,  and  seem  to  add  to  the  phys 
ical  vitality  and  improve  the  digestion  and  general  health; 
but  apace  they  blunt  the  moral  sensibilities,  gradually  be 
numb  the  physical  energies,  becloud  the  intellect,  over- 


FIRST  YEAE  IN  THE  FIELD.  239 

come  the  amiable  qualities  of  nature's  noblemen,  and  im 
part  an  irascibility  to  their  temper;  make  steady  siege  upon 
the  strongest  fortress  of  mankind — their  pride  of  charac 
ter.  And  when  that  is  reduced  and  overcome,  the  helpless 
victims  of  the  temporary  pleasure  of  the  habitual  use  of 
the  beverage  sink  to  the  level  of  vagabonds.  It  was  folly 
to  trust  that  men  whose  habits  were  hurrying  them 
down  this  inclined  plane  could  successfully  discipline  and 
command  troops.  The  officers  thus  addicted  were  really 
incapable  of  the  discharge  of  their  important  duties,  dis 
gusting  and  demoralizing  to  their  men,  and  to  the  coun 
try,  and  a  reproach  to  the  cause.  And  it  was  a  strong 
draft  upon  religious  faith  when  we  were  required  to  be 
lieve  that  a  just  God  would  be  propitious  to  the  country 
while  these  evils  were  tolerated  by  the  ruling  authorities. 
There  were  grounds  to  hope  that  this  blighting  disease 
that  infested  the  moral  atmosphere  of  the  Confederate 
camp  would  soon  reach  its  crisis  when  the  axe  would  be 
laid  to  the  root.  Officers  had  to  cease  to  be  drunken  or 
be  displaced  if  we  wished  to  have  a  satisfied  and  disci 
plined  army,  or  would  hope  to  win  battles.  The  low 
murmur  of  subalterns  and  privates  gave  an  uncertain 
sound  from  the  line  of  encampments,  and  if  the  evil  was 
not  arrested  general  demoralization  must  have  ensued. 

There  is  an  aspect  in  which  war  seems  to  be  at  radical 
variance  with  the  teachings  of  Christianity.  It  is  in  refer- 
ance  to  the  observance  of  the  holy  sabbath  day.  It 
would  seem  impracticable  in  many  emergent  cases  to  sus 
pend  operations  on  that  day ;  the  march  of  armies,  the 
running  of  railroad  cars,  and  steamboats  under  the  regu 
lations  of  government  for  transporting  mails,  troops,  and 
army  supplies,  and  the  operation  of  telegraph  lines  for 
the  transmission  of  news,  are  necessary  to  a  state  of  war, 


240  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

and  it  is  not  apparent  to  my  mind  how  the  war  can  be 
successfully  carried  on  and  these  practices  avoided.  But 
the  prevalent  custom  in  the  army  of  making  the  sabbath 
a  day  of  review  and  inspection  was  certainly  reprehensible 
and  shocking  to  the  pious  portion  of  our  countrymen, 
while  there  seemed  to  be  no  reason  in  a  military  point  of 
view  for  that  desecration  of  the  Lord's  day.  The  same 
authority  which  forbade  the  crimes  of  theft  and  murder, 
also  enjoined  the  observance  of  the  Christian  sabbath 

Now  if  these  crimes  were  constantly  practised  by  the 
command  of  the  government,  it  would  be  vastly  more 
repulsive  to  the  moral  sensibilities  for  the  reason  that 
they  violated  the  palpable  laws  of  nature,  and  the  mischiefs 
flowing  from  them  were  immediate  and  perceivable. 
But  they  no  more  certainly  contravene  the  heavenly 
command,  and  we  have  no  authority  to  support  the  belief 
that  they  would  certainly  provoke  the  Divine  displeasure, 
than  does  the  violation  of  the  holy  sabbath.  Still  there 
were  numerous  evidences  in  the  history  of  the  expiring 
year's  operations  to  satisfy  our  learned  clergy,  and  many 
of  our  spiritual  minded  people,  that  the  Supreme  Kuler 
of  the  world  had  signally  interposed  in  our  behalf. 

There  was  a  general  advance  of  prices  of  all  articles  of 
apparel  and  provisions,  owing  to  the  growing  scarcity  in 
all  that  we  were  accustomed  to  bring  from  other  sections, 
or  from  foreign  countries,  and  to  the  decrease  in  produc 
tions  and  the  waste  of  the  army.  The  temptation  to  en 
gage  in  speculation  in  these  was  more  than  the  public 
virtue  could  resist,  or  public  odium  frown  down.  The 
number  of  those  who  obtained  their  consent  to  de 
rive  personal  advantages  from  the  woes  and  misfortunes 
of  the  country,  and  the  wants  of  the  self-sacrificing  poor, 
seemed  rather  to  be  on  the  increase ;  and  the  danger  was 


FIRST  YEAR  IN  THE  FIELD.  241 

that  the  great  number  of  heretofore  respectable  men  who 
had  thus  stifled  their  consciences,  and  were  prepared  to 
barter  their  country  for  gain,  would  continue  to  increase 
until  this  deadly  species  of  treason,  not  overt,  should  be 
come  itself,  respectable. 

The  public  confidence  seemed  firm,  that  notwithstand 
ing  the  temporary  scarcity  the  resources  were  sufficient 
to  produce  the  supply  within  reasonable  time,  in  most  ar 
ticles  of  primary  necessity.  The  limited  number  of  cotton 
factories,  and  the  great  want  of  cotton  cards  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  who  had,  in  a  great  measure,  suspended  the 
domestic  manufactures,  gave  grounds  to  fear  that  we 
should  be  closely  pressed  in  obtaining  a  supply  of  cloth 
ing.  The  subject  of  a  supply  of  salt  to  meet  the  wants 
of  this  country  during  a  long,  continued  blockade  was  one 
of  the  most  serious  that  the  public  mind  was  called  upon 
to  digest  during  the  war.  A  portion  of  the  salines  in  Vir 
ginia  were  already  within  the  lines  of  the  enemy's  military 
operations,  while  those  which  were  not,  were  liable  to  con 
stant  interruption.  On  the  coast,  all  operations  for  the 
manufacture  of  salt  were  necessarily  subject  to  be  broken 
up  at  any  time  by  the  enemy's  fleets.  The  reclaiming  of 
the  deposits  of  salt  from  the  beds  of  smoke  houses,  where 
it  had  settled  from  the  dripping  of  pork,  had  aided  some 
in  supplying  this  essential  article  ;  while  it  was  hoped  that 
discoveries  of  salines  might  be  made,  and  operations  pro 
jected  at  points  where  salt  could  be  safely  manufactured. 
Some  was  imported  through  the  blockade  and  the  supply 
on  hand,  by  strict  economy,  was  made  to  extend  far  be 
yond  the  time  to  which  it  would  hold  out  with  the  ordi 
nary  lavish  mode  of  using  it.  It  was  evident,  however, 
that  our  people  who  were  determined  upon  the  accom 
plishment  of  independence,  would  live  without  salt,  or 

16 


242  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

upon  a  very  small  quantity,  rather  than  contemplate  the 
idea  of  surrendering  to  the  enemy. 

The  question  of  subsistence  for  the  families  of  poor 
men  who  were  in  the  public  service,  and  who  were  desti 
tute  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  assumed  a  grave  aspect. 
It  was  found  that  private  contributions  and  individual 
charity,  however  promising  upon  the  opening  of  the  war, 
had  proven  to  be  an  uncertain  reliance,  and  that  suffering 
for  want  of  food  and  clothing  would  follow  unless  some 
certain  provision  was  made  for  their  support.  It  was 
conceded  on  all  hands  that  they  were  entitled  to  a  sup 
port  from  the  property  holders  of  the  country.  The  hus 
bands,  sons,  fathers,  or  brothers  who  customarily  sup 
ported  them,  being  now  detained  from  them  in  the  post 
of  exposure  and  danger,  or  having  died  or  become  dis 
abled  in  service,  in  a  struggle  for  the  protection  of  prop 
erty,  the  sentiment  was  general  that  the  holders  of  that 
property  ought  to  see  to  it  that  the  helpless  ones  did  not 
want  for  the  necessaries  of  life ;  it  was  found  also  that  pri 
vate  contributions,  even  if  they  could  be  relied  on,  operated 
very  unequally  upon  the  holders  of  property.  There 
were  some  also  who  were  naturally  very  liberal  and  patri 
otic,  and  would  from  charitable  impulses  give  bountifully, 
while  others  from  natural  stinginess  or  lukewarmness  in 
the  cause  gave  but  very  little,  and  others  nothing  at  all. 

In  view  of  this,  and  fully  alive  to  the  necessity  of  pro 
viding  a  support  for  them,  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
of  Georgia,  and  perhaps  of  other  States,  empowered  the 
county  court  of  each  county  to  impose  a  large  tax  upon 
the  property  of  the  citizens  thereof  to  raise  a  fund  for 
this  purpose.  The  error  of  this  system  was  found  upon 
trial  to  be  that  the  counties  having  the  least  property 
would  generally  have  within  their  limits  the  most  paupers. 


FIRST  YEAK  IN  THE  FIELD.  243 

Those  very  rich  counties  where  there  were  but  few  fami 
lies  too  poor  to  support  themselves  were  almost  exempt 
from  the  burden  of  supporting  the  poor ;  while  in  the 
populous  poor  counties  the  burden  on  the  few  small  hold 
ers  of  property  was  either  unsupportable,  or  the  poor 
left  unprovided  for. 

Experience  demonstrated  the  necessity  of  drawing  the 
pauper  fund  from  the  public  treasury  of  the  State,  so 
that  property  wherever  located  was  reached,  and  the 
poor  whose  necessities  had  been  brought  upon  them  by 
the  withdrawal  of  their  reliance  for  a  support  to  serve  in 
the  Confederate  army,  were  partially  supported. 

One  portentous  aspect  of  our  affairs  seemed  to  indicate 
a  tendency  to  alienation  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  of 
the  people,  and  the  troops  of  our  army.  The  means  of 
supplying  the  poor  in  many  cases  decreased,  while  the  ap 
plicants  for  bounty  increased,  and  not  unattended  in  many 
instances  with  a  spirit  of  exaction  which  was  not  visible 
at  the  outset.  In  other  cases  the  ardor  of  patriotism  and 
the  breadth  of  charity  alike  decreased  under  the  growing 
prospects  of  realizing  high  prices  from  speculators  and  ex 
tortioners  for  their  bread  and  meat.  Hence,  their  grow 
ing  apathy  to  the  idea  of  lavishing  upon  the  hungry  poor 
around  them,  notwithstanding  the  promises  made  to  the 
departing  soldiers,  far  away  from  home,  enduring  hard 
ships,  privations,  and  exposure  to  danger.  This  evil  in 
creased  with  the  prospective  advance  of  high  prices,  and 
with  every  new  levy  of  troops,  which  increased  the  num 
ber  of  paupers  in  almost  every  neighborhood  in  the  South. 
The  reality  of  supporting  other  men's  families  for  one, 
two,  or  three  years,  was  quite  different  from  that  outburst 
of  evanescent  charity  that  flowed  into  the  laps  of  the  poor 
upon  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities.  The  reflex  influence 


244  OPENING  OF  HOSTILITIES. 

of  the  discontents  in  the  home  circle  upon  the  poor  men 
in  the  army,  after  a  few  more  months  when  they  had  be 
come  tired  of  the  service,  and  sought  pretexts  to  complain, 
was  deleterious. 

We  close  this  imperfect  review  of  the  year  1861,  and 
await  with  anxiety  the  now  undeveloped  changes  which 
the  incoming  year  would  make,  with  the  remark  that, 
surveying  the  whole  field  of  operations,  it  appeared  that 
the  prospect  of  eventual  success  was  high ;  that  the  ob 
stacles  in  the  way  were  not  insuperable ;  that  we  had  no 
real  cause  to  despond,  that  our  condition  was  every  way 
as  good  as  could  have  been  expected ;  and  that,  with  the 
continuation  of  Divine  favor,  we  must  sooner  or  later  be 
a  disenthralled  and  independent  people.  It  was  in  the 
power  of  our  enemies  to  long  harass  and  perplex  us ;  to 
lay  waste  our  cities,  destroy  our  fields  and  industrial  re 
sources,  shut  us  out  from  communication  with  the  world, 
crimson  many  a  field  with  the  best  blood  of  our  country, 
and  literally  clothe  the  South  in  mourning  for  her  gallant 
dead  ;  but  we  did  not  believe  it  in  their  power  ever  to 
subjugate  us ;  and  such  was  the  prevailing  sentiment  of 
our  people  at  that  time. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DEFENCE  OF  GEORGIA  BY  STATE  FORCES. 

On  the  6th  of  November,  1861,  Governor  Brown,  on  the 
assembling  of  the  Legislature,  in  his  general  message, 
makes  the  following  succinct  statement  on  the  subject 
of  the 

DEFENCE   OF   THE   STATE. 

"  The  Act  of  the  last  Legislature  authorized  the  Governor  to  call  out  ten 
thousand  volunteers,  if  necessary,  for  the  defence  of  the  State. 

"  Early  in  the  spring  I  divided  the  State  into  four  sections  or  brigades  in 
tending,  if  necessary,  to  raise  one  brigade  of  volunteers  in  each  section,  and 
appointed  one  major-general  and  two  brigadier-generals  with  a  view  to  the 
prompt  organization,  of  one  division  in  case  of  emergency.  The  position  of 
major-general  was  tendered  to  Gen.  Henry  R.  Jackson,  who  has  lately  gained 
a  very  important  victory  over  a  greatly  superior  force  of  the  enemy  in  north 
western  Virginia,  who  declined  it  in  favor  of  Col.  William  H.  T.  Walker, 
late  of  the  United  States  Army  and  a  most  gallant  son  of  Georgia.  I  then, 
in  accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  General  Jackson  and  the  dictates 
of  my  own  judgment,  tendered  the  appointment  to  Colonel  Walker,  by  whom 
it  was  accepted.  The  office  of  brigadier-general  was  tendered  to  and  accepted 
by  Col.  Paul  J.  Semines  for  the  second  brigade,  and  to  Col.  William  Phillips 
for  the  fourth  brigade.  With  a  view  to  more  speedy  and  active  service 
under  the  Confederate  government,  General  Walker  and  General  Semines 
resigned  before  they  had  organized  their  respective  commands.  About  this 
time  our  relations  with  the  government  of  the  United  States  assumed  so 
threatening  an  aspect  that  I  ordered  General  Phillips  to  organize  his  brigade 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  to  throw  the  officers  into  a  camp  of  instruction  for 
training  that  they  might  be  the  better  prepared  to  render  effective  those 
under  their  command.  This  camp  of  instruction  was  continued  for  about 
wo  weeks  and  the  officers  sent  home  to  hold  their  respective  commands  in 
readiness.  This  was  the  condition  of  our  volunteer  organization  early  in 
June  when  the  United  States  troops  crossed  the  Potomac  and  invaded  the 
soil  of  Virginia.  Not  knowing  how  soon  a  similar  invasion  of  our  own  soil 
might  be  made  by  a  landing  of  troops  upon  our  coast,  I  ordered  General 
Phillips  to  call  his  whole  brigade  into  a  camp  of  instruction  and  hold  them  in 


246      DEFENCE  OF  GEOEGIA  BY  STATE  FOECES. 

readiness  for  immediate  action  should  emergencies  require  it.  This  order 
was  promptly  obeyed  by  the  energetic  and  efficient  officer  to  whom  it  was 
given.  General  Phillips,  assisted  by  Adjutant-General  Wayne  and  Major 
Capers,  the  superintendent  of  the  Georgia  Military  Institute,  pressed  for 
ward  the  instruction  and  preparation  of  the  troops  with  great  activity  and 
energy.  The  troops  remained  in  camp  from  the  llth  of  June  till  the  2d  of 
August.  They  were  a  noble,  patriotic,  chivalrous  band  of  Georgians,  and  I 
hazard  nothing  in  saying,  military  men  being  the  judges,  that  no  brigade  in 
the  Confederate  service  was  composed  of  better  material,  or  was  better 
trained  at  that  time  for  active  service  in  the  field.  The  season  having  so 
far  advanced  that  it  was  not  probable  that  our  coast  would  be  invaded  before 
cold  weather,  T  tendered  the  brigade  to  President  Davis  for  Confederate 
service  in  Virginia.  The  President  refused  to  accept  the  tender  of  the 
brigade,  but  asked  for  the  troops  by  regiments.  Believing  that  a  due  respect 
for  the  rights  of  the  State  should  have  prompted  the  President  to  accept 
those  troops  under  their  State  organization,  and  if  any  legal  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  accepting  a  brigade  existed  that  it  should  have  been  removed  by  the 
appointment  of  the  general  who  had  trained  the  men,  and  who  was  their 
unanimous  choice,  to  continue  to  command  them  in  active  service,  I  at  first 
refused  to  disband  a  State  organization,  made  in  conformity  to  the  statute, 
and  tender  the  troops  by  regiments ;  more  especially  as  the  President  only 
demanded  the  two  regiments  which  would  have  left  the  three  battalions  to 
be  disbanded  or  maintained  as  battalions  through  the  balance  of  the  season 
by  the  State.  Finally  the  president  agreed  to  accept  the  battalions  and 
regiments,  and  in  view  of  the  pressing  necessity  for  troops  in  Virginia,  I 
yielded  the  point,  and  accepted  General  Phillips's  resignation,  and  permitted 
the  troops  to  be  mustered  into  the  Confederate  service  by  regiments  and 
battalions. 

"  About  the  time  these  troops  left  the  secretary  of  war  also  ordered  out  of 
the  State  the  regiment  of  Regulars  under  Colonel  Williams,  and  the  2d 
regiment  of  volunteers  commanded  by  Colonel  Semmes,  both  excellent  regi 
ments,  well  drilled  and  armed.  This  left  the  coast  almost  entirely  defence 
less.  By  that  time  I  had  permitted  nearly  all  the  arms  of  the  State  to  go 
into  the  Confederate  service,  and  it  has  been  a  very  difficult  matter  to  get 
arms  enough  to  supply  the  troops  since  ordered  to  the  coast. 

"  At  the  time  Fort  Pulaski  was  by  an  ordinance  of  our  State  Convention 
turned  over  to  the  Confederate  government  the  number  and  size  of  the  guns 
in  the  fort  were  very  inadequate  to  its  successful  defence  against  a  fleet  with 
heavy  guns,  and,  as  the  secretary  of  war  made  no  provision  for  the  proper 
supply  of  guns  or  ammunition  I  deemed  it  my  duty  to  purchase,  with  funds 
from  the  State  treasury,  the  necessary  supply,  which  was  done  at  a  cost  of 
$101,521.43.  In  this  estimate  is  included  the  freights  paid  on  the  supply 
and  a  number  of  heavy  guns  sent  to  other  parts  of  the  coast  together  with 
work  done  on  gun  carriages,  etc.  During  the  months  of  August  and  Sep- 


DEFENCE  OF  GEORGIA  BY  STATE  FORCES.   247 

tember  our  climate  was  considered  a  sufficient  protection  of  our  coast  against 
invasion  ;  but  an  attack  was  reasonably  looked  for  so  soon  as  the  advanced 
stage  of  the  season  would  render  the  health  of  an  army  on  the  coast  secure. 
I  had  petitioned  the  secretary  of  war  to  send  a  larger  force  to  our  coast,  prior 
to  the  order  by  which  I  called  out  General  Phillips's  brigade,  and  had  offered 
to  supply  promptly  any  number  of  troops  needed  in  obedience  to  a  requisi 
tion  from  the  War  Department,  and  had  mentioned  five  thousand  as  the  num 
ber  which  I  considered  necessary.  He  replied,  declining  to  order  so  many, 
and  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  hold  State  troops  in  readiness  to  meet  any  con 
tingency  until  the  period  when  the  climate  would  be  a  sufficient  protection. 

"  Early  in  September  I  visited  the  coast  and  inspected  the  fortifications 
and  batteries  which  had  been  thrown  up  by  Confederate  authority.  I  was 
fully  satisfied  that  the  number  of  troops  upon  the  coast  in  the  Confederate 
service  was  entirely  inadequate  to  its  defence,  and  as  no  requisition  was 
made  upon  me  for  any  increase  of  the  force,  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  call 
out  State  troops  and  increase  the  force  as  soon  as  possible.  It  is  true  the 
State  was  not  invaded,  but  the  danger  was  considered  so  imminent  as  to 
admit  of  no  further  delay  and  I  was  of  opinion  that  my  action  was  justified 
by  both  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  constitution  of  the  Confederate  States. 

"  In  the  early  part  of  September  last  I  appointed  Gen.  George  P.  Harrison, 
of  Chatham  county,  a  brigadier-general,  under  the  Act  of  the  last  session  of 
the  Legislature,  and  ordered  him  to  organize  a  brigade  of  volunteers  armed 
as  far  as  we  had  the  means  with  military  weapons,  and  the  balance  with 
good  country  rifles  and  shot  guns,  and  to  throw  them  into  camp  of  instruc 
tion  near  the  coast  where  they  could  readily  be  used  when  needed.  General 
Harrison  has  pressed  forward  the  organization  with  his  characteristic  prompt 
ness  and  energy  and  now  has  a  fine  brigade  under  his  command.  I  have 
also,  within  the  last  few  days,  appointed  Maj.  F.  W.  Capers  a  brigadier-general 
and  ordered  him  to  take  command  of  the  second  brigade  now  about 
organized. 

"  When  I  permitted  nearly  all  the  State's  guns  to  go  out  of  the  State  in 
the  summer,  I  entertained  the  hope  that  such  number  of  the  troops  with  the 
guns  as  might  be  needed  would  be  permitted  to  return  to  our  coast  in 
case  of  necessity  during  the  winter.  Considering  the  danger  imminent,  I 
lately  requested  the  secretary  of  war  to  order  back  to  our  coast  five  regi 
ments  of  armed  Georgia  troops.  This  request  was  at  the  time  declined  by 
the  secretary,  who  agreed,  however,  to  supply  the  Confederate  general  in 
command  at  Savannah  with  one  thousand  of  the  Enfield  rifles  lately 
imported. 

"  As  very  little  expenditure  has  been  made  by  the  Confederate  govern 
ment  to  place  Georgia  in  a  defensive  condition,  and  as  the  number  of  Con 
federate  troops  upon  the  coast  is  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the 
service,  and  as  the  enemy's  fleet  is  now  off  our  coast,  I  am  of  opinion  that 
the  State  will  be  compelled  in  a  very  great  degree  to  take  her  own  defences 


248   DEFENCE  OF  GEOKGIA  BY  STATE  FORCES. 

into  her  own  hands,  and  I  therefore  recommend  such  additional  legislation 
as  the  General  Assembly  may  think  necessary  for  that  purpose  together  with 
such  appropriations  of  money  as  may  be  required  for  a  bold  and  vigorous 
defence  of  our  beloved  State  against  the  aggressions  of  a  wicked  and  power 
ful  foe.  Should  we  have  to  continue  our  troops  in  the  field,  which  I  think 
quite  probable,  during  the  winter,  an  appropriation  of  less  than  $3,500,000 
will  be  insufficient  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  service  for  the  ensuing  year. 

44  It  is  true  the  sum  asked  for  is  large,  but  the  emergency  in  which  we  are 
placed  and  the  results  which  must  follow  our  action  are  such,  that  we  cannot 
for  a  moment  stop  to  count  the  cost.  The  only  question  proper  for  discus 
sion  now  is,  how  many  men  and  how  much  money  are  necessary  to  protect 
the  State  and  repel  the  invasion.  Other  States  have  voted  larger  sums  than 
I  have  asked.  I  see  by  the  message  of  Governor  Harris,  that  the  gallant 
State  of  Tennessee  has  appropriated  and  expended  $5,000,000  as  a  military 
fund  within  the  last  six  months. 

"  How  the  amount  of  money  above  demanded  is  to  be  raised,  is  a  question 
for  the  serious  consideration  of  the  General  Assembly.  The  war  tax  imposed 
by  the  Confederate  government,  together  with  the  expenses  assumed  by  dif 
ferent  counties  for  supplies  needed  by  their  companies  in  the  service,  will 
greatly  increase  the  burdens  of  taxation.  If  we  add  this  additional  sum  to 
that  to  be  collected  within  the  present  year,  the  burden  will  be  too  onerous. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  should  not  forget  that  the  debt  which  we  now  incur, 
with  the  interest,  has  to  be  paid  by  us  and  our  posterity.  While  we  cannot 
avoid  some  increase  of  the  public  debt  of  the  State,  I  think  it  wise  that  we 
increase  it  as  little  as  possible,  and  that  we  meet  a  large  part  of  our  neces 
sary  expenditures  by  taxation. 

"  I  therefore  recommend  the  enactment  of  a  law  authorizing  the  collection, 
during  the  present  fiscal  year,  of  one  million  of  dollars  by  taxation,  for  State 
purposes,  and  the  sale  of  State  bonds  bearing  such  rate  of  interest  as  will 
command  par  in  the  market,  to  an  amount  necessary  to  raise  the  balance. 
If  the  interest  is  fixed  at  a  high  rate,  the  State  should  reserve  the  right  to 
redeem  the  bonds  at  no  very  distant  period.  In  the  management  of  private 
affairs,  I  have  generally  noticed  that  he  who  is  largely  indebted,  and  keeps 
his  property  and  pays  heavy  interest  rather  than  sell  property  enough  to  pay 
the  debt  and  stop  the  interest,  is  seldom  prosperous;  so  it  is  with  a  State. 
The  revolution  has  happened  in  our  day  ;  its  burdens  belong  to  the  present 
generation,  and  we  have  no  right,  by  a  very  large  increase  of  our  public  debt, 
to  transmit  the  greater  portion  of  them  to  generations  yet  unborn." 

THE    TRANSFER   OF   STATE   TROOPS    TO    THE    CONFED 
ERACY. 

The  subject  of  maintaining  a  separate  military  force, 
by  the  State,  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  her  coast  in 


DEFENCE  OF  GEORGIA  BY  STATE  FORCES.   249 

addition  to  the  large  drain  upon  the  population  by  troops 
already  in  the  Confederate  service,  having  been  much 
discussed  by  the  public  journals,  the  General  Assembly 
took  the  following  action  on  the  16th  December,  1861 : — 

"  Resolved,  By  the  General  Assembly  of  Georgia,  that  the  Governor  be, 
and  he  is  hereby  authorized  and  instructed  to  tender  to  the  Confederate 
Government  the  volunteer  forces  called  into  service  under  the  law  of  1860, 
or  which  may  hereafter  be  called  into  service  for  the  State  defence,  in  com 
panies,  battalions,  regiments,  brigades  or  divisions,  as  may  be  found  to  be 
acceptable  to  the  war  department  of  the  Confederate  States ;  Provided,  That 
the  Confederate  States  will  receive  them  for  the  term  of  their  enlistment  and 
for  local  defence  in  this  State,  under  the  act  of  Congress  to  provide  for 
local  defence  and  special  service,  approved  August  21,  1861 ;  And  provided 
further,  That,  if  the  Confederate  States  shall  not  accept  said  troops,  in  that 
event  the  troops  shall  remain  in  service  as  State  troops,  under  the  terms  of 
their  enlistment ;  And  provided  further,  That  such  tender  shall  be  made,  so  far 
as  the  troops  now  in  the  State  are  concerned,  before  the  15th  day  of  January 
next,  and  before  a  greater  sum  than  one  million  of  dollars  is  raised  or  ex 
pended  as  provided  for  in  the  20th  section  of  the  general  appropriation  bill ; 
And  provided  further,  That  none  of  said  troops  shall  be  transferred  to  the 
Confederate  service  without  their  full  consent,  first  fairly  obtained,  by  com 
panics,  if  organized  as  independent  companies,  by  battalions,  if  organized  in 
independent  battalions,  or  by  regiments  if  organized  in  regiments. 

<;  Be  it  further  Resolved,  That  we  earnestly  recommend  the  Confederate 
Government  to  receive  said  State  forces,  should  they  assent,  with  all  their 
field  and  general  officers,  and  if  there  be  no  law  now  authorizing  such  accept 
ance  we  respectfully  request  our  Senators  and  Representatives  to  urge  the 
passage  of  a  bill  to  effect  so  desirable  an  object. 

"  Assented  to  December  16,  1861." 

The  following  extract  from  the  annual  message  of 
Governor  Brown,  the  6th  of  November,  1862,  contains 
a  full  account  of  the  transfer : — 

"  In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  General  Assembly  passed  at  its 
last  session,  directing  me  to  transfer  the  State  troops  to  the  Confederacy 
with  the  consent  of  the  troops,  I  ordered  the  question  of  transfer  to  be 
submitted  to  a  fair  vote  of  each  organized  body  of  troops,  and  the  majority 
against  the  transfer  amounted  almost  to  unanimity.  Soon  after  the  passage 
of  the  Conscription  Act,  however,  which  passed  after  the  expiration  of  the 
term  of  enlistment  of  part  of  the  men,  but  a  short  time  before  the  end  of 


250      DEFENCE  OF  GEORGIA  BY  STATE  FORCES. 

the  term  of  much  the  larger  portion  of  them,  the  Secretary  of  War  informed 
me  that  all  the  State  troops  between  18  and  35  years  of  age  must  go  into 
the  Confederate  service.  At  that  time  an  attack  upon  the  city  of  Savannah 
was  daily  expected,  and  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  conflict  and  collision 
with  the  Confederate  authorities  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  I  agreed  to  yield 
the  point,  and  I  immediately  tendered  the  State  army  to  Brigadier-General 
Lawton,  who  then  commanded  the  Military  District  of  Georgia,  Major 
General  Henry  R.  Jackson,  who  commanded  the  State  troops,  having  retired 
from  the  command  to  prevent  all  embarrassment.  General  Lawton  accepted 
the  tender,  and  assumed  the  command  of  the  troops.  The  claim  made  by  the 
Secretary  of  War  did  not  include  those  under  18  or  over  35  years  of  age, 
but  it  was  thought  best  to  tender  the  whole  together,  as  the  detachment  of 
those  between  18  and  35  from  each  organization  would  have  disorganized 
the  entire  force. 

"  While  referring  to  the  subject,  I  feel  it  a  duty  which  I  owe  to  the  gal 
lant  officers  and  brave  men  who  composed  the  State  army  to  say,  that  they 
were,  at  the  time  of  the  transfer,  as  thoroughly  organized,  trained  and  disci 
plined,  as  probably  any  body  of  troops  of  equal  number  on  the  continent 
who  had  not  been  a  much  longer  time  in  the  field.  They  had  performed 
without  murmur,  an  almost  incredible  amount  of  labor  in  erecting  fortifica 
tions  and  field  works  necessary  to  the  protection  of  the  city,  and  had  made 
their  position  so  strong  as  to  deter  the  enemy,  with  a  force  of  vastly  supe 
rior  numbers,  from  making  an  attack.  While  they  regretted  that  an 
opportunity  did  not  offer  to  show  their  courage  and  efficiency  upon  the  bat 
tle-field,  they  stood,  like  a  bulwark  of  stout  hearts  and  strong  arms,  between 
the  city  and  the  enemy,  and  by  their  chivalrous  bearing  and  energetic  prep 
aration,  in  connection  with  the  smaller  number  of  brave  Confederate 
troops  near,  saved  the  city  from  attack  and  capture,  without  bloodshed  and 
carnage. 

"  It  is  but  justice  to  Major-General  Jackson,  that  it  be  remarked,  that  he 
had,  with  untiring  energy  and  consummate  ability,  pressed  forward  the  prep 
aration  of  the  defences  and  the  training  of  the  army,  and  that  the  people  of 
Georgia  owe  much  of  gratitude  to  him  for  the  safety  of  the  city  of  Savannah 
and  its  present  freedom  from  the  tyrannical  rule  of  the  enemy.  There  is  not, 
probably,  an  intelligent,  impartial  man  in  the  State  who  does  not  regret  that 
the  services  of  this  distinguished  son  of  Georgia  should  not  have  been  prop 
erly  appreciated  by  the  Confederate  authorities,  and  that  he  should  not,  after 
the  Georgia  army  was  transferred,  have  been  invited  by  the  President  to  a 
command  equal  to  his  well  known  ability  and  merit.  This  was  requested 
by  the  Executive  of  this  State,  which  request  was  presented  to  the  President 
by  her  entire  delegation  in  Congress. 

"  It  is  also  due  Brigadier-Generals  George  P.  Harrison,  F.  W.  Capers,  and 
W.  H.  T.  Walker,  that  their  names  be  honorably  mentioned  for  enlightened 
generalship  and  efficiency  as  commanders  of  their  respective  brigades.  The 


KAISING  REVENUE  BY  THE  STATE.  251 

Executive  of  the  State,  appreciating  the  merits  of  these  officers,  asked  for 
positions  for  them  as  commanders  in  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  but 
neither  of  them,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  been  tendered  any  command.  If  this 
might  be  excused  as  to  Generals  Harrison  and  Capers,  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  not  graduates  of  West  Point  and  old  army  officers,  though  one  of 
them  has  a  thorough  military  education,  and  the  other  is  known  to  be  a  most 
valuable,  energetic  military  man,  having  the  confidence  of  the  whole  people 
of  the  State,  this  excuse  does  not  apply  in  the  case  of  General  Walker,  who  is 
a  son  of  Georgia,  a  graduate  of  West  Point  and  an  old  soldier,  who  has  shed 
his  blood  in  his  country's  service  on  many  a  battle  field.  His  ability  and 
gallantry  are  acknowledged  by  all  who  admire  cool  courage  and  high-toned 
chivalry.  But  no  one  of  the  Georgia  generals  who  had  commanded  her 
State  army  has  since  been  invited  to  a  position,  and  even  this  gallant  old  sol 
dier  is  permitted  to  remain  in  retirement,  while  thousands  of  Georgia  troops 
who  entered  the  service  of  the  Confederacy  under  requisitions  upon  the 
State,  and  whose  right,  under  the  Constitution,  to  be  commanded  by  gener 
als  appointed  by  the  State  is  too  clear  to  admit  of  doubt,  are  thrown  under 
the  command  of  generals  appointed  from  other  States,  many  of  whom  have 
had  neither  the  experience  in  service,  nor  the  distinction  which  General  Walker 
has,  while  confronting  the  enemies  .of  his  country,  purchased  with  blood  upon 
the  battle  field." 

RAISING  REVENUE  BY  THE  STATE. 

In  the  annual  message  of  November  6,  1861,  the  Gov 
ernor  made  the  following  recommendation  as  to  the 
methods  of  raising  revenue  : 

SALE   OF    STATE   BONDS. 

"  The  Act  of  the  last  General  Assembly  of  the  State  which  appropriated 
one  million  of  dollars  as  a  military  fund  for  the  year  1861,  made  provision 
for  raising  the  money  by  the  sale  of  six  per  cent.  State  bonds.  At  the  time 
of  the  passage  of  the  Act  our  six  per  cent,  bonds  were  above  par  in  the 
market  and  were  eagerly  sought  after  by  capitalists.  Soon  after  the  dissolu 
tion  of. the  United  States  Government,  bonds  and  stocks  of  all  kinds  were 
greatly  depreciated  in  the  market  and  it  became  impossible  to  raise  money 
at  par  on  any  securities  bearing  only  six  per  cent,  interest.  The  Govern 
ment  of  the  Confederate  States  fixed  the  rate  of  interest  on  its  bonds  at 
eight  per  cent,  and  persons  having  money  to  invest  preferred  these  bonds  to 
the  six  per  cent,  bonds  of  any  State.  I  was  consequently  unable  to  raise 
money  on  the  bonds  bearing  the  rate  of  interest  fixed  by  the  statute  without 
putting  them  upon  the  market  at  a  considerable  discount.  After  some 
negotiation  most  of  the  banks  of  this  State  agreed,  each  in  proportion  to 


252  RAISING  REVENUE  BY  THE  STATE. 

the  amount  of  its  capital  stock,  to  advance  to  the  Treasury  at  seven  per  cent, 
such  sum  as  might  be  necessary  to  conduct  our  military  operations.  This 
advance  was  made  upon  a  statement  placed  upon  the  Executive  Minutes 
and  a  copy  forwarded  to  each,  by  which  I  agreed  to  recommend  the  Legis 
lature  when  assembled  to  authorize  the  issue  of  seven  per  cent,  bonds  to 
each  for  the  sum  advanced,  payable  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  the  interest 
to  be  paid  semi-annually  and  the  State  to  reserve  to  herself  the  right,  at  her 
option,  to  redeem  the  bonds  by  paying  to  the  holders  the  principal  and  inter 
est  due  at  the  end  of  five  years.  Upon  this  agreement,  a  copy  of  which  is 
herewith  transmitted  together  with  a  statement  of  the  sum  advanced  by 
each  bank,  the  wants  of  the  Treasury  were  relieved  and  such  sums  have  been 
advanced  from  time  to  time  as  the  necessities  of  the  State  required.  It  is 
proper  that  I  mention  in  this  connection  that  the  Central  Railroad  and 
Banking  Company  through  its  able  and  patriotic  president,  the  Hon.  R.  R. 
Cuyler,  tendered  to  the  State  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  took  six  per 
cent,  bonds  in  payment  before  any  other  bank  had  acted  and  at  a  time 
when  money  could  not  be  commanded  in  the  market  at  that  rate.  This 
conduct  was  alike  liberal  and  patriotic  and  was  followed  by  agreement  on 
the  part  of  several  other  banks,  each  to  take  ten  per  cent,  upon  its  capital 
stock,  to  which  the  six  per  cent,  bonds  were  issued  accordingly.  I  do  not 
think  it  right  that  these  last  named  banks  should  be  permitted  to  sustain 
loss  on  account  of  their  liberality,  and  I  therefore  recommend  that  the  six 
per  cent,  bonds  issued  to  each  bank  in  this  State  on  account  of  these  sums 
advanced,  be  taken  up,  and  that  seven  per  cent,  bonds  be  substituted  in  their 
place,  and  also  that  seven  per  cent,  bonds  be  issued  to  all  the  other  banks 
for  the  sums  advanced  by  them  in  accordance  with  the  agreement  upon 
which  they  made  their  respective  advances.  This  would  place  all  the  banks 
upon  an  equality  and  do  justice  to  each  of  them.  The  part  of  the  loan  which 
has  been  taken  amounts  to  $867,500.  Of  this  sum  $25,000  of  the  six  per  cent, 
bonds  were  issued  to  Sharps  Manufacturing  Company  of  Connecticut,  in 
part  pay  for  carbines  purchased  from  the  company,  leaving  the  sum  of 
$842,500  taken  by  the  banks  of  this  State  upon  which  only  $305,000  of  bonds 
have  issued,  the  balance  having  been  advanced  without  the  issue  of  bonds 
upon  the  contract  above  mentioned.  While  nearly  the  whole  amount  of  the 
military  appropriation  had  been  expended  prior  to  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year, 
the  receipts  from  the  State  Road  and  from  other  sources  have  been  such  as 
to  meet  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  government  as  well  as  the  extraordinary 
appropriations  of  the  last  Legislature ;  also  to  pay  part  of  the  drafts  upon 
the  military  fund  and  to  leave  in  the  Treasury  at  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year  a 
net  balance  of  $324,099.86.  As  this  sum  in  the  treasury  was  not  appropri 
ated  for  military  purposes,  but  is  mostly  appropriated  for  other  purposes  and 
undrawn,  I  had  no  right  under  the  constitution  to  draw  upon  it,  and  as  the 
military  fund  was  lately  exhausted  and  the  perilous  condition  of  the  State 
required  large  expenditures  and  prompt  action  for  the  defence  of  the  coast, 


KAISING  REVENUE  BY  THE  STAT>E.  253 

it  became  necessary  for  me  to  negotiate  a  further  loan  with  the  banks  of 
Savannah  to  meet  the  emergency  till  an  appropriation  could  be  made.  This 
I  thought  better  than  to  convene  the  Legislature  in  extra  session  a  very 
short  time  previous  to  the  regular  session.  Under  this  arrangement  I  have 
received  from  the  banks  of  Savannah  through  G.  B.  Lamar,  Esq.,  whose 
services  have  been  of  great  value  to  the  State  both  in  New  York  prior  to  the 
secession  of  Georgia  from  the  old  Union,  and  in  Savannah  since  that  time, 
such  sums  as  the  service  required,  for  the  repayment  of  which  it  will  be  nec 
essary  to  provide  out  of  the  military  fund  to  be  appropriated  at  the  present 
session.  The  amount  advanced  is  not  yet  large,  but  it  will  become  nec 
essary  to  increase  it  daily  till  an  appropriation  is  made  to  meet  the  heavy 
expenditures  now  being  incurred  to  sustain  our  troops  in  the  field.  I 
earnestly  solicit  for  this  subject  the  early  attention  of  the  General  Assembly. 

TREASURY  NOTES. 

"  It  is  possible  the  State  might  find  it  difficult  to  raise  by  the  sale  of  bonds, 
the  portion  of  the  money  above  recommended  to  be  raised  in  that  way  for 
the  ensuing  year.  Should  it  be  found  that  such  is  the  case,  I  recommend 
that  the  Treasurer  of  this  State  be  authorized  to  issue,  under  the  order  of 
the  Governor,  Treasury  notes,  similar  to  those  issued  by  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment  of  the  Confederate  States  ;  and  that  said  notes  be  made  receivable  in 
the  payment  of  taxes,  or  any  other  debt  due  the  State,  or  the  State  Road. 

"  And  for  the  purpose  of  giving  these  notes  credit  as  currency,  let  provi 
sion  be  made  by  law,  that  any  person  presenting  at  the  Treasury  five  hun 
dred,  or  one  thousand  dollars  of  them,  shall  be  entitled  to  have  and  receive 
for  said  notes  a  bond  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  for  the  same  amount,  bearing 
eight  per  cent,  interest,  payable  semi-annually,  the  principal  to  be  paid  at  the 
end  of  ten  years  ;  with  the  like  privilege  for  each  additional  amount  of  five 
hundred  or  one  thousand  dollars  presented. 

"  This  would  place  the  notes  upon  a  basis  of  security  that  the  most  cautious 
could  not  suspect,  and  would  doubtless  enable  the  State  to  raise  such  sums 
as  her  necessities  may  require.  With  this  security,  it  is  believed  that  our 
banks  could  not  fail  to  receive  the  notes  on  deposit,  and  that  they  would  be 
received  in  payment  of  debts,  and  answer  all  the  purposes  of  currency.  As 
the  faith  of  the  State  would  be  pledged  for  their  redemption,  no  higher  se 
curity  would  be  asked  by  her  citizens." 

In  the  annual  message  of  November  6,  1862,  the  Gov 
ernor  makes  the  following  statement  in  regard  to  those 
notes : — 

"  The  Appropriation  Bill  passed  at  your  last  session  made  it  my  duty,  in 
case  there  should  not,  at  any  time,  be  money  in  the  Treasury  to  meet  any  ap- 


254  RAISING  REVENUE  BY  THE  STATE. 

propriation,  to  raise  it  by  the  sale  of  State  bonds,  or  by  issuing  Treasury  notes, 
as  I  might  think  best.  In  each  case  where  I  had  the  discretion,  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  decide  to  issue  Treasury  notes,  bearing  no  interest,  in  place  of 
bonds  bearing  interest;  and  I  have  found  these  notes  not  only  current,  but 
in  great  demand  as  an  investment.  The  whole  amount  of  Treasury  notes  is 
sued  is  $2,320,000. 

"  The  notes  are  payable  in  specie  or  eight  per  cent,  bonds,  six  months  after 
a  treaty  of  peace,  or  when  the  banks  of  Augusta  and  Savannah  resume  spe 
cie  payments  if  before  that  time.  These  notes  have  generally  been  laid  away 
as  a  safe  investment  by  banks  and  others  into  whose  hands  they  have  fallen ; 
and  it  is  a  rare  occurrence  to  see  one  in  circulation.  Should  it  become  nec 
essary,  as  it  probably  will,  to  extend  the  issue  to  meet  part  of  the  liabilities 
of  the  Treasury  for  the  present  fiscal  year,  I  respectfully  recommend  that 
no  alteration  be  made  in  the  form  of  the  notes,  as  there  is  on  hand  a  very 
considerable  amount  of  the  printed  bills  that  can  soon  be  issued  without  ex 
pense,  which  would  be  useless  in  case  of  any  change  in  the  present  form,  and 
it  would  cost  great  delay  and  expense  to  procure  paper  and  have  others  pre 
pared. 

"  The  only  objection  insisted  upon  against  the  issue  of  Treasury  notes,  in 
place  of  the  sale  of  bonds  to  meet  the  demands  on  the  Treasury,  is,  that  the 
issue  of  a  large  amount  of  notes  to  be  circulated  as  currency,  depreciates  the 
value  of  paper  currency  in  the  market.  This  is  unquestionably  true,  as  evi 
denced  by  the  present  state  of  our  currency.  But  it  is  equally  true  that 
enough  of  paper  currency  must  be  issued,  in  the  present  condition  of  the 
country,  to  meet  the  demand.  Suppose  the  State  needs  a  million  of  dollars, 
and  puts  her  bonds  in  the  market  to  raise  it,  and  receives  paper  currency  in 
payment  for  them,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  Confederacy,  or  the  banks, 
must  issue  a  million  to  meet  this  demand,  in  addition  to  the  issue  they  would 
otherwise  make  for  other  purposes;  and  the  same  depreciation  growing  out 
of  a  redundancy  of  paper  currency  follows,  which  would  happen,  were  the 
State  to  issue  a  million  of  dollars  in  her  own  notes,  and  thus  meet  her  own 
demand.  The  question  is  not  one  of  the  depreciation  of  the  currency  by  over 
issues  of  paper,  as  the  number  of  dollars  in  paper  currency  to  be  placed  upon 
the  market  is  the  same  in  either  case,  but  it  is  simply  a  question  of  interest. 
Shall  the  State  use  her  own  notes,  which  pass  readily  as  currency  without  in 
terest,  and  are  generally  laid  away  as  an  investment,  or  shall  she  pay  interest 
to  a  corporation  for  the  privilege  of  using  and  circulating  its  notes,  founded 
upon  a  less  secure  basis  than  her  own?  In  my  opinion  there  is  no  room  for 
hesitation  in  making  the  decision  in  favor  of  Treasury  notes.  The  amount 
of  interest  saved  to  the  Treasury  in  one  year  at  seven  per  cent,  upon  the  is 
sue  of  notes  already  made  in  place  of  bonds,  is  $162,400.  To  this  might  have 
been  added  the  further  sum  of  $170,870,  had  I  been  authorized  by  the  stat 
ute  to  issue  and  use  Treasury  notes  in  place  of  bonds  to  meet  the  Confed 
erate  war  tax.  This  statute  was  a  special  one  for  a  special  purpose,  however, 


RAISING  REVENUE  BY  THE  STATE.  255 

and  confined  me  to  the  use  of  bonds  without  giving  me  discretion  to  issue 
Treasury  notes."     ( 

In  the  annual  message  of  November  6,  1862,  the  Gov 
ernor  makes  the  following  statement  as  to  the  disburse 
ment  of  the  five  million  appropriation : 

"  Of  the  five  millions  of  dollars,  appropriated  at  your  last  session  for  mili 
tary  purposes,  only  $2,539  290.25  have  been  drawn  from  the  Treasury  during 
the  fiscal  year.  Of  this  sum  $350,000  has  been  returned  by  Lieujt.-Col.  Jared 
I.  Whitaker,  Commissary-General,  and  $50,000  by  Lieut.-Col.  Ira  R.  Foster, 
Quartermaster-General,  and  $58,286  by  Major  L.  H.  Mclntosh,  Chief  of  Ord 
nance,  for  stores  in  their  respective  departments,  sold  to  officers  under  the 
army  regulations,  and  to  the  Confederacy  after  the  State  troops  were  trans 
ferred.  The  amount  of  the  appropriation  which  has  been  used  is,  therefore, 
$2,081,004.25.  Of  this  sum  $100,000  was  expended  in  payment  for  arms 
purchased  in  England  prior  to  your  last  session ;  and  $50,000  for  iron  to 
be  used  in  fortifications  and  upon  the  gunboat  called  the  '  State  of  Georgia.' 
This  boat  was  built  under  the  supervision  of  Major-General  Jackson  while 
in  command,  and  completed  after  he  retired.  The  balance  of  the  money  for 
its  construction  was  contributed  by  the  cities  of  Savannah,  Augusta,  and 
other  corporations,  by  soldiers,  and  chiefly  by  the  ladies  of  this  State,  who 
have  shown  since  the  commencement  of  our  struggle,  on  all  proper  occasions, 
a  liberality  and  patriotism  worthy  the  most  distinguished  matrons  of  the 
Revolution  of  1776.  For  support,  equipment,  pay  and  transportation  of 
two  companies  now  in  service  as  bridge  guards  on  the  State  Road,  $10,000. 
This  leaves  $1,921,000.85,  which,  together  with  a  special  appropriation  of 
$100,000,  was  expended  upon  the  Georgia  army,  and  for  other  contingent 
military  purposes.  It  will  be  seen,  however,  by  reference  to  the  reports  of 
the  Quartermaster-General  and  the  Chief  of  Ordnance,  that  very  consider 
able  sums  were  expended  for  the  purchase  of  horses,  artillery,  etc.,  which 
were  transferred  to  the  Confederacy  with  the  Georgia  army,  for  which  no 
payment  has  been  made  to  the  State.  These  sums,  with  contingent  military 
expenditures,  when  deducted  from  the  above  mentioned  sums  will  leave  the 
whole  cost  of  the  Georgia  army  of  nearly  8,000  men,  for  nearly  six  months, 
including  pay,  clothing,  subsistence,  transportation,  and  every  other  expense, 
a  little  short  of  $2,000,000." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR. 

This  State  is  necessarily  conspicuous  in  any  fall  and 
fair  narrative  of  the  achievements  of  Southern  arms  during 
the  war  with  the  United  States ;  and  while  not  feeling  sum 
moned  by  any  charges  or  implications  against  the  gal 
lantry  and  heroism  of  her  officers  and  soldiers,  and  not 
desiring  to  give  them  undue  or  unjust  prominence  among 
the  forces  so  nobly  representing  other  States  of  the  Con 
federacy,  where  all  achieved  so  much  to  perpetuate  their 
fame,  ample  justice  is  attempted  in  other  parts  of  our 
work  to  the  noble  sons  of  Georgia.  It  is  perhaps  impos 
sible  to  set  forth  the  number  of  troops  the  State  had  in 
the  service.  In  the  belief  of  its  truth  I  have  stated  that 
she  sent  a  larger  number  in  proportion  to  white  popula 
tion  than  any  State  north  or  south.  This  fact,  if  true,  is 
referred  to,  not  to  cast  the  remotest  reflection  upon  any 
Confederate  State.  For  they  all  in  view  of  the  circum 
stances  surrounding  them  performed  their  duty  nobly 
in  furnishing  troops,  and  the  conduct  of  their  citizen  sol 
diers.  But  it  is  a  part  of  the  means  at  command  of 
repelling  charges  that  have  been  made  against  the  admin 
istration  of  the  State,  to  the  effect  that  it  hindered  and 
impeded  the  Confederate  government  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  Such  a  charge  or  implication  aimed  at  her 
Governor,  and  embracing  her  people  who  at  the  ballot 
box,  at  the  home  precincts,  and  at  the  voting  places  in 


GEORGIA  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR..         257 

the  army  sustained  him,  calls  for  special  notice,  and 
such  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter. 

As  the  sequel  will  disclose,  there  was  conflict  of  judg 
ment  between  Governor  Brown  and  President  Davis,  as 
to  the  method  of  raising  forces  in  the  State  for  the  Confed 
erate  service ;  some  of  the  troops  were  organized,  the 
officers  commissioned,  and  the  regiments  turned  over  by 
the  State  to  the  Confederacy.  The  government  author 
ized  men  to  raise  regiments,  legions,  battalions,  etc.  As 
piring  men  organized  companies  of  infantry,  artillery, 
cavalry,  and  with  other  denominations,  and. were  received 
into  the  Confederate  service.  By  acts  of  the  Confederate 
Congress  the  President  received  many  organizations,  and 
by  the  enrolling  and  conscript  officers,  large  numbers  of 
troops  who  were  distributed  among  the  commands  of 
this  and  other  States.  Some  of  the  small  commands  were 
organized  with  troops  from  other  States. 

Even  during  the  war  the  matter  of  Georgia  troops  was 
of  such  uncertainty  of  identification,  as  to  their  num 
ber  and  organizations,  that  the  Governor,  acting  under  the 
authority  of  the  Legislature,  detailed  the  writer  of  this 
treatise  to  make  a  roll  of  Georgia  troops  in  the  Confeder 
ate  service.  On  arriving  at  Richmond,  the  demands  on 
the  war  department  in  June,  18G3,  were  such,  in  conse 
quence  of  army  movements  at  that  time,  as  to  render  the 
mission  impracticable.  I  was  recalled  and,  disasters  fol 
lowing  rapidly,  the  matter  was  delayed  and,  on  account  of 
the  downfall  of  the  Confederacy,  was  never  undertaken 
afterwards. 

,  The  regiments  of  the  State  organized  before  and  after 
the  war  began,  under  the  State  authority,  and  turned  over 
to  the  Confederacy,  and  those  raised  in  the  State  by  Con 
federate  authority,  the  numerous  battalions  and  companies 


258       .  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEOKGIA 

aggregated  and  conscripts  raised  in  the  State  and  sent  to 
commands  already  in  the  field,  and  the  troops  employed  in 
the  State  service  under  the  command  of  the  Governor,  and 
used  in  the  common  defence,  amounted  to  troops  enough 
for  about  one  hundred  average  regiments.  The  State  had 
only  a  little  upwards  of  100,000  voters  at  a  full  election,  and 
a  population  of  583,000  whites,  and  462,000  blacks  at  the 
opening  of  the  war.  It  is  a  truth  to  be  noted  that  the 
regiments  raised  and  turned  over  by  the  Governor,  and 
those  organized  by  Confederate  authority  in  the  State, 
were  generally  full  in  numbers,  and  of  the  material  that 
compared  favorably  with  the  troops  of  other  States.  And 
still  more  noteworthy  is  the  fact  which  is  beyond  dispute, 
that  Georgia  remained  nearly  to  the  last  within  Confed 
erate  lines,  and  her  soldiers  did  not  in  large  numbers 
retire  to  their  homes,  and  that  in  the  main  her  regiments 
were  kept  fuller  and  better  recruited  than  those  from 
some  of  the  other  States.  It  would  be  untrue  to  assume 
that  there  were  not  Georgia  stragglers  and  deserters,  as 
there  were  from  all  the  States,  in  large  numbers  toward 
the  close  of  the  war,  when  the  morale  of  the  army  was 
affected  by  the  conquests  and  advances  of  the  Union  forces, 
the  defeats  and  disasters  of  ours,  and  the  generally  failing 
fortunes  of  the  Confederacy  and  loss  of  the  grounds  of 
hope  for  final  success,  and  the  alienation  of  the  feelings 
of  the  people  by  the  course  of  the  Confederate  Govern 
ment  and  her  authorities,  civil  and  military.  But  it  is 
true,  in  fact,  that  a  larger  proportion  of  her  troops  re 
mained  at  the  front,  and  in  line,  than  from  several  other 
States,  if  not  all  of  them. 

It  is  not  true,  in  fact,  that  the  civil  administration  of 
this  State  obstructed  the  Confederacy  or  hindered  its 
plans  and  enterprises,  or  its  success,  by  any  lack  or  with- 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR.  259 

» 

holding  of  her  quota  of  the  means  of  war,  either  in  sol 
diers,  quartermaster  and  commissariat  stores,  stock,  pro 
visions,  clothing,  medical  aid,  fighting  men,  or  ability  in 
military  officers,  or  in  the  civil  departments  of  the  Con 
federate  government. 

If  it  were,  on  the  other  hand,  asserted  that  the  ruling 
powers  of  the  Confederacy,  in  the  civil  department,  did 
not  obstruct,  hinder,  delay,  and  finally  defeat  the  grand 
purposes  of  the  revolution,  and  necessitate  the  downfall 
of  the  Confederacy,  in  part,  by  the  measures  and  policy 
wherein  President  Davis  differed  in  judgment  from  Gov 
ernor  Brown,  and  about  which  they  had  controversy  dur 
ing  the  Avar,  it  would  be  to  ask  observing  and  thinking 
people  to  overlook  and  disregard  the  direct  relation  be 
tween  cause  and  effect — the  alienation  of  the  people  in 
part  from  the  government ;  the  abatement  of  their  ardor 
in  the  cause  of  Southern  independence  by  the  manifest 
discriminations  and  injustice  of  the  Confederate  govern 
ment,  and  its  apparent  disregard  of  the  principles  of  con 
stitutional  law,  and  of  equality  of  rights — for  the  love  of 
which  they  had  gone  into  the  revolution. 

On  the  other  hand,  with  the  advantages  of  a  full  retro 
spect,  and  a  better  knowledge  of  our  own  and  the  resources 
of  the  government  at  war  with  us,,  and  the  feelings  and 
influences  of  foreign  nations,  it  would  be  speculative  to 
argue  that  even  if  the  views  and  policy  of  Governor  Brown 
had  been  adopted  and  carried  out  by  Mr.  Davis,  we  should 
have  achieved  independence — as  many  of  the  most  dis 
cerning  people  believe.  Hence,  we  address  ourself  to  the 
task  of  faithfully  and  fairly  presenting  the  facts  and  truths 
of  the  matter  between  them. 

President  Davis  and  Governor  Brown  had  been  lifelong 
Jeffersonian  Democrats,  and  therefore  State  rights  men. 


260  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

They  had  been,  in  all  the  controversies  between  national 
and  local  parties,  growing  out  of  the  subject  of  slavery, 
ardent  pro-slavery  and  southern  rights  Democrats ;  and 
both  favored  the  measures  and  policy  on  the  part  of  their 
respective  parties  and  States  which  led  to  withdrawal, 
and  the  organization  of  the  Confederate  government,  and 
which  invited  or  provoked  the  war,  as  the  Federals  under 
stood  the  question ;  and  both  carried  all  their  talents, 
moral  courage,  energy  and  patriotism  into  the  contest. 
After  the  steps  had  been  taken,  and  war  had  resulted, 
both  saw  and  comprehended  its  magnitude,  its  destructive 
power,  and  the  dangers  to  which  the  South  was  exposed ; 
and  both  realized  that  their  own,  and  the  fortunes  and 
happiness  of  their  people,  depended  upon  the  success  of 
the  revolution.  One  wras  President  of  the  Confederate 
States ;  the  other,  Governor  of  Georgia — a  very  important 
member  of  the  new  union,  in  geographical  position,  re 
sources  in  men  and  money,  and  in  the  morale  of  the  gov 
ernment  resulting  from  the  vast  influence  of  her  public 
men  over  the  people  of  the  South.  They  were  men  of 
strong  mind — self-confident  and  self-reliant,  men  of  strong 
and  decided  convictions,  and  settled  opinions  after  inves 
tigation  ;  and  both  were  executive  in  talents,  and  decidedly 
so  in  disposition ;  with  this  difference  between  Brown  and 
Davis,  and  between  him  and  all  the  public  men  of  the 
South — his  mind  acted  with  more  rapidity  and  precision, 
and  he  never  grew  tired  or  fagged ;  and  while  he  never 
lacked  for  expedients,  and  his  mind  was  ever  fruitful  of 
plans,  he  never  adhered  to  or  followed  them  after  their 
failure  was  manifest ;  but  like  Davis,  until  convinced  of 
mistake  or  error,  he  adhered  firmly  to  his  opinions.  They 
are  alike  endowed  with  firmness  by  nature,  which  has  been 
largely  cultivated  in  practice. 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR.  261 

They  differed  in  opinion,  and  therefore  in  practice,  as 
to  the  matters  publicly  controverted  between  them;  and 
co-operated  wherein  they  agreed,  both  having  the  same 
general  purpose  and  aim — the  political  independence  of 
the  Southern  States,  and  the  establishment  of  the  new  Con 
federacy.  It  cannot  be  shown  that  in  any  matter  touch 
ing  the  war,  that  either  offered  opposition  to  the  other, 
except  in  the  vital  and  important  matters  wherein  they 
differed  in  judgment ;  or,  on  the  part  of  Governor  Brown, 
that  he  ever  refused  or  neglected  to  co-operate  with  the 
President,  heartily;  and  aid  in  every  way  in  his  power,  in 
any  and  all  matters  wherein  they  agreed ;  on  the  contrary, 
he  was  in  the  constant  habit,  in  public  and  private,  to 
friends  and  foes  of  the  President,  of  vindicating  and  de 
fending  his  policy  and  action,  wherein  he  agreed  with 
him. 

The  controversy  was  based  on  differences  of  opinion  on 
important  principles,  and  on  the  part  of  Governor  Brown 
was  made  entirely  public  through  the  press  of  the  South. 
He  stood  on  the  correctness  of  his  judgment ;  acted  upon 
the  conclusions  then  drawn,  as  did  the  President ;  and  each 
must  abide  the  positions  then  chosen,  in  the  calm  judg 
ment  of  those  who  come  after  them. 

The  matters  do  not  rest  in  vague  human  memory,  but 
in  records  that  time  has  not  changed. 

Before  presenting  these  controversies,  we  recur  to  the 
action  of  Governor  Brown  at  home,  and  of  the  State  un 
der  his  lead  and  advice. 

As  seen  heretofore,  there  was  conflict  between  the  Gov 
ernor  and  the  State  Legislature  on  numerous  matters  of 
State  policy  relating  to  the  civil  administration,  from  the 
time  he  came  into  office  up  to  the  time  when  war  became 
imminent.  Then  the  spirit  of  the  Governor  was  the 


262  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

spirit  of  the  great  people  who  leaped  into  solid  column 
under  his  lead,  and  sustained  his  action  and  seconded  his 
plans,  in  full  confidence  of  his  ability  and  wisdom  as  well 
as  patriotic  devotion  to  their  rights  and  happiness. 

Under  his  advice,  the  General  Assembly  as  before  stated, 
upon  the  call  of  a  State  convention  and  before  the  State 
seceded,  appropriated  $1,000,000,  and  placed  the  same  at 
his  disposal  as  a  military  fund  ;  and  when  that  body  called 
a  convention  to  be  elected  by  the  people  to  determine 
what  should  be  the  course  of  the  State,  in  view  of  the 
triumph  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  the  public  confidence  in' Brown  was  so  strong  and 
general  that  his  opinions  had,  perhaps,  more  potency  over 
the  Southern  mind  than  any  of  our  leaders.  Men  of  the 
Legislature,  not  before  in  sympathy  with  the  Governor, 
united  with  his  ardent  admirers  and  friends  in  calling  out 
his  opinions  of  the  situation,  and  his  counsel  and  advice  to 
the  people. 

His  letter  in  response,  written  with  great  zeal  as  well 
as  masterly  ability,  was  extensively  published  throughout 
the  South,  and  exercised  a  very  powerful  influence  on  the 
people  of  all  the  slaveholding  States. 

In  the  session  of  November,  1861,  when  the  war  had 
progressed  a  few  months,  under  his  recommendation 
$100,000  were  placed  at  his  disposal  for  State  troops,  and 
$5,000,000  appropriated  as  a  military  fund  for  the  public 
defence. 

In  reply  to  all  possible  charges  or  implications  of  a  want 
of  co-operation  and  support  on  the  part  of  Georgia,  I  make 
the  following  extract  from  the  annual  message  of  Gov 
ernor  Brown,  of  6th  November,  1861;  showing  his  ex 
traordinary  promptness  and  energy  in  the  first  half-year 
of  the  war : — 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR.  263 

"  The  Secretary  of  War  has  frequently  made  requisition  upon  me  as  the 
Governor  of  this  State  for  troops  ;  these  I  promptly  furnished.  Thirty 
regiments  and  three  battalions  of  State  troops  have  gone  into  the  service  of 
the  Confederacy.  Of  this  number  twenty-one  regiments  and  three  battalions 
have  been  armed,  accoutred,  and  equipped  by  the  State.  We  now  have  ac 
cepted  and  nearly  all  in  the  field  of  State  troops,  not  in  Confederate  service, 
seven  regiments  and  three  battalions,  which,  with  the  help  of  the  country 
arms  in  use,  are  being  fully  armed,  equipped,  and  accoutred  by  the  State. 
We  also  have  in  service  from  Georgia  ten  regiments,  which  have  been  ac 
cepted  by  the  President  independent  of  State  authority,  making  thirty-seven 
regiments  and  six  battalions  of  State  troops,  and  ten  regiments  of  independ 
ent  or  Confederate  troops.  Counting  two  battalions  as  a  regiment,  Geor 
gia  has  therefore  in  service  fifty  regiments,  forty  of  State  troops  and  ten 
independent.  Including  a  few  country  arms,  she  has  armed,  accoutred,  and 
equipped  thirty  of  these  regiments." 

And,  as  will  appear,  requisitions  made  after  that  time 
were  promptly  responded  to,  and  more  than  filled. 

Under  his  recommendation  the  Legislature  assumed  the 
payment  of  Georgia's  part  of  the  Confederate  war  tax, 
and  provided  for  raising  and  paying  the  same  by  the 
State,  thus  keeping  the  vexatious  and  demoralizing  tax 
gatherer  of  the  Confederacy  from  the  doors  of  the  people 
then  fully  united  and  intent  on  the  public  defence.  To 
meet  and  remedy  a  most  fearful  evil  in  the  rear  of  the 
armies,  acting  under  his  advice  the  Legislature  took  the 
lead  of  all  the  States  by  making  large  appropriations  for 
the  relief  and  support  of  indigent  families  of  Georgia 
soldiers  in  the  field  ;  and  for  the  manufacture  of  salt 
for  the  people,  then  apparently  about  to  suffer  generally 
for  its  want,  on  account  of  Federal  blockade  ;  and  for  the 
aid  and  relief  of  our  soldiers  in  the  hospitals  of  the  armies ; 
and  for  the  manufacture  and  distribution  of  cotton  cards 
among  the  women  of  the  State  to  enable  them  to  supply 
clothing  at  home,  and  for  their  sons,  husbands,  and  broth 
ers  in  the  service ;  for  the  manufacture  of  shoes  for  the 
barefooted  troops,  and  the  supply  of  blankets  and  medi- 


264  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

cine,  and  other  necessaries  to  sustain  them  in  the  struggle  ; 
and  for  the  manufacture  of  arms  and  ammunition,  then  a 
matter  of  the  most  critical  and  pressing  importance  to  the 
Confederacy.  We  had  fighting  men,  in  redundancy  com 
pared  with  the  lack  of  arms. 

Brown  was  wiser  and  more  sagacious,  and  therefore 
a  stronger  stay  and  support  to  the  Confederacy  than  the 
other  Southern  governors,  in  adopting  the  policy  of  reserv 
ing  the  power  and  control  of  the  State  government,  and 
the  means  of  preserving  order  and  executing  the  laws  of 
the  State,  as  well  as  other  public  emergencies  that  might 
arise  requiring  prompt  action  to  repel  invasion  from  the 
State.  The  Legislature,  responding  to  his  advice  and  rec 
ommendations,  placed  State  troops  and  arms  at  his  dis 
posal  and  the  militia  not  engaged  in  Confederate  service, 
which  he  organized  in  addition  to  the  regiments  and  battal 
ions  of  State  troops  in  active  duty  under  his  command, 
and  upon  the  pay  of  the  State. 

By  this  policy  he  was  enabled  to  keep  up  the  morale  of 
the  State,  preserve  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  peo 
ple  at  tome  and  her  soldiers  in  the  field,  to  maintain  the 
control  of  the  white  over  the  black  race,  and  keep  the 
latter  in  the  fields  to  produce  provision-supplies  in  lieu 
of  the  white  men  who  were  bearing  arms.  He  was  thus 
able  to  exercise  the  power  and  influence  necessary  to 
meet  and  promptly  respond  to  every  requisition  on  this 
State  for  the  Confederate  service  in  addition  to  the  men 
in  arms  in  State  service,  aiding  in  the  common  cause  and 
enterprise  of  repelling  the  enemy  and  guarding  the  ap 
proaches  to  our  common  country. 

While  he  protested  against  the  conscript  acts  and  pol 
icy,  he  did  not  oppose  the  enrolment  of  private  soldiers 
of  the  militia  which  did  not  break  up  its  organization ; 


IN  KELATION  TO  THE  WAK.  265 

but  refused  to  allow  the  officers  enrolled  and  ordered 
away ;  refused  to  allow  the  State  organization  to  be 
broken  up  by  conscripting  her  civil  officers,  as  was  done 
in  other  States.  He  refused  to  yield  the  power  of  the 
State  of  which  he  was  Executive,  for  enforcing  peace  and 
tranquillity  at  home,  and  for  responding  to  the  calls  of  the 
Confederacy,  lawfully  made  upon  her ;  and  for  this  he  was 
censured — censured  for  a  policy  which,  firmly  as  well  as 
wisely  adhered  to,  rendered  this  State  more  efficient  to 
the  last  in  upholding  the  Confederacy.  In  his  first  annual 
message,  after  hostilities  began,  and  when  the  issue  of 
battle  had  been  accepted  on  both  sides  and  was  fiercely 
maintained  by  Federals  and  Confederates,  he  concluded 
his  elaborate  review  of  the  situation  as  follows : — 

"  From  the  foregoing  reflections,  it  naturally  follows,  that  our  whole  social 
system  is  one  of  perfect  homogeneity  of  interest,  where  every  class  of  society 
is  interested  in  sustaining  the  interest  of  every  other  class.  We  have  all  the 
harmonious  elements  necessary  to  the  perpetuity  of  that  republican  and  re 
ligious  liberty  bequeathed  to  us  by  our  fathers ;  with  none  of  the  distracting 
and  conflicting  elements  which  must  destroy  both  in  the  Northern  States,  and 
which  have  already  precipitated  the  country  into  a  bloody  revolution,  and  at 
tempted  to  hurl  to  the  ground  the  fairest  structure  ever  dedicated  to  liberty 
on  the  face  of  the  globe.  To  sustain  this  priceless  heritage  is  the  highest 
earthly  duty  of  the  Christian  and  the  patriot.  Ruthless  and  bloody  hands 
have  been  laid  upon  it.  To  wrest  it  from  them  may  cost  hundreds  of  millions 
of  treasure,  and  many  thousands  of  the  most  invaluable  lives  of  the  South. 
But  he  who  would  stop  to  count  the  cost,  would  do  well  to  ask  himself,  What 
is  my  property  worth  when  I  am  a  slave  ?  or,  What  is  my  life  worth,  if  by 
saving  it,  I  must  transmit  a  heritage  of  bondage  to  my  children?  If  we  are 
conquered,  our  property  is  confiscated,  and  we  and  our  children  are  slaves  to 
Northern  avarice  and  Northern  insolence.  Sooner  than  submit  to  this,  I 
would  cheerfully  expend  in  the  cause  the"  last  dollar  I  could  raise,  and  would 
fervently  pray,  like  Samson  of  old,  that  God  would  give  me  strength  to  lay 
hold  upon  the  pillars  of  the  edifice,  and  would  enable  me  while  bending  with 
its  weight,  to  die  a  glorious  death  beneath  the  crumbling  ruins  of  that  Tem 
ple  of  Southern  freedom  which  has  so  long  attracted  the  world  by  the  splen 
dor  of  its  magnificence." 


266  GOVEENMENT  OF  GEOEGIA 

And  such  was  the  ring  of  metal  from  his  pen  and 
tongue  in  public  and  private,  to  the  close  of  the  struggle. 
It  abounds  in  all  his  messages  and  State  papers,  and 
is  reflected  in  all  his  official  action  through  the  entire 
war. 

I  have  said  his  mind  never  tired,  and  his  energies  never 
fagged ;  it  is  literally  true  that  he  was  a  man  of  unre 
mitting  toil,  day  and  night,  barely  taking  time  for  refresh 
ment  and  sleep.  And  nothing  in  his  power  or  in  the 
range  of  his  public  duties  was  allowed  to  be  neglected  or 
delayed. 

He  pressed  upon  the  Legislature  at  every  meeting  the 
claims  of  the  Confederacy ;  and  constantly  on  the  Confed 
erate  authorities,  high  and  low,  the  claims  of  Georgia  and 
the  rights  of  her  soldiers  and  people. 

It  is  fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  writer,  impressed  there 
by  persistent  and  unremitting  toil  in  his  department,  that 
no  claim,  or  appeal,  or  request  to  him,  was  allowed  to  be 
overlooked  or  neglected.  The  sick  and  wounded  in  the 
distant  hospitals,  the  illiterate  and  poor  in  the  remotest 
parts  of  the  State,  and  often  of  other  States,  sent  their 
doleful  complaints  by  thousands.  They  all  had  to  be  read 
and  promptly  and  satisfactorily  answered,  as  well  as  all 
letters  from  officials  and  influential  people.  He  performed 
immense  quantities  of  the  reading  and  the  labor  of  writ 
ing — in  the  midst  of  which  I  came  then  to  the  conclusion, 
which  must  have  been  erroneous,  that  he  had  the  faculty 
of  giving  minute  and  comprehensive  attention  to  two 
subjects  precisely  at  the  same  moment  of  time.  It  arose 
from  having  frequently  applied  to  him  at  his  table  with 
letters  on  new  subjects — read  them  and  asked  for  instruc 
tions  when  he  was  engaged  in  reading  letters  or  actually 
writing — and  receiving  immediate  directions,  showing 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR.  267 

that  he  had  minutely  noticed  and  comprehended  every 
point  in  what  had  been  read  to  him. 

The  people  and  the  soldiers,  and  especially  their  fam 
ilies  at  home,  loved  and  almost  worshipped  "  Joe  Brown," 
as  he  was  called,  while  the  Confederate  authorities  clam 
ored  for  the  supreme  control,  and  the  emasculation  of  the 
power  and  influence  by  which  he  was  enabled  to  render 
them  the  greatest  and  most  valuable  aid  and  support. 

And  while  he  differed  in  judgment  from  President 
Davis  and  his  Cabinet  and  boldly  made  known  his  opin 
ions,  he  never  relaxed  his  energies,  or  abated  his  zeal, 
or  changed  his  purposes  of  political  independence  for  the 
Confederacy,  and  never  showed  the  white  feather  or  the 
slightest  signs  of  yielding  to  the  common  foe  as  long  as 
the  Confederate  Government  had  an  army  or  civil  organ 
ization  or  a  purpose  and  aim  to  protract  the  struggle. 

And  when  the  contest  was  ended  and  the  revolution 
had  proved  to  be  a  stupendous  failure,  he  exercised,  as  we 
shall  see  in  the  sequel,  the  same  bold  and  fearless  mind 
and  judgment  in  advance  of  his  own  people,  indicating 
the  wisest  and  best  course  for  a  conquered  people.  But 
it  was  by  far  easier  to  lead  a  patriotic  and  exasperated 
people  into  war  and  guide  their  counsels  amid  its  waste 
and  destruction  than  it  proved  to  be  to  calm  the  passions 
of  a  depleted,  impoverished,  subjugated,  insulted,  and  op 
pressed  constituency  who  had  passed  under  the  yoke  and 
for  whom  he  no  longer  had  the  power  to  implead  or  en 
force  respect  and  protection. 

We  recur  to  the  matters  of  controversy  between  the 
Confederate  President  and  the  Governor  of  Georgia. 

The  public  policy  of  the  President  and  Cabinet,  and  of 
the  Congress,  is  set  forth  in  the  following  extract  from 
the  annual  message  of  Governor  Brown,  in  which  his  ob- 


268  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEOKGIA 

jections,  and  the  reasons  therefor,  are  stated  in  the  matter 
of  raising  and  organizing  troops  for  the  Confederate 
armies : — 

"  The  Constitution  formed  by  the  Convention,  and  since  adopted  by  each 
of  the  eleven  Confederate  States,  is  the  old  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  amended  and  improved  in  such  particulars  as  the  experience  of  three 
quarters  of  a  century  had  shown  to  be  necessary.  Under  this  Constitution 
the  new  government  of  the  Confederate  States  is  now  in  successful  operation 
and  is  maintaining  itself  with  great  ability  both  in  the  Cabinet  and  in  the 
field.  The  action  of  our  Congress  has  been  generally  characterized  by  pru 
dence,  wisdom  and  forethought.  While  I  take  much  pleasure  in  making 
this  statement  and  in  yielding  to  the  new  government  my  hearty  and  cordial 
support,  the  candor,  which  I  would  exercise  towards  a  friend,  compels 
me  to  say,  that  in  my  judgment,  two  important  acts  passed  by  our  Congress 
are  hard  to  reconcile  with  the  plain  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution. 

"  The  16th  item  of  the  8th  section  of  the  1st  article  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  Confederate  States  is  in  these  words :  *  Congress  shall  have  power '  4  to 
provide  for  organizing,  arming  and  disciplining  the  militia,  and  for  govern 
ing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate 
States,  reserving  to  the  States  respectively  the  appointment  of  the  officers  and 
the  authority  of  training  the  militia  according  to  the  discipline  prescribed  by 
Congress.'  The  first  section  of  the  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate 
States,  approved  May  8,  1861,  authorizes  the  President  to  accept  the  services 
of  volunteers  who  may  offer  their  services  without  regard  to  the  place  of 
enlistment.  The  second  section  of  the  act  is  in  these  words  : — 

"  '  That  the  volunteers  so  offering  their  services  may  be  accepted  by  the 
President  in  companies  to  be  organized  by  him  into  squadrons,  battalions,  or 
regiments.  The  President  shall  appoint  all  field  and  staff  officers,  but  the 
company  officers  shall  be  elected  by  the  men  composing  the  company  ;  and 
if  accepted,  the  officers  so  elected  shall  be  commissioned  by  the  President.' 

"The  first  section  of  the  act  approved  May  11,  1861,  is  in  these  words: — 

" '  That  the  President  be  authorized  to  receive  into  service  such*  companies, 
battalions,  or  regiments,  either  mounted  or  on  foot,  as  may  tender  themselves 
and  he  may  require,  without  the  delay  of  a  formal  call  upon  the  respective  States, 
to  serve  for  such  term  as  he  may  prescribe.' 

"  And  part  of  the  third  section  of  said  act  is  in  these  words  : — 

"  *  The  President  shall  be  authorized  to  commission  all  officers  entitled  to  com 
missions  of  such  volunteer  forces  as  may  be  received  under  the  provisions  of 
this  act.' 

"  The  language  of  our  Constitution  is  the  same  that  is  used  in  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  term  militia,  as  there 
used  when  applied  to  troops,  was  always  understood  to  be  in  contradistinc- 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR.  269 

tion  to  the  term  regular.  The  Constitution  gives  to  Congress  the  power  to 
'raise  and  support  armies.'  Under  this  authority  our  regular  army  is  en 
listed  and  its  officers  are  appointed  by  the  government  under  whose  authority 
it  is  raised.  In  this  case  there  is  no  restraint  upon  the  power  of  Congress, 
and  it  may  therefore  confer  upon  the  President  the  power  to  appoint  all  the 
officers.  In  the  case  of  the  militia,  which  term  includes  volunteers  and 
other  military  forces  not  embraced  in  the  regular  army,  the  same  unrestrained 
power  is  not  granted.  While  the  States  have  delegated  to  Congress  the 
power  of  organizing,  arming  and  disciplining  the  militia,  and  of  governing 
such  part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederacy,  they 
have  expressly  reserved  to  themselves  the  appointment  of  the  officers,  and  have 
therefore  expressly  denied  to  Congress  the  right  to  confer  that  power  on  the 
President  or  any  other  person.  Notwithstanding  the  express  reservation  by  the 
States  of  this  power,  the  acts  above  referred  to,  authorize  the  President  to 
accept  the  volunteer  militia  of  the  States  independently  of  State  authority 
and  to  commission  every  officer  of  a  regiment  from  a  third  lieutenant  to  a 
colonel.  This  act,  by  vesting  in  the  President  the  power  of  appointing  the 
officers  of  the  militia,  which  power  the  States  have  carefully  and  expressly 
reserved  to  themselves,  enables  him  to  control,  independent  of  State  author 
ity  the  whole  consolidated  military  force  of  the  Confederacy,  including  the 
militia  as  well  as  the  regulars.  If  this  practice  is  acquiesced  in,  the  Confed 
erate  government,  which  has  the  control  of  the  purse  with  the  power  to  tax  the 
people  of  the  States  to  any  extent  at  its  pleasure,  also  acquires  the  supreme 
control  of  the  military  force  of  the  States,  and  with  both  the  sword  and  the 
purse  in  its  own  hands  may  become  the  uncontrollable  master  instead  of  the 
useful  servant  of  the  States. 

"  I  am  not  aware  of  any  case  in  which  the  government  of  the  United 
States  prior  to  its  disruption  ever  claimed  or  exercised  the  power  to  accept 
volunteer  troops,  commission  their  officers  and  order  them  into  service,  with 
out  consulting  the  Executive  authority  of  the  State  from  which  they  were 
received.  The  ideci  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  occurred  to  President  Lin 
coln,  so  long  as  he  held  himself  bound  by  any  constitutional  restraints, 
that  he  had  any  power  to  accept  troops  from  the  border  States  to  assist  in 
coercing  us"  into  obedience  without  the  prior  consent  of  the  Executives  of 
those  States.  Hence  he  made  his  call  upon  them  for  troops  and  met  a  repulse 
that  turned  the  tide  of  popular  sentiment  in  our  favor  in  most  of  those 
States  and  redounded  greatly  to  the  salvation  of  the  South.  During  the 
war  of  1812,  when  Massachusetts  refused  to  send  her  troops  out  of  the  State, 
the  plea  of  necessity  might  have  been  set  up  by  Mr.  Madison  as  a  justification 
to  some  extent  for  such  an  encroachment,  but  neither  he,  who  had  partici 
pated  so  largely  in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  nor  the  Congress  in 
that  day  seemed  to  have  felt  justified  even  by  necessity  in  adopting  any  such 
measure.  In  the  present  instance,  the  plea  of  necessity  could  not  be  set  up, 
as  it  will  not  be  pretended  that  the  Executive  of  any  State  in  the  Confeder- 


270  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

acy  had  refused  to  respond  promptly  to  each  and  every  call  made  upon  him 
for  troops.  Even  now,  I  believe  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  the  number  re 
quired  in  each  and  every  case  of  each  and  every  Executive  has  been  promptly 
furnished. 

"  These  acts  have  also  been  very  inconvenient  in  practice. 
**  *  *  *  *  ** 

"  On  several  occasions,  after  I  have  put  companies  under  orders  for  the  pur 
pose  of  filling  requisitions  made  upon  me,  I  have  learned  that  these  compa 
nies  had  previously  left  the  State  without  my  knowledge,  which  caused  delay 
growing  out  of  the  necessity  of  ordering  in  other  companies  to  fill  their  places. 
So  long  as  there  are  two  recognized  military  heads  in  the  State,  each  having 
the  power  to  order  out  the  militia  without  informing  the  other  of  the  compa 
nies  ordered  by  him,  conflict  and  confusion  must  be  the  inevitable  result. 
Again,  as  these  independent  regiments  receive  their  commissions  from  the 
President,  and  leave  the  State  without  official  notice  to  the  Executive,  there 
is  no  record  in  Georgia  which  gives  the  names  of  the  officers  or  privates  or 
shows  that  they  are  in  service  from  the  State.  The  only  knowledge  which 
the  Executive  has  of  their  being  in  service  is  such  as  he  derives  from  the 
newspapers  or  other  channels  of  information  common  to  any  private  citizen 
of  the  State. 

"  But  I  fear  that  these  acts  may,  in  the  end,  entail  upon  us  or  our  posterity 
a  greater  misfortune  than  the  mere  practical  confusion  and  inconvenience 
growing  out  of  them.  As  I  have  before  remarked,  they  give  to  the  President 
the  control  of  the  militia  of  the  States  and  the  appointment  of  the  officers  to 
command  them,  without  the  consent  of  the  States.  This  is  an  imperial 
power,  which  in  the  hands  of  an  able,  fearless  popular  leader,  if  backed  by  a 
subservient  Congress  in  the  exercise  of  its  taxing  power,  would  enable  him 
to  trample  under  foot  all  restraints  and  make  his  will  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land.  It  may  be  said  in  reply  to  this,  that  the  acts  only  give  the  President 
the  power  to  accept  the  services  of  such  of  the  militia  of  the  States  as  volun 
teer  to  serve  him.  This  is  true.  But  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact, 
that  in  times  of  high  political  excitement,  when  the  people  are  divided  into 
parties,  a  fearless  favorite  leader  having  this  power,  and  in  possession  of  all 
the  public  arms,  munitions  of  war,  forts,  arsenals,  dockyards,  &c.,  belonging 
to  the  government,  might  be  able  to  rally  around  him  such  force  as  would 
give  him  a  fearful  advantage  over  those  who  might  attempt  to  prevent  the 
accomplishment  of  his  designs.  Such  is  my  confidence  in  the  present  able 
Executive  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  so  thoroughly  am  I  convinced  of 
his  lofty  patriotism  and  his  purity  of  purpose,  that  I  entertain  but  little  fear 
that  he  would  abuse  even  absolute  power  or  subvert  the  liberties  of  his  coun 
try  for  his  own  personal  aggrandizement.  This  is  no  reason,  however,  why  I 
should  consent  to  see  absolute  power  placed  in  his  hands.  While  I  might 
not  fear  him  as  a  dictator,  I  would  never  consent  that  he  be  made  dictator. 
His  term  of  office  is  limited  by  the  Constitution  and  must  expire  with  his 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAE.  271 

new  term  at  the  end  of  six  years.  His  immediate  successor,  or  some  future 
Napoleon,  occupying  the  same  position,  may  be  less  pure  and  patriotic,  and 
with  the  precedent  established  and  approved  'by  the  people,  placing  this  vast 
military  power  in  his  hands,  he  may  make  the  presidency  a  stepping  stoone  for 
the  gratification  of  his  unholy  ambition,  and  by  the  use  of  the  military  at  his 
command,  may  assume  the  imperial  robes  and  seat  himself  upon  a  throne. 

"  To  guard  effectually  against  usurpation,  sustain  republican  liberty  and  pre 
vent  the  consolidation  of  the  power  and  sovereignty  of  the  States  in  the  hands 
of  the  few,  our  people  should  watch,  with  a  jealous  eye,  every  act  of  their  rep 
resentatives  tending  to  such  a  result,  and  condemn  in  the  most  unqualified 
manner  every  encroachment  made  by  the  general  government  upon  either  the 
rights  or  the  sovereignly  of  the  States" 

The  Governor  also  differed  from  the  Confederate  Pres 
ident  on  the  subject  of  the  right  of  Georgia  troops  to 
elect  officers.  His  views  and  those  of  the  government 
are  well  stated  in  the  following  extract  from  the  annual 
message  of  November  5,  1863  : — 

"In  this  connection  I  earnestly  invite  the  attention  of  the  General  Assem 
bly  to  the  correspondence  (copies  of  which  are  herewith  forwarded)  between 
the  Secretary  of  War  and  myself  in  reference  to  the  right  of  Georgia's  vol 
unteer  militia  in  the  military  service  of  the  Confederacy  to  elect  their  own 
officers.  And  it  is  proper  that  I  here  remark  that  since  the  correspondence 
was  ended,  even  the  right  of  the  home  guards  to  elect  to  fill  vacancies  is 
also  denied,  and  the  power  of  appointing  the  company  officers  as  well  as  the 
field  officers  is  claimed  by  the  President. 

"  The  Constitution  gives  Congress  power  to  provide  for  organizing,  arming, 
and  disciplining  the  militia,  and  for  governing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be 
employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  reserving  to  the  States  respect 
ively  the  appointment  of  the  officers.  The  right  of  the  State  to  appoint  the  of 
ficers  to  command  her  militia  or  any  part  thereof,  when  employed  in  the  ser 
vice  of  the  Confederate  States,  is  not  left  to  inference,  but  is  reserved  in  plain, 
simple  language,  which  admits  of  no  two  constructions.  The  State,  by  her 
constitution  and  laws,  has  provided  how  she  will  make  these  appointments. 
All  militia  officers  are  to  be  elected  by  the  people  subject  to  do  military  duty 
under  them,  and  the  officers  of  the  volunteer  militia  are  to  be  elected  by  the 
members  of  the  volunteer  organization,  to  be  commanded  by  the  officers  when 
elected,  and  all  vacancies  are  to  be  filled  in  the  same  way.  In  a  word,  the 
State  appoints  those  who  are  elected  by  the  persons  to  be  commanded. 

"  If  the  militia  of  Georgia,  or  any  part  thereof,  is  now  employed  in  the  ser 
vice  of  the  Confederate  States,  no  one  can  question  the  right  of  the  State,  as 
reserved  in  the  Confederate  constitution,  to  appoint  the  officers  to  command 


272  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

them,  and  the  right  of  the  troops,  under  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  State, 
to  have  those  elected  by  them  appointed  or  commissioned  to  command  them, 
is  equally  unquestionable. 

"  By  the  militia  of  a  State,  I  understand  the  framers  of  the  constitution  to 
have  meant  the  arms-bearing  people  of  the  State.  That  they  intended  to  use 
the  term  in  this  sense  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  they  speak  of  the  militia 
as  in  existence  at  the  time  they  are  making  the  constitution,  and  confer 
power  upon  Congress,  not  to  create  a  new  militia,  nor  to  organize  that  al 
ready  in  existence,  but  to  provide  for  organizing  the  militia.  In  other  words, 
they  gave  Congress  power  to  provide  for  forming  into  militia  organizations 
the  arms-bearing  people  of  the  respective  States.  Had  the  constitution  given 
Congress  power  to  organize  the  militia  without  any  qualifying  words,  it 
would  have  had  power  to  appoint  officers  to  command  them,  or  to  authorize 
the  President  to  appoint  them,  as  the  militia  cannot  be  organized  without  of 
ficers.  The  language  used  was  well  weighed  and  carefully  guarded.  Power 
was  given  to  Congress  to  provide  for  organizing  that  already  in  existence  with 
out  sufficient  organization — the  militia  or  arms-bearing  people  of  the  States. 
When  Congress  has  provided  for  the  orgauization,  and  the  States  have  or 
ganized  the  militia,  Congress  may  authorize  the  President  to  employ  them  in 
the  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  but,  in  that  case,  the  States  expressly 
reserve  to  themselves  the  right  to  appoint  the  officers  to  command  them,  and 
Congress  cannot,  without  usurpation,  exercise  that  power  or  confer  it  upon 
the  President. 

"The  President  has  made  repeated  calls  upon  this  State  for  organized 
bodies  of  her  troops  for  Confederate  service,  and  his  requisitions  have  invari 
ably  been  filled  by  the  tender  of  militia  organized  and  officered  by  the  State, 
and  they  have  been  accepted  by  him  with  their  officers  as  organized.  In  addi 
tion  to  this,  the  conscript  act  has  been  passed,  which  has  made  all  persons  be 
tween  18  and  45,  (except  those  exempted  by  the  act,)  subject  by  compulsion  to 
Confederate  service.  This  act  has  been  executed  in  Georgia.  In  contem 
plation  of  law,  every  person  in  this  State  between  18  and  45,  not  specially 
exempt,  is  now  in  Confederate  service ;  and  the  fact  corresponds  very  nearly 
with  this  contemplation  of  law.  Thus  the  whole  organized  militia  of  the  State 
is  now  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States  ;  and  notwithstanding 
the  State  in  such  case  has  expressly  reserved  the  right  to  appoint  every  officer  to 
command  them,  her  right  to  appoint  a  single  officer  to  fill  a  single  vacancy  in^a 
single  company,  battalion  or  regiment,  is  now  denied ;  and  it  is  claimed  that 
they  are  all  in  future  to  be  appointed,  not  by  the  State,  but  by  the  President. 

"One  of  the  reasons  given  for  this  extraordinary  pretension  is,  that  it  will 
not  do  to  trust  the  troops  after  they  are  in  service  with  this  important 
right  of  choosing  their  own  officers,  as  they  would  not  elect  officers  who  are 
faithful  and  who  maintain  discipline  and  do  their  duty.  This  objection 
would  certainly  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  first  election,  when  a  regiment 
or  company  is  being  organized.  If  the  men  are  competent  on  entering  the 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAK.  273 

servics  to  elect  those  who  shall  command  them,  why  are  they  not  equally 
competent  to  elect  to  fill  vacancies  which  afterward  occur?  Do  experience 
in  the  military  field,  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  their  comrade*  in  arms, 
make  them  less  competent  to  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  those  who  aspire 
to  command?  The  simple  statement  of  the  proposition  is  a  sufficient  expose 
of  its  fallacy.  At  the  organization  of  our  regiments,  the  men  elected  officers 
on  short  acquaintance,  as  but  little  time  was  allowed  them ;  and  doubtless 
made  some  mistakes,  putting  in  men  less  competent  than  some  others  left 
out.  They  have  since  seen  them  tried  in  service,  and  now  know  who  is 
best  qualified.  But  when  a  vacancy  occurs,  they  are  now  to  be  confined  to  those 
who  were  first  elected  to  lower  positions,  to  fill  the  higher  positions,  to  which 
they  never  chose  them.  And  if  an  officer  who  claims  promotion  is  set  aside 
for  incompetency  by  an  examining  board,  the  next  in  rank  may  step  for 
ward  and  claim  the  place,  and  is  held  to  be  entitled  to  it  over  the  best  man 
in  the  regiment  if  he  is  a  private,  though  he  may  be  the  choice  of  every  man 
in  the  command.  It  is  only  the  lowest  commissioned  officer  in  the  company 
who  is  taken  from  the  ranks ;  and  if  the  best  and  most  competent  man  failed 
to  get  a  commission  at  the  first  election,  he  cannot  now  aspire  from  the 
ranks  to  a  higher  position  than  the  lowest  lieutenancy.  This  policy  of  fill 
ing  all  vacancies  by  promotion  not  only  disregards  the  constitutional  rights 
of  the  States,  but  it  does  the  grossest  injustice  to  those  who  are  often  the 
most  deserving  of  promotion,  and  denies  to  the  men  the  valuable  right  of 
selecting  their  own  rulers. 

"  If  it  is  said  the  President  may  go  ont  of  the  regular  line  of  promotion, 
and  reward  merit  in  the  ranks,  it  may  be  truly  replied  that  this  is  seldom 
done;  and  that  the  men  cannot  look  to  their  companions  in  arms,  but  can 
look  only  to  the  President  for  promotion.  This  not  only  concentrates  all 
power  in  his  hands,  but  subjects  every  man's  claims  to  his  favoritism, 
prejudice,  or  caprice;  and  destroys  independence  of  thought  and  of  action  by 
compelling  all  to  depend  for  promotion  upon  their  capacity  to  flatter  or  their 
ability  to  please  a  single  individual.  Georgia's  troops  have  done  their  duty 
nobly  in  the  field,  and  they  have  a  right  to  look  to  the  government  of  their 
State  for  the  protection  of  their  rights.  Many  of  them  now  claim  this  pro 
tection.  Shall  they  have  it? 

"  I  recommend  that  this  General  Assembly  pass  a  joint  resolution  declara 
tory  of  the  reserved  rights  of  the  State,  and  of  the  constitutional  right  of 
election  by  her  troops,  and  demanding  of  the  Confederate  Government  the 
recognition  of  this  right." 

Next  to  the  conscription  laws  and  the  provision  for 
exempting  slaveholders,  perhaps  nothing  done  by  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederacy  had  so  damaging  effect  as 
the  law  allowing 

18 


274  GOVERNMENT  OF  GEORGIA 

SUBSTITUTES  IN  THE  ARMY. 

Governor  Brown's  opposition  to  that  law,  and  the  prac 
tice  of  government  and  army  officers,  is  strongly  set  forth 
in  his  message  to  the  Legislature,  as  follows  : 

"  That  portion  of  the  conscript  act  which  authorizes  those  within  conscript 
age  to  employ  substitutes,  has,  in  my  opinion,  been  productive  of  the  most 
unfortunate  results.  If  conscription  is  right,  or  if  it  is  to  be  acquiesced  in 
as  a  matter  of  .necessity,  it  is  certainly  just  that  it  act  upon  all  alike,  whether 
rich  or  poor..  With  the  substitution  principle  in  the  act,  its  effect  has  been 
to  compel  the  poorer  class,  who  have  no  money  with  which  to  employ  substi 
tutes,  to  enter  the  army,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  condition  of  their  fami 
lies  at  home,  while  the  rich,  who  have  money  with  which  to  employ 
substitutes,  have  often  escaped  compulsory  service.  This  is  not  just  as 
between  man  and  man.  While  I  trust  I  have  shown  that  the  poorest  man 
in  the  Confederacy  has  such  interest  at  stake  as  should  stimulate  him  to  en 
dure  any  amount  of  hardship  or  danger  for  the  success  of  our  cause,  it  can 
not  be  denied  that  the  wealthy  are  under  as  great  obligation  to  do  service,  as 
they  have,  in  addition  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  themselves  and  their 
children,  a  large  amount  of  property  to  protect.  If  every  wealthy  man 
would  do  his  duty,  and  share  his  part  of  the  dangers  of  the  war,  but  few 
complaints  would  be  heard  from  the  poor.  But  if  the  money  of  the  rich  is 
to  continue  to  secure  him  from  the  hardships,  privations,  and  dangers,  to 
which  the  poor  are  exposed,  discontent,  and  more  or  less  demoralization  in 
the  army  must  be  the  inevitable  result. 

"  He  who  has  paid  two  or  three  thousand  dollars  for  his  substitute  has 
often  made  it  back  in  a  single  month  by  speculation,  and  it  has  not 
unfrequently  happened  that  the  families  of  those  in  service,  at  eleven  dol 
lars  per  month,  have  been  the  most  unfortunate  victims  of  his  speculation 
and  extortion. 

"A  very  large  number  of  stout,  able-bodied  young  men,  between  18 
and  45  years  of  age,  are  now  out  of  the  army,  and  in  their  places  the  gov 
ernment  has  accepted  old  men  over  45,  who  have,  in  most  cases,  been  unable 
to  undergo  long  marches,  privation,  and  fatigue.  Thousands  of  these  have 
sunk  by  the  way,  either  into  the  hospitals  or  into  the  grave.  It  is  also 
understood  that  much  the  larger  number  of  deserters  and  stragglers  from  the 
army  have  been  substitutes  who  have  entered  it  for  hire,  and,  after  receiving 
the  stipulated  price,  have  sought  the  first  opportunity  to  escape,  which  they 
have  in  some  instances  been  permitted  to  do,  with  the  acquiescence  and  en 
couragement  of  officers  who  have  been  their  partners  in  guilty  speculation. 
Thus  the  same  individual  has  been  accepted  as  a  substitute  for  each  of  sev 
eral  able-bodied  young  men,  who  have  been  left  at  home  to  seek  for  gain  and 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  WAR.  275 

enjoy  comfort,  while  our  enemies  have  gained  advantages  on  account  of  the 
weakness  of  our  armies. 

"  If  we  expect  to  be  successful  in  our  struggle,  the  law  must  be  so 
changed  as  to  place  in  service  the  tens  of  thousands  of  young  men  who  are 
now  at  home.  This  would  reinforce  our  armies,  so  as  to  enable  us  to  drive 
back  the  enemy  upon  every  part  of  our  borders.  After  this  change  in  the 
law  the  government  could  provide  for  the  protection  of  the  most  important 
interests  at  home,  by  making  proper  details  of  such  persons  as  are  indis 
pensably  necessary.  This  would  be  much  better  than  the  extension  of  the 
conscription  act  up  to  50  or  55,  as  it  would  bring  into  the  field  young  men 
able  to  endure  service,  in  place  of  old  men  who  must  soon  fail  when  exposed  to 
great  fatigue  and  hardship,  many  of  whom  are  as  competent  as  young  men 
to  oversee  plantations  and  attend  to  other  home  interests. 

"But  it  may  be  denied  that  the  Government  can  now  so  change  the  law  as 
to  make  those  who  have  furnished  substitutes  liable  to  service,  as  it  is  bound 
by  its  contract  to  exempt  them,  and  they  have  acquired  vested  rights  under 
the  contract,  which  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  the  Government  to  divest.  Let 
us  examine  this  for  a  moment.  I  purchase  a  lot  of  land  from  the  State  of 
Georgia,  and  pay  her  one  thousand  dollars  for  it,  and  she  conveys  it  to  me 
by  grant  under  her  great  seal.  The  contract  is  as  solemn,  and  binding,  as  the 
Government  can  make  it.  My  fee  simple  title  is  vested  and  complete.  But 
while  I  have  the  grant  in  my  pocket  and  the  State  has  my  money  in  her 
treasury,  it  is  discovered  that  public  necessity  requires  the  State  to  repossess 
herself  of  the  land  ;  I  refuse  to  sell  to  her  ;  she  may  pay  me  just  compensation, 
and  take  the  land  without  my  consent,  and  she  violates  no  fundamental  princi 
ple,  as  all  our  private  rights  must  yield  to  the  public  good,  and  if  we  are  injured 
we  can  only  require  just  compensation  for  the  injury. 

"  Again,  suppose  I  have  labored  hard  and  made  upon  my  land  a  surplus  of 
provisions,  which  are  my  own  right  and  property,  and  I  refuse  to  sell  them  to 
the  Government,  when  the  army  is  in  need  of  them ;  it  may  take  them  with 
out  my  consent  and  pay  me  just  compensation,  and  I  have  been  deprived  of 
none  of  my  constitutional  rights. 

"  The  right  of  a  person  who  has  employed  a  substitute,  to  be  exempt 
from  military  service,  can  certainly  stand  upon  no  higher  ground.  The  Gov 
ernment  has  extended  to  such  persons  the  privilege  of  exemption  upon  the 
employment  of  a  proper  substitute,  but  if  the  public  safety  requires  it,  the 
Government  certainly  has  as  much  right  to  revoke  this  privilege  as  it  has  to 
take  from  me  my  land,  or  my  provisions,  or  other  property,  for  public  use ; 
and  all  the  person  who  employed  the  substitute  could  demand  would  be  just 
compensation  for  the  injury.  The  measure  of  damages  might  be  the  amount 
paid  by  the  principal  for  his  substitute,  less  a  just  pro  rata  for  the  time  the 
substitute  has  served ;  and  upon  the  payment  of  the  damage  or  the  just  com 
pensation  for  it,  the  Government  would  have  the  right  to  retain  the  substi 
tute,  as  well  as  the  principal,  in  service,  as  the  substitute  has  been  paid  by 


276      GOVEENMENT  IN  KELATION  TO  THE  WAK. 

the  principal  for  the  service,  and  the  principal  has  been  compensated  for  the 
damage  done  him  by  ordering  him  into  service.  It  would  be  competent, 
however,  in  estimating  the  damages  in  such  case,  to  take  into  the  account, 
the  interest  the  principal  has  in  the  success  of  our  cause,  and  the  establish 
ment  of  our  independence,  as  necessary  to  the  perpetuity  of  his  liberties,  and 
the  security  of  all  his  rights.  It  would  also  be  competent  to  inquire  whether 
he  has  indeed  suffered  any  pecuniary  loss.  If  he  has  paid  three  thousand 
dollars  for  a  substitute,  and  has  been  kept  out  of  the  army  for  that  sum  for 
one  year,  and  during  that  time  he  has  made  ten  thousand  dollars  more,  by 
speculation,  or  otherwise,  than  he  would  have  made  had  he  been  in  the  army 
at  eleven  dollars  per  month,  the  actual  amount  of  compensation  due  from  the 
Government  to  him  might  be  very  small  indeed,  if  anything. 

"  Believing  that  the  public  necessity  requires  it,  and  entertaining  no  doubt 
that  Congress  possesses  the  power  to  remedy  the  evil,  without  violating  vested 
rights,  I  respectfully  recommend  the  passage  of  a  joint  resolution  by  this 
General  Assembly,  requesting  Congress  to  repeal  that  part  of  the  conscript 
act  which  authorizes  the  employment  of  substitutes,  and,  as  conscription  is 
the  present  policy  of  the  Government,  to  require  all  persons  able  to  do  mili 
tary  duty,  who  have  substitutes  in  service,  to  enter  the  military  service  of 
the  Confederacy  with  the  least  possible  delay,  and  to  provide  some  just  rule 
of  compensation  to  those  who  may  be  injured  by  the  enactment  of  such  a 
law.  I  also  recommend  that  said  resolution  instruct  our  Senators,  and  re 
quest  our  Representatives  in  Congress,  to  vote  for  and  urge  the  passage  of 
this  measure  at  the  earliest  possible  day." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

GOVERNOR  BROWN  AND  THE  CONFEDERATE  MILITARY. 

Governor  Brown  took  strong  and  decided  ground 
against  the  practices  of  the  Confederate  military  of  indis 
criminate  seizure  and  impressment  of  private  property,  as 
follows : — 

IMPRESSMENT   OF    PRIVATE   PROPERTY. 

"  It  is  also  my  duty  to  call  your  attention  to  another  matter  considered  by 
the  people  of  this  State  a  subject  of  grievance.  The  power  is  now  claimed  by 
almost  every  military  commander  to  impress  the  private  property  of  the  citi 
zen  at  his  pleasure,  without  any  express  order  from  the  Secretary  of  War  for 
that  purpose;  and  in  many  cases  without  the  payment  of  any  compensation 
— the  officer,  who  is  in  some  cases  only  a  captain  or  lieutenant,  giving  a 
certificate  that  the  property  has  been  taken  for  public  use ;  which  seizure, 
after  long  delay,  may,  or  may  not,  be  recognized  by  the  Government;  as 
it  may  determine  that  the  officer  had,  or  had  not,  competent  authority  to 
make  it. 

"I  am  aware  that  the  Constitution  confers  the  power  upon  the  Confederate 
Government  to  take  private  property  for  public  use,  paying  therefor  just  com 
pensation  ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  every  true  and  loyal  citizen  would 
cheerfully  acquiesce  in  the  exercise  of  this  power,  by  the  properly  authorized 
and  responsible  agents  of  the  Government,  at  all  times  when  the  public  ne 
cessities  might  require  it.  But  I  deny  that  every  subaltern  in  uniform'  who 
passes  through  the  country  has  the  right  to  appropriate* what  he  pleases  of 
the  property  of  the  citizen  without  being  able  to  show  the  authority  of  the 
Government  for  the  exercise  of  this  high  prerogative.  As  our  people  are  not 
aware  of  their  proper  remedies  for  the  redress  of  the  grievances  hereinbefore 
mentioned,  I  respectfully  suggest,  that  the  General  Assembly,  after  consid 
eration  of  these  questions,  declare  by  resolution  or  otherwise,  their  opinion 
as  to  the  power  of  the  Confederate  Government  and  its  officers  in  these  par 
ticulars.  I  also  respectfully  request  that  the  General  Assembly  declare  the 
extent  to  which  the  Executive  of  this  State  will  be  sustained  by  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people  in  protecting  their  rights,  and  the  integrity  of  the 
Government,  and  sovereignty  of  the  State,  against  the  usurpations  and  abuses 
to  which  I  have  invited  your  attention."  « 


278  GOVERNOR  BROWX 

One  of  the  potent  causes  of  irritation  among  the  poor 
men  of  the  Confederate  armies,  and  which  was  a  fruitful 
and  growing  cause  of  discontent,  was  the  small  price  paid 
to  soldiers  in  actual  service  after  the  depreciation  of  the 
Confederate  currency  They  began  to  compare  their  sit 
uation  with  the  exempts  and  favored  people  at  home,  and 
to  think  of  the  insignificant  purchasing  power  of  the  gov 
ernment  currency ;  for  instance,  that  a  soldier's  wages  for 
a  month  would  not  buy  a  bushel  of  salt  for  his  family  or 
a  decent  pair  of  shoes  for  his  wife.  They  began  to-mur- 
mur  and  complain,  arid  to  deluge  the  Governor  of  Georgia, 
whom  they  from  the  first  regarded  as  a  true  friend,  ever 
ready  to  aid  them  in  all  methods  in  his  power.  He  made 
the  effort  in  vain,  through  the  Legislature,  to  induce  Con 
gress  to  stimulate  and  conciliate  the  army  by  an  increase 
of  the  pay  of  soldiers. 

The  following  pointed  message  upon  that  subject  shows 
some,  at  least,  of  the  powerfully  working  causes  of  the  ul 
timate  downfall  of  the  Confederacy,  and  constitutes  a  vital 
part  of  the  history  of  the  struggle. 
• 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,          ) 
MILLEDGEVILLE,  April  6th,  1863.  y 
"  To  the  General  Assembly:— 

"  The  armies  of  the  Confederate  States  are  composed,  in  a  great  degree,  of 
poor  men  and  non-slaveholders,  who  have  but  little  property  at  stake  upon 
the  issue.  The  rights  and  liberties  of  themselves  andW  their  posterity  are, 
however,  involved ;  and  with  hearts  full  of  patriotism,  they  have  nobly  and 
promptly  responded  to  their  country's  call,  and  now  stand  a  living  fortifica 
tion  between  their  homes  and  the  armed  legions  of  the  Abolition  Government. 
Upon  their  labor  their  families  at  home  have  depended  for  support,  as  they 
have  no  slaves  to  work  for  them.  They  receive  from  the  Government  but 
eleven  dollars  per  month,  in  depreciated  currency,  which,  at  the  present  high 
prices,  will  purchase  very  little  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  consequence 
is,  that  the  wives  of  thousands  of  them  are  now  obliged  to  work  daily  in  the 
field  to  make  bread — much  of  the  time  without  shoes  to  their  feet,  or  even 
comfortable  clothes  for  themselves  or  their  little  children.  Many  are  living 


AND  THE  CONFEDERATE  MILITARY.  279 

upon  bread  alone,  and  feel  the  moat  painful  apprehensions  lest  the  time  may 
come  when  enough  even  of  this  cannot  be  afforded  them.  In  the  midst  of 
all  the  privations  and  sufferings  of  themselves  and  their  families,  the  loyalty 
of  those  brave  men  to  the  Government  cannot  be  questioned,  and  their  gal 
lantry  shines  more  conspicuously  upon  each  successive  battle  field.  Freemen 
have  never,  in  any  age  of  the  world,  made  greater  sacrifices  in  freedom's 
cause,  or  deserved  more  of  their  country  or  of  posterity. 

"  While  the  poor  have  made  and  are  still  making  these  sacrifices,  and  sub 
mitting  to  these  privations  to  sustain  our  noble  cause  and  transmit  the  rich 
blessings  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  and  national  independence  to  posterity, 
many  of  the  rich  have  freely  given  up  their  property,  endured  the  hardships 
and  privations  of  military  service,  and  died  gallantly  upon  the  battle  field. 
It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  wealthy  class  of 
people  have  avoided  the  fevers  of  the  camp  and  the  dangers  of  the  battle  field, 
and  have  remained  at  home  in  comparative  ease  and  comfort  with  their 
families. 

"  If  the  enrolling  officer  under  the  conscript  act  has  summoned  them  to 
camp,  they  have  claimed  exemption  to  control  their  slaves,  or  they  have  re 
sponded  with  their  money,  and  hired  poor  men  to  take  their  places  as  sub 
stitutes.  The  operation  of  this  act  has  been  grossly  unjust  and  unequal 
between  the  two  classes.  When  the  poor  man  is  ordered  to  camp  by  the 
enrolling  officer,  he  has  no  money  with  which  to  employ  a  substitute,  and  he 
is  compelled  to  leave  all  the  endearments  of  home  and  go.  The  money  of 
the  rich  protects  them.  If  the  substitution  principle  had  not  been  recognized, 
and  the  act  had  compelled  the  rich  and  the  poor  to  serve  alike,  it  would  have 
been  much  more  just. 

"  Again,  there  is  a  class  of  rich  speculators  who  remain  at  home  preying 
like  vultures  upon  the  vitals  of  society,  determined  to  make  money  at  every 
hazard,  who  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  cries  of  soldiers'  families,  and  are  pre 
pared  to  immolate  even  our  armies  and  sacrifice  our  liberties  upon  the  altar 
of  mammon.  If  laws  are  passed  against  extortion,  they  find  means  of  evad 
ing  them.  If  the  necessaries  of  life  can  be  monopolized  and  sold  to  the  poor 
at  famine  prices,  they  are  ready  to  engage  in  it.  If  contributions  are  asked 
to  clothe  the  naked  soldier  or  feed  his  hungry  children,  they  close  their 
purses  and  turn  away.  Neither  the  dictates  of  humanity,  the  love  of  coun 
try,  the  laws  of  man,  nor  the  fear  of  God,  seem  to  control  or  influence  their 
actions.  To  make  money  and  accumulate  wealth  is  their  highest  ambition, 
and  seems  to  be  the  only  object  of  their  lives.  The  pockets  of  these  men 
can  be  reached  in  but  one  way,  and  that  is  by  the  tax  gatherer ;  and,  as 
they  grow  rich  upon  the  calamities  of  the  country,  it  is  the  duty  of  patriotic 
statesmen  and  legislators  to  see  that  this  is  done,  and  that  the  burdens  of 
the  war  are,  at  least  to  some  extent,  equalized  in  this  way.  They  should  be 
compelled  to  divide  their  ill-gotten  gains  with  the  soldiers  who  fight  our  bat 
tles  ;  both  they  and  the  wealthy  of  the  country,  not  engaged  as  they  are, 


280  GOVERNOR  BROWN 

should  be  taxed  to  contribute  to  the  wants  of  the  families  of  those  who  sacri 
fice  all  to  protect  our  lives,  our  liberties  and  our  property. 

"I  consider  it  but  an  act  of  simple  justice,  for  the  reasons  already  stated, 
that  the  wages  of  our  private  soldiers  be  raised  to  twenty  dollars  per  month, 
and  that  of  non-commissioned  officers  in  like  proportion,  and  that  the  wealth 
of  the  country  be  taxed  to  raise  the  money.  I  therefore  recommend  the 
passage  of  a  joint  resolution  by  the  Legislature  of  this  State,  requesting  our 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  to  bring  this  question  before  that 
body,  and  to  do  all  they  can,  both  by  their  influence  and  their  vote,  to  secure 
the  passage  of  ati  act  for  that  purpose,  and  to  assess  a  tax  sufficient  to  raise 
the  money  to  pay  the  increased  sum.  This  would  enable  each  soldier  to  do 
something  to  contribute  to  the  comfort  of  his  family  while  he  is  fighting  the 
battles  of  his  country  at  the  expense  of  his  comfort  and  the  hazard  of  his 
life. 

"  I  respectfully  but  earnestly  urge  upon  you  the  justice  and  importance  of 
favorable  consideration  and  prompt  action  upon  this  recommendation. 

"  Let  the  hearts  of  our  suffering  soldiers  from  Georgia  be  cheered  by  the 
intelligence  that  the  Legislature  of  their  State  has  determined  to  see  that 
justice  is  done  them,  and  that  the  wants  of  themselves  and  their  families  are 
supplied,  and  their  arms  will  be  nerved  with  new  vigor  when  uplifted  to 
strike  for  the  graves  of  their  sires,  the  homes  of  their  families,  the  liberties 
of  their  posterity,  and  the  independence  and  glory  of  the  Republic. 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 

The  Legislature,  by  joint  resolution,  promptly  united 
with  the  Governor  in  the  justice  and  importance  of  the 
matter,  and  appealed  in  vain  to  the  Confederate  Congress 
to  adopt  it. 

The  efforts  to  increase  the  pay  of  soldiers  was  met  by 
the  Government  with  the  presentation  of  the  reason  that 
it  was  ruinous  to  increase  their  pay,  because  the  currency 
was  already  depreciated,  and  the  depreciation  would  be 
increased  with  the  increase  of  its  volume  thus  to  be  ren 
dered  necessary.  The  troops  in  the  army  could  not  ap 
preciate  the  reason  while  they  could  see  it  violated  by  the 
Government  through  its  agents  in  every  expenditure,  ex 
cept  that  of  paying  the  soldiers  in  service.  Agents  were 
advancing  prices  rapidly  for  all  government  supplies,  and 
competitors  in  market  with  ready  government  cash  for 


AND  THE  CONFEDERATE  MILITARY.  281 

all  the  necessaries  of  life ;  in  many  instances  the  agents 
and  officers  buying  on  speculation  and  selling  to  the  Gov 
ernment  at  large  and  fabulous  profits.  The  soldiers  could 
see  that  the  expansion  was  rapid ;  that  the  prices  advanced 
by  Government  officers  and  agents,  in  order  to  carry  on 
their  speculations,  excluded  their  families  from  the  mar 
kets  at  any  lower  rates.  They  therefore  could  not  see 
the  justice  of  the  Government  that  kept  them  in  service, 
whether  they  were  willing  or  not  under  the  conscript  sys 
tem,  and  refused  to  increase  their  pay.  There  were  thou 
sands  of  men  in  the  service  who  did  not  regard  the  matter, 
and  would  have  remained  voluntarily  in  service  without 
any  pay  at  all.  But  the  effect  was  very  injurious  upon 
thousands  of  others  who  desired  the  money  for  their 
families  at  home. 

SUSPENSION  OF  THE  HABEAS  CORPUS. 

From  an  early  period  of  the  war,  the  Governor  pro 
tested  in  strong  terms  against  the  assumed  and  unauthor 
ized  authority  of  military  commanders  to  declare  martial 
law  and  place  such  portions  of  country  or  places  as  they 
desired  to  have  absolute  control  of  under  military  govern 
ment,  and  to  suspend  civil  authority  and  the  processes  of 
civil  law. 

On  the  10th  of  March,  1864,  he  communicated  his  views 
on  the  subject  as  follows : — 

"  I  cannot  withhold  the  expression  of  the  deep  mortification  I  feel  at  the 
late  action  of  Congress  in  attempting  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  to  confer  upon  the  President  powers  expressly  denied  to 
him  by  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States.  Under  pretext  of  a  ne 
cessity  which  our  whole  people  know  does  not  exist  in  this  case,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  motives,  our  Congress  with  the  assent  and  at  the  request  of 
the  executive  has  struck  a  fell  blow  at  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  these 
States. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  declares  that,  '  The  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended  unless  when  in  cases  of 


282  GOVERNOR  BROWN 

rebellion  or  invasion  the  public  safety  may  require  it.'  The  power  to  sus 
pend  the  habeas  corpus  at  all  is  derived,  not  from  express  and  direct  delega> 
tion,  but  from  implication  only,  and  an  implication  can  never  be  raised  in 
opposition  to  an  express  restriction.  In  case  of  any  conflict  between  the 
two,  an  implied  power  must  always  yield  to  express  restrictions  upon  its 
exercise.  The  power  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
derived  by  implication  must  therefore  be  always  limited  by  the  express 
declaration  in  the  Constitution  that : — 

" «  The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in  their  persons,  houses,  papers,  and 
effects,  against  unreasonable  searches  and  seizures  shall  not  be  violated;  and 
no  warrants  shall  issue  but  upon  probable  cause,  supported  by  oath  or  affirma 
tion,  and  particularly  describing  the  place  to  be  searched  and  the  persons  or 
things  to  be  seized,'  and  the  further  declaration  that,  '  no  person  shall  be  de 
prived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law.'  And  that, 

"'In  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  a  speedy 
and  public  trial  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the  State  or  district  where  the  crime 
shall  have  been  committed,  which  district  shall  have  been  previously  ascer 
tained  by  law,  and  to  be  informed  of  the  nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation ; 
to  be  confronted  with  the  witnesses  against  him ;  to  have  compulsory  pro 
cess  for  obtaining  witnesses  in  his  favor ;  and  to  have  the  assistance  of 
counsel  in  his  defence.' 

"Thus  it  is  an  express  guaranty  of  the  Constitution  that  the  'persons'  of 
the  people  shall  be  secure,  and  '  no  warrants  shall  issue,'  but  upon  probable 
cause,  supported  by  '  oath  or  affirmation,1  particularly  describing  « the  persons 
to  be  seized ; '  that '  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  liberty,  without  due  pro 
cess  of  law,'  and  that  in  '  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall  enjoy 
the  right  of  a  speedy  and  public  trial  by  an  impartial  jury.' 

"  The  Constitution  also  defines  the  powers  of  the  Executive,  which  are  lim 
ited  to  those  delegated,  among  which  there  is  no  one  authorizing  him  to  issue 
warrants  or  order  arrests  of  persons  not  in  actual  military  service ;  or  to  sit  as 
a  judge  in  any  case,  to  try  any  person  for  a  criminal  offence,  or  to  appoint 
any  court  or  tribunal  to  do  it  not  provided  for  in  the  Constitution  as  part  of 
the  judiciary.  The  power  to  issue  warrants  and  try  persons  under  criminal 
accusations  are  judicial  powers  which  belong,  under  the  Constitution,  exclu 
sively  to  the  judiciary  and  not  to  the  Executive.  His  power  to  order  arrests 
as  commander-in-chief  is  strictly  a  military  power,  and  is  confined  to  the 
arrest  of  persons  subject  to  military  power,  as  to  the  arrest  of  persons  in  the 
army  or  navy  of  the  Confederate  States ;  or  in  the  militia,  when  in  the  actual 
service  of  the  Confederate  States ;  and  does  not  extend  to  any  persons 
in  civil  life  unless  they  be  followers  of  the  camp  or  within  the  lines  of  the 
army.  This  is  clear  from  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  which  declares 
that  :— 

"  '  No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital  or  otherwise  infamous  crime 
unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury,  except  in  cases  arising 


AND  THE  CONFEDERATE  MILITARY.  283 

in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the  militia  when  in  actual  service  in  time  of 
war  or  public  danger.'  But  even  here  the  power  of  the  President  as  com- 
mander-in-chief  is  not  absolute,  as  his  powers  and  duties  in  ordering  arrests 
of  persons  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the  militia  when  in  actual  service, 
are  clearly  defined  by  the  rules  and  articles  of  war  prescribed  by  Congress. 
Any  warrant  issued  by  the  President,  or  any  arrest  made  by  him,  or  under  his 
order,  of  any  person  in  civil  life  and  not  subject  to  military  command,  is  ille 
gal  and  in  plain  violation  of  the  Constitution  ;  as  it  is  impossible  for  Congress 
by  implication  to  confer  upon  the  President  the  right  to  exercise  powers  of 
arrest  expressly  forbidden  to  him  by  the  Constitution.  Any  effort  on  the 
part  of  Congress  to  do  this  is  but  an  attempt  to  revive  the  odious  practice  of 
ordering  political  arrests,  or  issuing  letters  de  cachet  by  royal  prerogative,  so 
long  since  renounced  by  our  English  ancestors ;  and  the  denial  of  the  right 
of  the  constitutional  judiciary  to  investigate  such  cases,  and  the  provision  for 
creating  a  court  appointed  by  the  Executive,  and  changeable  at  his  will,  to 
take  jurisdiction  of  the  same,  are  in  violation  of  the  great  principles  of 
Magna  Charta,  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  Confederate  States,  upon  which  both  English  and  American  liberty 
rest ;  and  are  but  an  attempt  to  revive  the  odious  Star  Chamber  court  of 
England,  which,  in  the  hands  of  wicked  kings,  was  used  for  tyrannical  pur 
poses  by  the  crown,  until  it  was  finally  abolished  by  Act  of  Parliament,  of 
16th  Charles  the  First,  which  went  into  operation  on  the  first  of  August, 
1641.  This  Act  has  ever  since  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  great  bulwarks 
of  English  liberty ;  and,  as  it  was  passed  by  the  English  Parliament  to  secure 
our  English  ancestors  against  the  very  same  character  of  arbitrary  arrests 
which  the  late  Act  of  Congress  is  intended  to  authorize  the  President  to 
make,  I  append  a  copy  of  it  to  this  message,  with  the  same  italics  and  small 
capital  letters  which  are  used  in  the  printed  copy  in  the  book  from  which  it 
is  taken.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  court  of  '  Star  Chamber,'  which  was  the 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  English  king,  for  investigating  his  illegal 
arrests  and  carrying  out  his  arbitrary  decrees  was  much  more  respectable,  on 
account  of  the  character,  learning,  and  ability  of  its  members,  than  the  Con 
federate  Star  Chamber,  or  court  of  'proper  officers,'  which  the  Act  of  Con 
gress  gives  the  President  power  to  appoint  to  investigate  his  illegal  arrests. 

I  am  aware  of  no  instance  in  which  the  British  king  has  ordered  the  arrest 
of  any  person  in  civil  life  in  any  other  manner  than  by  judicial  warrant  is 
sued  by  the  established  courts  of  the  realm;  or  in  which  he  has  suspended, 
or  attempted  to  suspend,  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  since  the 
Bill  of  Rights  and  act  of  settlement  passed  in  1689.  To  attempt  this  in  1864 
would  cost  the  present  reigning  Queen  no  less  price  than  her  crown. 

"  The  only  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpu*,  known 
to  our  Constitution,  and  compatible  with  the  provisions  already  stated,  goes 
to  the  simple  extent  .of  preventing  the  release  under  it  of  persons  whose  ar 
rests  have  been  ordered  under  constitutional  warrants  from  judicial  authority. 


284  GOVERNOR  BROWN 

To  this  extent  the  Constitution  allows  the  suspension  in  case  of  rebellion  or 
invasion  in  order  that  the  accused  may  be  certainly  and  safely  held  for  trial ; 
but  Congress  has  no  right  under  pretext  of  exercising  this  power  to  author 
ize  the  President  to  make  illegal  arrests  prohibited  by  the  Constitution ;  and 
when  Congress  has  attempted  to  confer  such  powers  on  the  President,  if  he 
should  order  such  illegal  arrests  it  would  be  the  imperative  duty  of  the 
judges,  who  have  solemnly  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution,  to  disregard 
such  unconstitutional  legislation  and  grant  relief  to  persons  so  illegally  im 
prisoned  ;  and  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  legislative  and  executive  depart 
ments  of  the  States  to  sustain  and  protect  the  judiciary  in  the  discharge  of 
this  obligation. 

"  By  an  examination  of  the  act  of  Congress,  now  under  consideration,  it 
will  be  seen  that  it  is  not  an  act  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  in  case  of  warrants  issued  bj  judicial  authority,  but  the  main  purpose 
of  the  act  seems  to  be  to  authorize  the  President  to  issue  warrants  supported 
by  neither  oath  nor  affirmation  and  to  make  arrests  of  persons  not  in  military 
service,  upon  charges  of  a  nature  proper  for  investigation  in  the  judicial  tri 
bunals  only,  and  to  prevent  the  Courts  from  inquiring  into  such  arrests,  or 
granting  relief  against  such  illegal  usurpations  of  power,  which  are  in  direct 
and  palpable  violation  of  the  Constitution. 

"  The  act  enumerates  more  than  twenty  different  causes  of  arrest,  most  of 
which  are  cognizable  and  triable  only  in  the  judicial  tribunals  established 
by  the  Constitution  ;  and  for  which  no  warrants  can  legally  issue  for  the  arrest 
of  persons  in  civil  life  by  any  power  except  the  judiciary;  and  then  only 
upon  probable  cause  supported  by  oath  or  affirmation  particularly  describing 
the  persons  to  be  seized ;  such  as  *  treason  '  '  treasonable  efforts  or  combina 
tions  to  subvert  the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States,'  'conspiracies 
to  overthrow  the  Government,'  or  'conspiracies  to  resist  the  lawful  authority 
of  the  Confederate  States,'  giving  the  enemy  '  aid  and  comfort,'  *  attempts 
to  incite  servile  insurrection,'  'the  burning  of  bridges,'  *  railroad,'  or  'tel 
egraph  lines,' '  harboring  deserters.' and  '  other  offences  against  the  laws  of 
the  Confederate  States,'  &c.,  &c.  And  as  if  to  place  the  usurpation  of  power 
beyond  doubt  or  cavil,  the  act  expressly  declares  that  the  '  suspension  shall 
apply  only  to  the  case  of  persons  arrested  or  detained  by  the  President,  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  or  the  general  officer  commanding  the  Trans-Mississippi  Mil 
itary  Department,  by  authority  and  under  the  control  of  the  President,'  in  the 
cases  enumerated  in  the  act,  most  of  which  are  exclusively  of  judicial  cogni 
zance,  and  in  which  cases  the  President  has  not  the  shadow  of  constitutional 
authority  to  issue  warrants  or  order  arrests,  but  is  actually  prohibited  by  the 
Constitution  from  doing  so. 

"  This  then  is  not  an  act  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  in  the  manner  authorized  by  implication  by  the  Constitution ;  but  it 
is  an  act  to  authorize  the  President  to  make  illegal  and  unconstitutional  arrests 
in  cases  which  the  Constitution  gives  to  the  judiciary,  and  denies  to  the  Ex- 


AND  THE  CONFEDERATE  MILITARY.  285 

ecutive ;  and  to  prohibit  all  judicial  interference  for  the  relief  of  the  citizen, 
when  tyrannized  over  by  illegal  arrest,  under  letters  de  cachet  issued  by  Ex 
ecutive  authority. 

"  Instead  of  the  legality  of  the  arrest  being  examined  in  the  judicial  tribu 
nals  appointed  by  the  Constitution,  it  is  to  be  examined  in  the  Confederate 
Star  Chamber;  that  is,  by  officers  appointed  by  the  President.  Why  say 
that  the  « President  shall  cause  proper  officers  to  investigate'  the  legality 
of  arrests  ordered  by  him?  Why  not  permit  the  Judges,  whose  constitu 
tional  right  and  duty  it  is,  to  do  it  ? 

"  We  are  witnessing  with  too  much  indifference  assumptions  of  power  by 
the  Confederate  Government  which  in  ordinary  times  would  arouse  the 
whole  country  to  indignant  rebuke  and  stern  resistance.  History  teaches 
us  that  submission  to  one  encroachment  upon  constitutional  liberty  is  always 
followed  by  another;  arid  we  should  not  forget  that  important  rights,  yielded 
to  those  in  power,  without  rebuke  or  protest,  are  never  recovered  by  the 
people  without  revolution. 

"If  this  act  is  acquiesced  in,  the  President,  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the 
commander  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  department  under  the  control  of  the 
President,  each  has  the  power  conferred  by  Congress  to  imprison  whomso 
ever  he  chooses ;  and  it  is  only  necessary  to  allege  that  it  is  done  on  account 
of  '  treasonable  efforts '  or  of  *  conspiracies  to  resist  the  lawful  authority  of 
the  Confederate  States,'  or  for  'giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,'  or 
other  of  the  causes  of  arrest  enumerated  in  the  Statute,  and  have  a  subaltern 
to  file  his  affidavit  accordingly  after  the  arrest  if  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is 
sued  out,  and  no  court  dare  inquire  into  the  cause  of  the  imprisonment. 
The  Statute  makes  the  President  and  not  the  courts  the  judge  of  the  suffi 
ciency  of  the  cause  for  his  own  acts.  Either  of  you  or  any  other  citizen  of 
Georgia,  may  at  any  moment  (as  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  in  Ohio)  be  drag 
ged  from  your  homes  at  midnight  by  armed  force,  and  imprisoned  at  the  will 
of  the  President,  upon  the  pretext  that  you  have  been  guilty  of  some  offence 
of  the  character  above  named,  and  no  court  known  to  our  judiciary  can  in 
quire  into  the  wrong  or  grant  relief. 

"  When  such  bold  strides  towards  military  despotism  and  absolute  author 
ity  are  taken  by  those  in  whom  we  have  confided,  and  who  have  been  placed 
in  high  official  position,  to  guard  and  protect  constitutional  and  personal 
liberty,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  patriotic  citizen  to  sound  the  alarm ;  and  of 
the  State  Legislatures  to  say  in  thunder  tones,  to  those  who  assume  to  govern 
us  by  absolute  power,  that  there  is  a  point  beyond  which  freemen  will  not 
permit  encroachments  to  go. 

"  The  Legislatures  of  the  respective  States  are  looked  to  as  the  guardians 
of  the  rights  of  those  whom  they  represent,  and  it  is  their  duty  to  meet  such 
dangerous  enactments  upon  the  liberties  of  the  people  promptly;  and  express 
their  unqualified  condemnation ;  and  to  instruct  their  Senators  and  request 
their  Representatives  to  repeal  this  most  monstrous  act,  or  resign  a  trust 


286  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR, 

which  by  permitting  it  to  remain  on  the  statute  book  they  abuse,  to  the  injury 
of  those  who  have  honored  them  with  their  confidence  in  this  trying  period 
of  our  history.  I  earnestly  recommend  that  the  Legislature  of  this  State 
take  prompt  action  upon  this  subject,  and  stamp  the  act  with  the  seal  of  their 
indignant  rebuke. 

"  Can  the  President  no  longer  trust  the  judiciary  with  the  exercise  of  the 
legitimate  powers  conferred  upon  it  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  ?  In  what 
instance  have  the  grave  and  dignified  Judges  proved  disloyal  or  untrue  to 
our  cause?  When  have  they  embarrassed  the  Government  by  turning  loose 
traitors,  skulkers  or  spies?  Have  they  not  in  every  instance  given  the  Gov 
ernment  the  benefit  of  their  doubts  in  sustaining  its  action,  though  they  might 
thereby  seem  to  encroach  upon  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  for  a  time  deny 
substantial  justice  to  the  people  ?  Then  why  this  implied  censure  upon  them  ? 

"  What  justification  exists  now  for  this  most  monstrous  deed  which  did 
not  exist  during  the  first  or  second  year  of  the  war,  unless  it  be  found  in  the 
fact,  that  those  in  power  have  found  the  people  ready  to  submit  to  every  en 
croachment  rather  than  make  an  issue  with  the  Government  while  we  are 
at  war  with  the  enemy ;  and  have  on  that  account  been  emboldened  to  take 
the  step  which  is  intended  to  make  the  President  as  absolute  in  his  power  of 
arrest  and  imprisonment  as  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias?  What  reception 
would  the  members  of  Congress  from  the  different  States  have  met  in  1861, 
had  they  returned  to  their  constituents  and  informed  them  that  they  had  sus 
pended  the  habeas  corpus,  and  given  the  President  the  power  to  imprison  the 
people  of  these  States  with  no  restraint  upon  his  sovereign  will?  Why  is 
liberty  less  sacred  now  than  it  was  in  18'31?  And  what  will  we  have  gained 
when  we  have  achieved  our  independence  of  the  Northern  States  if,  in  our 
efforts  to  do  so,  we  have  permitted  our  form  of  government  to  be  subverted, 
and  have  lost  constitutional  liberty  at  home  ? 

"  The  hope  of  the  country  now  rests  in  the  new  Congress  soon  to  assemble. 
They  must  maintain  our  liberties  against  encroachment  and  wipe  this  and 
all  such  stains  from  the  statute  book,  or  the  sun  of  liberty  will  soon  set  in 
darkness  and  blood. 

"  Let  the  constituted  authorities  of  each  State  send  up  to  their  representa 
tives  when  they  assemble  in  Congress  an  unqualified  demand  for  prompt  re 
dress  ;  or  a  return  of  the  commissions  which  they  hold  from  their  respective 
States." 

THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR,  How  CONDUCTED,  AND  WHO 

RESPONSIBLE 

He  discusses  as  follows  : — 

"  Cruel,  bloody,  desolating  war  is  still  waged  against  us  by  our  relentless 
enemies,  who,  disregarding  the  laws  of  nations  and  the  rules  of  civilized  war- 


AND  WHO   RESPONSIBLE,  287 

fare,  whenever  either  interferes  with  their  fanatical  objects  or  their  interest, 
have  in  numerous  instances  been  guilty  of  worse  than  savage  cruelty. 

"  They  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  burn  our  cities  when  unable  by 
their  skill  and  valor  to  occupy  them ;  and  to  turn  innocent  women  and  chil 
dren,  who  may  have  escaped  death  by  the  shells  thrown  among  them  without 
previous  notice,  into  the  streets  destitute  of  homes,  food  and  clothing. 

"  They  have  devastated  our  country  wherever  their  unhallowed  feet  have 
trod  our  soil,  burning  and  destroying  factories,  mills,  agricultural  implements, 
and  other  valuable  property. 

"  They  have  cruelly  treated  our  sons  while  in  captivity,  and  in  violation  of 
a  cartel  agreed  upon,  have  refused  to  exchange  them  with  us  for  their  own 
soldiers  unless  we  would  consent,  against  the  laws  of  nations,  to  exchange 
our  slaves  as  belligerents  when  induced  or  forced  by  them  to  tajse  up  arms 
against  us. 

"  They  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  incite  our  slaves  to  insurrection  and 
murder,  and  when  unable  to  seduce  them  from  their  loyalty,  have,  when  they 
occupied  our  country,  compelled  them  to  engage  in  war  against  us. 

"  They  have  robbed  us  of  our  negro  women  and  children  who  were  com 
fortable,  contented  and  happy  with  their  owners,  and,  under  pretext  of  ex 
traordinary  philanthropy,  have  in  the  name  of  liberty  congregated  thousands 
of  them  together  in  places  where  they  could  have  neither  the  comforts  nor 
the  necessaries  of  life,  there  neglected  and  despised,  to  die  by  pestilence  and 
hunger. 

"  In  numerous  instances  their  brutal  soldiers  have  violated  the  persons  of 
our  innocent  and  helpless  women ;  and  have  desecrated  the  graves  of  our 
ancestors,  and  polluted  and  denied  the  altars  which  we  have  dedicated  to  the 
worship  of  the  living  God. 

*'  In  addition  to  these  and  other  enormities,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  val 
uable  lives  both  North  and  South  have  been  sacrificed,  causing  the  shriek  of 
the  mother,  the  wail  of  the  widow,  and  the  cry  of  the  orphan  to  ascend  to 
Heaven  from  almost  every  hearthstone  in  all  the  broad  land  once  known  as 
the  United  States. 

"Such  is  but  a  faint  picture  of  the  devastations,  cruelty,  and  bloodshed, 
which  have  marked  this  struggle. 

"  War  in  its  most  mitigated  form,  when  conducted  according  to  the  ruks 
established  by  the  most  enlightened  and  civilized  nations,  is  a  terrible  scourge, 
and  cannot  exist  without  the  most  enormous  guilt  resting  upon  the  heads  of 
those  who  have  without  just  cause  brought  it  upon  the  innocent  and  helpless 
people  who  are  its  unfortunate  victims.  Guilt  may  rest  in  unequal  degrees 
in  a  struggle  like  this  upon  both  parties,  but  both  cannot  be  innocent. 
Where  then  rests  this  crushing  load  of  guilt? 

"  While  I  trust  I  shall  be  able  to  show  that  it  rests  not  upon  the  people  npr 
rulers  of  the  South,  I  do  not  claim  that  it  rested  at  the  commencement  of  the 
struggle  upon  the  whole  people  of  the  North. 


288  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR, 

"  There  was  a  large,  intelligent,  and  patriotic  portion  of  the  people  of  the 
Northern  States  led  by  such  men  as  Pierce,  Douglas,  Vallandigham,  Bright, 
Voorhees,  Pugh,  Seymour,  Wood,  and  many  other  honored  names,  who  did 
all  in  their  power  to  rebuke  and  stay  the  wicked,  reckless  fanaticism  which 
precipitated  the  two  sections  into  this  terrible  conflict.  With  such  men  as 
these  in  power  we  might  have  lived  together  in  the  Union  perpetually. 

"In  addition  to  the  strength  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  North  there 
was  a  large  number  of  persons  whose  education  had  brought  them  into  sym 
pathy  with  the  so-called  Republican  or,  in  other  words,  the  old  Federal  con 
solidation  party,  who  would  never  have  followed  the  wicked  leaders  of  that 
party  who  used  the  slavery  question  as  a  hobby  upon  which  to  ride  into 
power,  and  who  to-day  stand  before  Heaven  and  Earth  guilty  of  shedding 
the  blood  of  hundreds  of  thousands  and  destroying  the  brightest  hopes  of 
posterity,  had  they  known  the  true  objects  of  their  leaders  and  the  results 
which  must  follow  the  triumph  of  their  policy  at  the  ballot-box. 

"  The  moral  guilt  of  this  war  rested  then  in  its  incipiency  neither  upon  the 
people  of  the  South,  nor  upon  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North,  or  upon 
that  part  of  the  Republican  party  who  were  deluded  and  deceived.  But  it 
rested  upon  the  heads  of  the  wicked  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  who 
had  refused  to  be  bound  by  the  compacts  of  the  Constitution  made  by  our 
common  ancestry.  These  men  when  in  power  in  the  respective  States  of  the 
North  arrayed  themselves  in  open  hostility  against  an  important  provision  of 
the  Constitution,  for  the  security  of  clearly  expressed  and  unquestionable 
rights  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States. 

"  Many  of  the  more  fanatical  of  them  denounced  the  Constitution  because 
of  its  protection  of  the  property  of  the  slaveholder  as  a  '  covenant  with  death 
and  a  league  with  Hell,'  and  refusing  to  be  bound  by  it,  declared  that  a 
*  higher  law '  was  the  rule  of  their  conduct  and  appealed  to  the  Bible  as  that 
'higher  law.'  But  when  the  precepts  of  God  in  favor  of  slavery  were  found 
in  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  they  repudiated  the  Bible  and  its 
divine  Author  and  declared  for  an  anti-Slavery  Bible  and  an  anti-Slavery  God. 

"  The  abolition  party  having,  when  in  power  in  their  respective  States,  set 
at  naught  that  part  of  the  Constitution  which  guarantees  protection  to  the 
rights  and  property  of  the  Southern  people,  and  having  by  fraud  and  mis 
representation  obtained  possession  of  the  Federal  government,  the  Southern 
people  in  self-defence  were  compelled  to  leave  the  Union  in  which  their 
rights  were  no  longer  respected.  Having  destroyed  the  Union  by  their 
wicked  acts  and  their  bad  faith,  these  leaders  rallied  a  majority  of  the  people 
of  the  North  to  their  support  with  a  promise  to  restore  it  again  by  force. 
Monstrous  paradox !  that  a  Union  which  was  formed  upon  a  compact  be 
tween  sovereign  States,  being  eminently  a  creature  of  consent,  is  to  be  up 
held  by  force.  But  monstrous  as  it  is,  the  war  springs  ostensibly  from  this 
source — this  is  its  origin,  its  soul,  and  its  life,  so  far  as  a  shadow  of  pretext 
for  it  can  be  found.  In  their  mad  effort  to  restore  by  force  a.  Union  which 


AND  WHO  RESPONSIBLE.  289 

they  have  destroyed,  and  to  save  themselves  from  the  just  vengeance  which 
awaited  them  for  their  crimes,  the  abolition  leaders  in  power  have  lighted  up 
the  continent  with  a  blaze  of  war  which  has  destroyed  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars  worth  of  property,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  valuable  lives,  and 
loaded  posterity  with  a  debt  which  must  cause  wretchedness  and  poverty  for 
generations  to  come.  And  all  for  what?  That  fanaticism  might  triumph 
over  constitutional  liberty,  as  achieved  by  the  great  men  of  1776,  and  that 
ambitious  men  might  have  place  and  power.  In  their  efforts  to  destroy  our 
liberties  the  people  of  the  North,  if  successful,  would  inevitably  lose  their 
own  by  overturning,  as  they  are  now  attempting  to  do,  the  great  principles 
of  Republicanism  upon  which  constitutional  liberty  rests.  The  Government 
in  the  hands  of  the  abolition  administration  is  now  a  despotism  as  absolute  as 
that  of  Russia. 

"  Unoffending  citizens  are  seized  in  their  beds  at  night  by  armed  force  and 
dragged  to  dungeons  and  incarcerated  at  the  will  of  the  tyrant,  because  they 
have  dared  to  speak  for  constitutional  liberty,  and  to  protest  against  military 
despotism. 

"  The  habeas  corpus, — that  great  bulwark  of  liberty,  without  which  no  peo 
ple  can  be  secure  in  their  lives,  persons,  or  property ;  which  cost  the  English 
several  bloody  wars,  and  which  was  finally  wrung  from  the  crown  by  the 
sturdy  barons  and  people  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet ;  which  has  ever 
been  the  boast  of  every  American  patriot,  and  which  I  pray  God  may  never, 
under  pretext  of  military  necessity,  be  yielded  to  encroachments  by  the  people 
of  the  South, — has  been  trampled  under  foot  by  the  Government  at  Wash 
ington,  which  imprisons  at  its  pleasure  whomsoever  it  will. 

"  The  freedom  of  the  ballot-box  has  also  been  destroyed,  and  the  elections 
have  been  carried  by  the  overawing  influence  of  military  force. 

"  Under  pretext  of  keeping  men  enough  in  the  field  to  subdue  the  South, 
President  Lincoln  takes  care  to  keep  enough  to  hold  the  North  in  subjection 
also — to  imprison,  or  exile  those  who  attempt  to  sustain  their  ancient  rights, 
liberties,  and  usages,  and  to  drive  from  the  ballot  box  those  who  are  not 
subservient  to  his  will,  or  enough  of  them  to  enable  his  party  to  carry  the 
elections.  Can  an  intelligent  Northern  conservative  man  contemplate  this 
state  of  things,  without  exclaiming, '  whither  are  we  drifting?  What  will 
we  gain  by  the  subjugation  of  the  South,  if  in  our  attempt  to  do  it  we  must 
lose  our  own  liberties ;  and  visit  upon  ourselves  and  our  posterity  the 
chains  of  military  despotism  ? ' 

"  How  long  a  people  once  free  will  submit  to  the  despotism  of  such  a  gov 
ernment  the  future  must  develop.  One  thing  is  certain ;  while  those  who 
now  rule  remain  in  power  in  Washington  the  people  of  the  Sovereign  States 
of  America  can  never  adjust  their  difficulties.  But  war,  bloodshed,  devasta 
tion,  and  increased  indebtedness  must  be  the  inevitable  result.  There  must 
be  a  change  of  administration,  and  more  moderate  councils  prevail  in  the 
Northern  States  before  we  can  ever  have  peace.  While  subjugation,  aboli- 
19 


290  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR, 

tion,  and  confiscation  are  the  terms  offered  by  the  Federal  Government,  the 
Southern  people  will  resist  as  long  as  the  patriotic  voice  of  woman  can 
stimulate  a  guerrilla  band  or  a  single  armed  soldier  to  deeds  of  daring  in 
defence  of  liberty  and  home. 

"  I  have  said  the  South  is  not  the  guilty  party  in  this  dreadful  carnage, 
and  I  think  it  not  inappropriate  that  the  reasons  should  often  be  repeated  at 
the  bar  of  an  intelligent  public  opinion ;  that  our  own  people  and  the  world 
should  have  *  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept,'  « here  a  little  and 
there  a  little,'  *  in  season  and  out  of  season '  as  some  may  suppose,  to 
show  the  true  nature  of  this  contest,  the  principles  involved,  the  objects 
of  the  war  on  our  side,  as  well  as  that  of  the  enemy,  that  all  right  minded 
men  everywhere  may  see  and  understand  that  this  contest  is  not  of  our  seek 
ing,  and  that  we  have  had  no  wish  or  desire  to  injure  those  who  war  against 
us  except  so  far  as  has  been  necessary  for  the  protection  and  preservation 
of  ourselves.  Our  sole  object  from  the  beginning  has  been  to  defend,  main 
tain,  and  preserve  our  ancient  usages,  customs,  liberties,  and  institutions,  as 
achieved  and  established  by  our  ancestors  in  the  revolution  of  1776. 

"  That  Revolution  was  undertaken  to  establish  two  great  rights — State 
sovereignty  and  self  government.  Upon  these  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  was  predicated,  and  they  were  the  corner-stone  upon  which  the 
Constitution  rested.  The  denial  of  these  two  great  principles  cost  Great 
Britain  her  American  Colonies  which  had  so  long  been  her  pride.  And  the 
denial  of  them  by  the  Government  at  Washington,  if  persisted  in,  must  cost 
the  people  of  the  United  States  the  liberties  of  themselves  and  their  poster 
ity.  These  are  the  pillars  upon  which  the  temple  of  constitutional  liberty 
stands,  and  if  the  Northern  people,  in  their  mad  effort  to  destroy  the  sover 
eignty  of  the  Southern  States  and  take  from  our  people  the  rights  of  self 
government,  should  be  able,  with  the  strength  of  an  ancient  Samson,  to  lay 
hold  upon  the  pillars,  and  overturn  the  edifice,  they  must  necessarily  be 
crushed  beneath  its  ruins,  as  the  destruction  of  State  sovereignty  and  the 
right  of  self  government  in  the  Southern  States,  by  the  agency  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government,  necessarily  involves  the  like  destruction  in  the  Northern 
States ;  as  no  people  can  maintain  these  rights  for  themselves  who  will  shed 
the  blood  of  their  neighbors  to  destroy  them  in  others.  It  is  impossible  for 
half  the  States  of  a  Confederacy,  if  they  assist  the  central  government  to 
destroy  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  other  half,  to  maintain  their  own 
rights  and  liberties  against  the  central  power  after  it  has  crushed  their 
Co-States. 

"  The  two  great  truths  announced  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  concurred  in  by  all  the  great  men  of  the  Revolution  were, 
1st,  *  That  Governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed.'  2d,  '  That  these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be, 
free  and  independent  States.' 

"  We  are  not  to  understand  by  the  first  great  truth  that  each  individual 


AND  WHO  RESPONSIBLE.  291 

member  of  the  aggregate  mass  composing  the  State  must  give  his  consent 
before  he  can  be  justly  governed;  or  that  the  consent  of  each  or  a  particular 
class  of  individuals  in  a  State  is  necessary.  By  the  '  governed  '  is  evidently 
here  meant  communities  and  bodies  of  men  capable  of  organizing  and  main 
taining  government.  The  'consent  of  the  governed'  refers  to  the  aggregate 
will  of  the  community  or  State  in  its  organized  form,  and  expressed  through 
its  legitimate  and  properly  constituted  organs. 

"  In  elaborating  this  great  truth  Mr.  Jefferson  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  says,  that  governments  are  instituted  among  men  to  secure  certain 
1  inalienable  rights ' — that  '  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness ; '  '  that  whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  destructive  of 
these  ends  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it  and  to  insti 
tute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organ 
izing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their 
safety  and  happiness.' 

"  According  to  this  great  fundamental  principle  the  Sovereign  States  of 
America,  North  and  South,  can  only  be  governed  by  their  own  consent;  and 
whenever  the  government  to  which  they  have  given  their  consent  becomes 
destructive  of  the  great  ends  for  which  it  was  formed,  they  have  a  perfect 
right  to  *  abolish  it '  by  withdrawing  their  consent  from  it,  as  the  Colonies 
did  from  the  British  Government,  and  to  form  a  'new  Government,  with  its 
foundations  laid  on  such  principles,  and  its  powers  organized  in  such  form  as 
to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness.'  Upon 
the  application  to  the  present  controversy  of  this  great  principle,  to  which 
the  Northern  States  are  as  firmly  committed  as  the  Southern  States,  Georgia 
can  proudly  challenge  New  York  to  trial  before  the  bar  of  enlightened  pub 
lic  opinion,  and  impartial  history  must  write  the  verdict  in  her  favor  and 
triumphantly  vindicate  her  action  in  the  course  she  has  pursued. 

"  Not  only  all  the  sovereign  States  of  America  have  heretofore  recognized 
this  great  truth,  but  it  has  been  recognized  by  the  able  and  enlightened  Em 
peror  of  the  French,  who  owes  his  present  elevation  to  the  'consent  of  the 
governed.' 

"  He  was  called  to  the  presidency  by  the  free  suffrage  or  consent  of  the 
French  people,  and  when  he  assumed  the  imperial  title  he  again  submitted 
the  question  to  the  'governed'  at  the  ballot-box,  and  they  gave  their 
'  consent.' 

"  At  the  recent  treaty  of  peace  with  the  Emperor  of  Austria  he  ceded  an 
Austrian  province  to  France,  and  Napoleon  refused  to  '  govern  it 'till  the 
people  at  the  ballot-box  gave  'their  consent '  that  he  should  do  so. 

"  The  Northern  States  of  America  are  to-day,  through  the  agency  of  the 
despotism  at  Washington,  waging  a  bloody  war  upon  the  Southern  States, 
to  crush  out  this  great  American  principle  announced  and  maintained  in  a 
seven  years'  war  by  our  common  ancestry,  after  it  has  won  the  approbation 
of  the  ablest  and  most  enlightened  sovereign  of  Europe. 


292  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAK, 

"In  discussing  this  great  principle  I  can  but  remark  how  strange  is  the 
contrast  between  the  conduct  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon  and  that  of  President 
Lincoln.  Napoleon  refuses  to  govern  a  province  till  a  majority  of  the  people 
at  the  ballot-box  have  given  their  consent.  Lincoln,  after  having  done  all 
in  his  power  to  destroy  the  freedom  and  purity  of  the  ballot-box,  announces 
in  his  late  proclamation  his  determination  to  govern  the  sovereign  States  of 
the  South  by  force,  and  to  recognize  and  maintain  as  the  Government  of 
these  States,  not  those  who  at  the  ballot-box  can  obtain  the  '  consent  of  the 
governed,'  or  of  a  majority  of  the  people,  but  those  who  can  obtain  the  con 
sent  of  one  tenth  of  the  people  of  the  State.  Knowing  that  he  can  never  gov 
ern  these  States  with  *  the  consent  of  the  governed,'  he  tramples  the  Declar 
ation  of  Independence  under  his  feet  and  proclaims  to  the  world  that  he  will 
govern  these  States,  not  by  the  '  consent  of  the  governed '  but  by  military 
power,  so  soon  as  he  can  find  one  tenth  of  the  governed  humiliated  enough  to 
give  their  consent. 

"  But  the  world  must  be  struck  with  the  absurdity  of  the  pretext  upon 
which  he  bases  this  extraordinary  pretension.  He  says,  in  substance,  the 
Constitution  required  him  to  guarantee  to  each  State  a  Republican  form  of 
Government.  And  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  this  provision  of  the  Con 
stitution  he  proclaims  that,  so  soon  as  one  tenth  of  the  people  of  each  of  the 
seceded  States  shall  be  found  abject  enough  to  take  an  oath  to  support  his 
unconstitutional  acts  and  at  the  same  time  to  support  the  Constitution,  and 
shall  do  this  monstrous  deed,  he  will  permit  them  to  organize  a  State  Gov 
ernment  and  will  recognize  them  as  the  Government  of  the  State  and  their 
officers  as  the  regularly  constituted  authorities  of  the  State.  These  he  will 
aid  in  putting  down,  driving  out,  expelling,  and  exterminating  the  other 
nine  tenths,  if  they  do  not  likewise  take  the  prescribed  oath. 

"  One  tenth  of  the  people  of  a  State  put  up  and  aided  by  military  force  to 
rule,  govern,  or  exterminate  nine  tenths !  And  this  to  be  done  under  the 
guise  or  professed  object  of  guaranteeing  Republicanism  !  What  would 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Adams,  Hancock,  or  even  Hamil 
ton  have  said  to  this  kind  of  Republicanism  ?  What  say  the  conservative 
Northern  statesmen  of  the  present  day,  if  permitted  to  speak  ?  Does  such  a 
government  as  this  derive  its  just  powers  from  the  .*  consent  of  the  governed  ?' 
Is  this  their  understanding  of  the  Republican  Government  which  the  United 
States  is  to  guarantee  to  each  State  ?  If  so,  what  guaranty  have  they  for  the 
freedom  of  their  posterity  ?  If  the  Government  at  Washington  guarantees 
such  Republicanism  as  this  to  Georgia  in  1864,  what  may  be  her  guaranty  to 
Ohio  and  other  Western  States  in  1874  ?- 

"  The  absurdity  of  such  a  position,  on  constitutional  principles  or  views,  is 
too  glaring  for  comment.  When  such  terms  are  offered  to  them,  well  may 
the  people  of  these  States  be  nerved  to  defend  their  rights  and  liberties  at 
every  hazard,  under  every  privation,  and  to  the  last  extremity. 

"  But  I  must  notice  the  other  great  truth  promulgated  in  the  Declaration 


AND  WHO  RESPONSIBLE.  293 

of  Independence— that  these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be, 
free  and  independent  States. 

"  George  the  third  denied  this  great  truth  in  1776,  and  sent  his  armies  into 
Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  to  crush  out  its  advocates,  and  main 
tain  over  the  people  a  government  which  did  not  derive  its  powers  from  the 
'consent  of  the  governed.'  President  Lincoln  in  1861  has  made  war  upon 
the  same  States  and  their  Confederates  to  crush  out  the  same  doctrine  by 
armed  force.  Yet  he  has  none  of  the  apparent  justification  before  the  world 
that  the  British  King  had.  The  colonies  had  been  planted,  nurtured  and 
governed  by  Great  Britain.  As  States,  they  had  never  been  independent  and 
never  claimed  to  be.  This  claim  was  set  up  for  the  first  time  in  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence.  Under  these  circumstances,  there  was  some  reason 
why  the  British  Crown  should  resist  it.  But  the  great  truth  proclaimed  was 
more  powerful  than  the  armies  and  navy  of  Great  Britain. 

"  Oil  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  our  fathers  made  this  declaration  of  freedom 
and  independence  of  the  States.  The  Revolution  was  fought  upon  this 
declaration,  and  on  the  3d  day  of  September,  1783,  in  the  treaty  of  peace, 
'  His  Britannic  Majesty  acknowledges  the  said  United  States,  to  wit,  New 
Hampshire,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  plantations, 
Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  to  be  free,  sovereign 
and  independent  States,  that  he  treats  with  them  as  such,'  etc. 

"  On  and  after  that  day,  Georgia  stood  before  the  world  clad  in  all  the 
habiliments  and  possessed  of  all  the  attributes  of  sovereignty.  When  did 
Georgia  lose  this  sovereignty  ?  Was  it  by  virtue  of  her  previous  compact 
with  her  sister  States  ?  Certainly  not. 

"  The  Articles  of  Confederation  between  the  colonies,  during  the  struggle, 
set  forth  the  objects  to  be  attained,  and  the  nature  of  the  bond  between  the 
parties  to  it,  and  the  separate  sovereignty  of  each  of  the  States  a  party  to  it 
was  expressly  reserved.  Was  it  when  she  with  the  other  States  formed  the 
Constitution  in  1787?  Clearly  not.  The  Constitution  was  a  compact  be 
tween  the  thirteen  States,  each  of  which  had  been  recognized  separately  by 
name,  by  the  British  King,  as  a,  free,  sovereign  and  independent  State. 

"  The  objects  and  purposes  for  which  the  Federal  Government  was  formed 
were  distinctly  specified,  and  were  all  set  forth  in  the  compact.  The  govern 
ment  created  by  it  was  limited  in  its  powers  by  the  grant,  with  an  express 
reservation  of  all  powers  not  delegated.  "The  great  attribute  of  separate 
State  Sovereignty  was  not  delegated.  In  this  particular,  there  was  no  change 
from  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  Sovereignty  was  still  reserved  and  abided 
with  the  States  respectively.  This  more  •  perfect  Union '  was  based  upon 
the  assumption  that  it  was  for  the  best  interest  of  all  the  States  to  enter 
into  it,  with  the  additional  grant  of  powers  and  guarantees — each  State  being 
bound  as  a  sovereign  to  perform  and  discharge  to  the  others  all  the  new 
obligations  of  the  compact.  It  was  so  submitted  to  the  people  of  the  States 


294  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR, 

respectively  and  so  acceded  to  by  them.  The  States  did  not  part  with  their 
separate  sovereignty  by  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  In  that  instrument 
all  the  powers  delegated  are  specifically  mentioned.  Sovereignty,  the  great 
est  of  all  political  powers,  the  source  from  which  all  others  emanate,  is  not 
amongst  those  mentioned.  It  could  not  have  been  parted  with  except  by 
grant  either  expressed  or  clearly  implied.  The  most  degrading  act  a  State 
can  do  is  to  lay  down  or  surrender  her  sovereignty.  Indeed,  it  cannot  be 
done  except  by  deed  or  grant.  The  surrender  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Con 
stitution  amongst  the  expressly  granted  powers.  It  cannot  be  amongst  those 
granted  by  implication ;  for  by  the  terms  of  the  compact  none  are  granted  by 
implication  except  such  as  are  incidental  to  or  necessary  and  proper  to  exe 
cute  those  that  are  expressly  granted.  The  incident  can  never  be  greater 
than  the  object — and  if  nothing  in  the  powers  expressly  granted  amounts  to 
sovereignty,  that  which  is  the  greatest  of  all  powers  cannot  follow  or  be  car 
ried  after  a  lesser  one,  as  an  incident  by  implication — and  then  to  put  the 
matter  at  rest  forever,  it  is  expressly  declared  that  the  powers  not  delegated 
are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively  or  to  the  people.  Sovereignty,  the 
great  source  of  all  power,  therefore  was  left  with  the  States  by  the  compact, 
left  where  King  George  left  it,  and  left  where  it  has  ever  since  remained,  and 
will  remain  forever  if  the  people  of  the  States  are  true  to  themselves,  and 
true  to  the  great  principles  which  their  forefathers  achieved  at  such  cost  of 
blood  and  treasure,  in  the  war  of  1776. 

"  The  Constitution  was  only  the  written  contract  or  bond  between  the 
sovereign  States  in  which  the  covenants  were  all  plainly  expressed,  and  each 
State  as  a  sovereign  pledged  its  faith  to  its  sister  States  to  observe  and 
keep  these  covenants.  So  long  as  each  did  this,  all  were  bound  by  the  com 
pact.  But  it  is  a  rule  as  well  known  and  as  universally  recognized  in  savage 
as  in  civilized  life — as  well  understood  and  as  generally  acquiesced  in  be 
tween  sovereign  States  as  between  private  individuals,  that  when  one  party 
to  a  contract  refuses  to  be  bound  by  it,  and  to  conform  to  its  requirements, 
the  other  party  is  released  from  further  compliance. 

i*  Without  entering  into  an  argument  to  show  the  manner  in  which  the 
Northern  States  had  perverted  the  contract,  and  warped  its  terms  to  suit 
their  own  interest,  in  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of  tariff  laws  for  the 
protection  of  their  industry  at  the  expense  of  the  South,  and  in  the  enact 
ment  of  internal  improvement  laws,  coast  navigation  laws,  fishery  laws,  etc., 
etc.,  which  were  intended  to  enrich  them  at  the  expense  of  the  people  of  the 
South,  I  need  cite  but  a  single  instance  of  open,  avowed,  self-confessed,  and 
even  boasted  violation  of  the  compact  by  the  Northern  States,  to  prove  that 
the  Southern  States  were  released  and  discharged  from  further  obligation  to 
the  Northern  States  by  every  known  rule  of  law,  morality,  or  comity. 

"  One  of  the  express  covenants  in  the  written  bond  to  which  the  Northern 
States  subscribed,  and  without  which,  as  is  clearly  seen  by  reference  to  the 
debates  in  the  Convention  which  formed  the  Constitution,  the  Southern  States 
never  would  have  agreed  to  or  formed  the  compact,  was  in  these  words : 


AND  WHO  RESPONSIBLE.  295 

"  '  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws  thereof, 
escaping  into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein  be 
discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of 
the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due.' 

"Massachusetts  and  other  abolition  States  utterly  repudiated,  annulled, 
and  set  at  naught  this  provision  of  the  Constitution ;  and  refused  either  to 
execute  it  or  to  permit  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  United  States  to 
carry  it  out  withiu  their  limits. 

"  This  shameful  violation  by  Massachusetts  of  her  plighted  faith  to  Georgia, 
and  this  refusal  to  be  bound  by  the  parts  of  the  Constitution  which  she  re 
garded  burdensome  to  her  and  unacceptable  to  her  people,  released  Georgia 
according  to  every  principle  of  international  law  from  further  compliance 
on  her  part.  In  other  words,  the  Constitution  was  the  bond  of  Union  be 
tween  Georgia  and  Massachusetts,  and  when  Massachusetts  refused  longer 
to  be  bound  by  the  Constitution,  she  thereby  dissolved  the  union  between  her 
and  Georgia. 

"It  is  truthfully  said  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  'experience 
hath  shown  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer  while  evils  are  suffer- 
able,  than  to  right  themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  ac 
customed.'  So  it  was  with  Georgia  and  her  Southern  sisters  in  this  case. 
Though  Massachusetts  and  other  Northern  States  by  their  faithless  acts  and 
repudiation  of  the  compact  had  dissolved  the  union  existing  between  the 
States,  the  Southern  States  did  not  declare  the  dissolution  ;  hoping  that  a 
returning  sense  of  justice  on  the  part  of  the  Northern  States  might  cause 
them  again  to  observe  their  Constitutional  obligations.  So  far  from  this  be 
ing  the  case,  they  construed  our  forbearance  into  a  consciousness  of  our  weak 
ness,  and  inability  to  protect  ourselves;  and  they  organized  a  great  sectional 
party,  whose  political  creed  was  founded  in  injustice  to  the  South;  and  whose 
public  declarations  and  acts  sustained  the  action  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
other  faithless  States. 

"  This  party,  whose  creed  was  avowed  hostility  to  the  rights  of  the  South, 
triumphed  in  the  election  for  President  in  1860.  The  election  of  a  Federal 
Executive  by  a  sectional  party,  upon  a  platform  of  avowed  hostility  to  the  Con 
stitutional  rights  of  the  South,  to  carry  out  in  the  Federal  administration 
the  doctrines  of  Massachusetts,  and  other  faithless  States,  left  no  further 
ground  for  hope  that  the  rights  of  the  South  would  longer  be  respected  by 
the  Northern  States ;  which  had  not  only  the  Executive,  but  a  majority  of 
the  Congress. 

"  The  people  of  the  Southern  States,  each  sovereign  State  acting  for  itself, 
then  met  in  Convention  ;  and,  in  the  most  solemn  manner  known  to  our  form 
of  government,  resumed  the  exercise  of  the  powers  which  they  had  delegated 
to  the  common  agent,  now  faithless  to  the  trust  reposed  in  it. 

"The  right  of  Georgia  as  a  member  to  the  original  compact  to  do  this  is 
too  clear  for  successful  denial.  And  the  right  of  Alabama,  and  the  other 


296  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAK, 

States,  which  had  been  admitted  into  the  union  since  the  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution,  is  equally  incontrovertible ;  as  each  new  State  came  into  the  union 
as  a  sovereign,  upon  an  equal  footing  in  all  respects  whatever  with  the  origi 
nal  parties  to  the  compact. 

"  The  Confederate  States  can,  therefore,  with  confidence,  submit  their  acts 
to  the  judgment  of  mankind;  while  with  a  clear  conscience  they  appeal  to 
a  just  God  to  maintain  them  in  their  course.  They  were  ever  true  to  the  com 
pact  of  the  Union  so  long  as  they  remained  members  of  it — their  obligations 
under  it  were  ever  faithfully  performed ;  and  no  breach  of  it  was  ever  laid  at 
their  door,  or  truly  charged  against  them.  In  exercising  their  undoubted 
right  to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  when  the  covenant  had  been  broken  by 
the  Northern  States,  they  sought  no  war — no  strife. — They  simply  withdrew 
from  further  connection  with  self-confessed,  faithless  confederates.  They 
offered  no  injury  to  them — threatened  none — proposed  none — intended  none. 
If  their  previous  union  with  the  Southern  States  had  been  advantageous  to 
them,  and  our  withdrawal  affected  their  interests  injuriously,  they  ought  to 
have  been  truer  to  their  obligations.  They  had  no  just  cause  to  complain  of 
us,  the  breach  of  the  compact  was  by  themselves — the  vital  cord  of  the  union 
was  severed  by  their  own  hands. 

"After  the  withdrawal  of  the  Confederate  States  from  the  Union,  if  those 
whose  gross  dereliction  of  duty  had  caused  it  had  reconsidered  their  own  acts 
and  offered  new  assurances  for  better  faith  in  future,  the  question  would  have 
been  fairly  and  justly  put  to  the  seceded  States,  in  their  sovereign  capacity, 
to  determine  whether,  in  view  of  their  past  and  future  interest  and  safety, 
they  should  renew  the  union  with  them  or  not,  and  upon  what  terms  and 
guarantees;  and  if  they  had  found  it  to<be  their  interest  to  do  so,  upon  any 
terms  that  might  have  been  agreed  upon,  on  the  principle  assumed  at  the  be 
ginning,  that  it  was  for  the  best  interest  of  all  the  States  to  be  bound  by 
some  compact  of  union  with  a  central  government  of  limited  powers,  each 
State  faithfully  performing  its  obligations,  they  would  doubtless  have  con 
sented  to  it.  But  if  they  had  found  it  to  be  their  interest  not  to  do  it,  they 
would  not  and  ought  not  to  have  done  it.  For  the  first  law  of  nature,  as  ap 
plicable  to  States  and  communities  as  to  individuals,  is  self-protection  and 
self-preservation. 

"  Possibly  a  new  government  might  have  been  formed  at  that  time,  upon 
the  basis  of  the  Germanic  Confederation ;  with  a  guaranty  of  the  complete 
sovereignty  of  all  the  separate  States,  and  with  a  central  agent  or  govern 
ment  of  more  limited  powers  than  the  old  one ;  which  would  have  been  as 
useful  for  defence  against  foreign  aggression,  and  much  less  dangerous  to  the 
sovereignty  and  the  existence  of  the  States  than  the  old  one  when  in  the 
hands  of  abolition  leaders  had  proved  itself  to  be. 

"  The  length  of  time  for  which  the  Germanic  Confederation  has  existed, 
has  proved  that  its  strength  lies  in  what  might  have  been  considered  its  weak 
ness — the  separate  sovereignty  of  the  individual  members,  and  the  very  lim 
ited  powers  of  the  central  government. 


AND  WHO  RESPONSIBLE.  297 

"  In  taking  the  step  which  they  were  forced  to  do,  the  Southern  States 
were  careful  not  to  provoke  a  conflict  of  arms,  or  any  serious  misunderstand 
ing  with  the  States  that  adhered  to  the  government  at  Washington,  as  long 
as  it  was  possible  to  avoid  it.  Commissioners  were  sent  to  Washington  to 
settle  and  adjust  all  matters  relating  to  their  past  connection,  or  joint  inter 
ests  and  obligations,  justly,  honorably,  and  peaceably.  Our  commissioners 
were  not  received — they  were  denied  the  privilege  of  an  audience — they  were 
not  heard.  But  they  were  indirectly  trifled  with,  lied  to,  and  misled  by  du 
plicity  as  infamous  as  that  practised  by  Philip  of  Spain  towards  the  peace 
commissioners  sent  by  Elizabeth  of  England.  They  were  detained  and  de 
ceived  with  private  assurances  of  a  prospect  of  a  peaceful  settlement;  while 
the  most  extensive  preparations  were  being  made  for  war  and  subjugatiop. 
When  they  discovered  this  they  withdrew,  and  the  government  at  Washing 
ton  continued  its  vigorous  preparations  to  reinforce  its  garrisons  and  hold 
the  possession  of  our  forts,  and  to  send  armies  to  invade  our  territory. 

"  Having  completed  his  preparations  for  war,  and  refused  to  hear  any 
propositions  for  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  our  difficulties,  President  Lincoln 
issued  his  proclamation  declaring  Georgia  and  the  other  seceded  States  to  be 
in  rebellion,  and  sent  forth  his  armies  of  invasion. 

"In  rebellion  against  whom  or  what?  As  sovereign  States  have  no  com 
mon  arbiter,  to  whose  decision  they  can  appeal  when  they  are  unable  to  settle 
their  differences  amicably,  they  often  resort  to  the  sword  as  the  arbiter ;  and 
as  sovereignty  is  always  in  dignity  the  equal  of  sovereignty,  and  a  sovereign 
can  know  no  superior  to  which  allegiance  is  due,  one  sovereign  may  be  at 
war  with  another,  but  one  can  never  be  in  rebellion  against  another. 

"  To  say  that  the  sovereign  State  of  Georgia  is  in  rebellion  against  the  sov 
ereign  State  of  Rhode  Island  is  as  much  an  absurdity  as  it  would  be  to  say 
that  the  sovereign  State  of  Russia  was  in  rebellion  against  the  sovereign 
State  of  Great  Britain  in  their  late  war.  They  were  at  war  with  each  other, 
but  neither  was  in  rebellion  against  the  other,  nor  indeed  could  be;  for 
neither  owed  any  allegiance  to  the  other. 

"  Nor  could  one  of  the  sovereign  States  be  in  rebellion  against  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States.  That  government  was  the  creature  of  the  States 
by  which  it  was  created ;  and  they  had  the  same  power  to  destroy  it  at  pleas 
ure  which  they  had  to  make  it.  It  was  their  common  agent  with  limited 
powers,  and  the  States  by  which  the  agency  was  created  had  the  undoubted 
right,  when  it  abused  these  powers,  to  withdraw  them.  Suppose,  by  mutual 
consent,  all  the  States  in  the  Union  had  met  in  convention,  each  in  its  sov 
ereign  capacity,  and  had  withdrawn  all  the  delegated  powers  from  the  Fede 
ral  government,  and  all  the  States  had  refused  to  send  Senators  or  Represent 
atives  to  Congress,  or  to  elect  a  President ;  will  any  sane  man  question  their 
right,  or  deny  that  such  action  of  the  States  would  have  destroyed  the  Federal 
government?  If  so,  the  Federal  government  was  the  creature  of  the  States 
and  could  exist  only  at  their  pleasure.  It  lived  and  breathed  only  by  their 


298  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR, 

consent.  If  all  the  parties  to  the  compact  had  the  right  by  mutual  consent 
to  resume  the  powers  delegated  by  them  to  the  common  agent,  why  had  not 
part  of  them  the  right  to  do  so  when  the  others  violated  the  compact — refused 
to  be  bound  longer  by  its  obligations,  and  thereby  released  their  copartners? 
The  very  fact  that  the  States  by  which  it  was  formed  could  at  any  time  by 
mutual  consent  disband,  and  destroy  the  Federal  government,  shows  that  it 
had  no  original,  inherent  sovereignty  or  jurisdiction.  As  the  creature  of  the 
States  it  had  only  such  powers  and  jurisdictions  as  they  gave  it;  and  it  held 
what  it  had  at  their  pleasure.  If,  therefore,  a  State  withdrew  from  the  con 
federacy  without  just  cause,  it  was  a  question  for  the  other  sovereign  States 
to  consider  what  should  be  their  future  relations  towards  it,  but  it  was  a 
question  of  which  the  Federal  government  had  not  the  shadow  of  jurisdiction. 
So  long  as  Georgia  remained  in  the  Union,  if  her  citizens  had  refused  to  obey 
such  laws  of  Congress  as  it  had  constitutional  jurisdiction  to  pass,  they  might 
have  been  in  rebellion  against  the  Federal  government,  because  they  resisted 
the  authority  over  them  which  Georgia  had  delegated  to  that  government,  and 
which,  with  her  consent,  it  still  possessed.  But  if  Georgia  for  just  cause,  of 
which  she  was  the  judge,  chose  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  and  resume  the 
attributes  of  sovereignty  which  she  had  delegated  to  the  United  States  Gov 
ernment,  her  citizens  could  no  longer  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  Union,  and 
no  longer  guilty  as  rebels  if  they  did  not  obey  them. 

"  It  could  be  as  justly  said  that  the  principal  who  has  delegated  certain 
limited  powers  to  his  agent  in  the  transaction  of  business,  which  he  has 
afterwards  withdrawn  on  account  of  their  abuse  by  the  agent,  is  in  rebellion 
against  the  agent;  or  that  the  master  is  in  rebellion  against  his  servant;  or 
the  landlord  against  his  tenant ;  because  he  has  withdrawn  certain  privi 
leges  for  a  time  allowed  them,  as  that  Georgia  is  in  rebellion  against  her 
former  agent,  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

"  These  I  understand  to  be  the  great  fundamental  doctrines  of  our  republi 
can  form  of  government  so  ably  expounded  in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
resolutions  of  1798  and  1799,  which  have  ever  since  been  a  text  book  of  the 
true  republican  party  of  the  United  States.  Departure  from  these  principles 
has  destroyed  the  federal  government  and  been  the  prolific  cause  of  all  our  woes. 
Out  of  this  departure  has  sprung  the  doctrine  of  loyalty  and  disloyalty  of 
the  States  to  the  Federal  government,  from  which  comes  ostensibly  this  war 
against  us ;  which  is  itself  at  war  with  the  first  principles  of  American  con 
stitutional  liberty.  It  involves  the  interests,  the  future  safety  and  welfare, 
of  those  States  now  deemed  loyal,  as  well  as  those  pronounced  disloyal.  It 
is  the  doctrine  of  absolutism  revived  in  its  worst  form.  It  strikes  down  the 
essential  principles  of  self-government  ever  held  so  sacred  in  our  past 
history  ;  and  to  which  all  the  States  were  indebted  for  their  unparalleled 
career,  in  growth,  prosperity,  and  greatness,  so  long  as  those  principles  were 
adhered  to  and  maintained  inviolate. 

"  If  carried  out  and  established,  its  end  can  be  nothing  but  centralism  and 


AND  WHO   RESPONSIBLE.  299 

despotism.  It  and  its  fatal  corollary — the  policy  of  forcing  sovereign  States 
to  the  discharge  of  their  assumed  constitutional  obligations — were  fore 
shadowed  by  President  Lincoln  in  his  inaugural  address. 

"  Now  at  the  time  of  the  delivery  of  that  inaugural  address  it  is  well  known 
to  him,  that  the  faithless  States  above  alluded  to,  and  to  whose  votes  in  the 
electoral  college  he  was  indebted  for  his  election,  had  for  years  been  in  open, 
avowed,  and  determined  violation  of  their  constitutional  obligations.  This 
he  well  knew,  and  he  also  knew  that  the  seceded  States  had  withdrawn  from 
the  Union  because  of  this  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  abolition  States, 
and  other  anticipated  violations,  more  dangerous,  threatened  from  the  same 
quarter.  Yet  without  a  word  of  rebuke,  censure,  or  remonstrance  with 
them,  for  their  most  flagrant  disloyalty  to  the  constitution,  and  their  disre 
gard  of  their  most  sacred  obligations  under  it,  he  then  threatened  and  now 
wages  war  against  us,  on  the  ground  of  our  disloyalty  in  seeking  new  safe 
guards  for  our  security,  when  the  old  ones  failed.  And  the  people  of  those 
very  States,  whose  disloyal  hands  had  severed  the  ties  of  the  Union — break 
ing  one  of.  the  essential  parts  of  the  compact,  have  been,  and  are,  his  most 
furious  myrmidons  in  this  most  wicked  and  unjust  crusade  against  us,  with 
the  view  to  compel  the  people  of  these  so  outraged  States  to,  return  to  the 
discharge  of  their  constitutional  obligations !  It  may  be  gravely  doubted  if 
the  history  of  the  world  can  furnish  an  instance  of  grosser  perfidy  or  more 
shameful  wrong. 

"  But  while  the  war  is  thus  waged,  professedly  under  the  paradoxical  pre 
text  of  restoring  the  Union,  that  was  a  creature  of  consent,  by  force,  and  of 
upholding  the  Constitution  by  coercing  sovereign  States  ;  yet  its  real  objects, 
as  appears  more  obviously  every  day,  are  by  no  means  so  paradoxical.  The 
Union  under  the  Constitution  as  it  was,  each  and  every  State  being  bound 
faithfully  to  perform  and  discharge  its  duties  and  obligations,  and  the  central 
government  confining  itself  within  the  sphere  of  its  limited  powers,  is  what 
the  authors,  projectors,  and  controllers  of  this  war  never  wanted ;  and  never 
intended  ;  and  do  not  now  intend  to  maintain. 

"  Whatever  differences  of  opinion  may  have  existed  at  the  commencement, 
among  our  own  people,  as  to  the  policy  of  secession,  or  the  objects  of  the 
Federal  government,  all  doubt  has  been  dispelled  by  the  abolition  procla 
mation  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  subsequent  action.  Maddened  by  ab 
olition  fanaticism  and  deadly  hate  for  the  white  race  of  the  South,  he  wages 
war,  not  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union — not  for  the  support  of  the  Con 
stitution — but  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  subjugation  and,  as  he 
doubtless  desires,  ultimate  extermination  of  the  Anglo-Norman  race  in  the 
Southern  States.  Dearly  beloved  by  him  as  are  the  African  race,  his  acts 
are  prompted  less  by  love  of  them  than  by  Puritanic  hate  for  the  Cavaliers, 
the  Huguenots,  and  Scotch  Irish,  whose  blood  courses  freely  through  the 
veins  of  the  white  population  of  the  South.  But  Federal  bayonets  can  never 
reverse  the  laws  of  God,  which  must  be  done  before  the  negro  can  be  made 


300  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR, 

the  equal  of  the  white  man  of  the  South.  The  freedom  sought  for  them  by 
the  abolition  party,  if  achieved,  would  result  in  their  return  to  barbarism, 
and  their  ultimate  extermination  from  the  soil,  where  most  of  them  were 
born  and  were  comfortable  and  contented,  under  the  guardian  care  of  the 
white  race,  before  the  wicked  crusade  was  commenced. 

"  What  have  been  the  abolition  achievements  of  the  administration  ?  The 
most  that  has  been  claimed  by  them  is,  that  they  have  taken  from  their  own 
ers,  and  set  free,  100,000  negroes.  What  has  this  cost  the  white  race  of  the 
North  and  South  ?  More  than  half  a  million  of  white  men  slain  or  wrecked 
in  health  beyond  the  hope  of  recovery,  and  an  expenditure  of  not  perhaps 
less  than  four  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  What  will  it  cost  at  this  rate  to 
liberate  nearly  4,000,000  more  of  slaves?  Northern  accounts  of  the  sick 
ness,  suffering  and  death,  which  have  under  Northern  treatment  carried  off  so 
large  a  portion  of  those  set  free,  ought  to  convince  the  most  fanatical  of  the 
cruel  injury  they  are  inflicting  upon  the  poor  helpless  African. 

"  The  real  objects  of  the  war  aimed  at  from  the  beginning  were  and  are, 
not  so  much  the  deliverance  of  the  African  from  bondage  as  the  repudiation 
of  the  great  American  doctrine  of  self-government;  the  subjugation  of  the 
people  of  these  States  ;  and  the  confiscation  of  their  property.  To  carry  out 
their  fell  purpose  by  misleading  some  simple  minded  folks,  within  their  own 
limits  as  well  as  ours  perhaps,  they  passed  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  Federal  Congress  a  short  time  since  the  famous  resolution : 

"  *  That  as  our  country  and  the  very  existence  of  the  best  government  ever 
instituted  by  man  is  imperilled  by  the  most  causeless  and  wicked  rebellion, 
that  the  only  hope  of  saving  the  country  and  preserving  this  government  is 
by  the  power  of  the  sword,  we  are  for  the  most  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 
war,  until  the  constitution  and  laws  shall  be  enforced  and  obeyed  in  all  parts 
of  the  United  States ;  and  to  that  end  we  oppose  any  armistice,  or  interven 
tion,  or  mediation,  or  proposition  for  peace,  from  any  quarter,  so  long  as 
there  shall  be  found  a  rebel  in  arms  against  the  government ;  and  we  ignore 
all  party  names,  lines  and  issues,  and  recognize  but  two  parties  to  this  war — 
patriots,  and  traitors.' 

"  Were  solemn  mockery,  perfidious  baseness,  unmitigated  hypocrisy,  and 
malignant  barbarity,  ever  more  conspicuously  combined,  and  presented  for 
the  just  condemnation  of  a  right  thinking  world,  than  they  are  in  this  reso 
lution,  passed  by  the  abolition  majority  in  the  Lincoln  Congress  V  Think  of 
the  members  from  Massachusetts  and  Vermont  voting  for  the  most  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war  until  the  Constitution  and  laws  shall  be  enforced  and 
obeyed  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States.  Think  of  the  acts  of  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Massachusetts,  passed  in  1843  and  1855,  still  standing  upon  her 
statute  book,  setting  at  defiance  the  Constitution  and  laws.  What  would  be 
come  of  these  States?  And  what  would  become  of  their  members  them 
selves,  who  have  upheld  and  sustained  these  violations  of  the  Constitution  and 
laws,  which  is  the  chief  reason  why  they  now  hold  their  seats,  by  the  votes 


AND  WHO  RESPONSIBLE.  301 

of  their  constituents,  if  the  war  should  be  so  waged  ?  How  long  would  it  be 
before  they  would  grouiid  their  arms  of  rebellion  against  the  provision  of 
the  Constitution  which  they  have  set  at  naught,  and  give  it  their  loyal  sup 
port?  What  \\ould  become  of  their  President  and  his  cabinet ;  and  all  who 
from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  before  that  time,  have  been  trampling 
the  Constitution  under  their  feet?  Were  the  war  waged  as  they  thus  declare 
it  to  be  their  purpose  to  wage  it,  they  would  be  the  first  victims  of  the 
sword,  were  it  first  turned,  as  it  ought  to  be,  against  the  first  offenders. 
This  they  know  full  well.  Obedience  to  the  Constitution  is  the  last  thing 
they  want  or  intend.  Hence  the  mockery,  baseness,  and  hypocrisy  of  such  a 
declaration  of  purpose.  On  their  part,  it  is  a  war  of  most  wanton  and  sav 
age  aggression  ;  on  ours,  it  is  a  war  in  defence  of  inalienable  rights  ;  in  de 
fence  of  everything  for  which  freemen  should  live ;  and  for  which  freemen 
may  well  be  willing  to  die. 

"The  inestimable  rights  of  self-government,  and  State  sovereignty,  for 
which  their  fathers  and  our  fathers  bled  and  suffered  together,  in  the  strug 
gle  with  England  for  independence,  are  the  same  for  which  we  are  now 
engaged,  in  this  most  unnatural  and  sanguinary  struggle  with  them.  Those 
rights  are  as  dear  to  the  people  of  these  States  as  they  were  to  those  who 
achieved  them ;  and  on  account  of  the  great  cost  of  achievement  they  are 
the  more  preciously  cherished  by  those  to  whom  they  were  bequeathed,  and 
will  never  be  surrendered  or  abandoned  at  less  sacrifice. 

"  If  no  proposition  for  peace  or  armistice  is  to  be  received,  or  entertained, 
so  long  as  we  hold  arms  in  our  hands,  to  defend  ourselves,  our  homes,  our 
hearthstones,  our  altars,  and  our  birthright,  against  such  ruthless  and  worse 
than  Vandal  invaders,  be  it  so  1  We  deem  it  due,  however,  to  ourselves,  to 
the  civilized  world,  and  to  those  who  shall  come  after  us,  to  put  upon  record 
what  we  are  fighting  for  ;  and  to  let  all  know,  who  may  now  or  hereafter  feel 
an  interest  in  knowing  the  real  nature  of  this  conflict,  that  the  heavy  respon 
sibility  of  such  suffering,  desolation,  and  carnage,  may  rest  where  it  right 
fully  belongs. 

"  It  is  believed  that  many  of  the  people  of  the  Northern  States  labor 
under  the  impression  that  no  propositions  for  peaceful  adjustment  have  ever 
been  made  by  us. 

"  President  .Lincoln,  in  his  letter  to  the  *  Unconditional  Union  '  meeting 
at  Springfield  last  summer,  stated  in  substance,  that  no  proposition  for 
peaceful  adjustment  of  the  matters  in  strife  had  ever  been  made  to  him  by 
those  who  were  in  control  of  the  military  forces  of  the  Confederate  States, 
but  if  any  such  should  be  made,  he  would  entertain  and  give  it  his  consider 
ation. 

"  This  was  doubtless  said  to  make  the  impression  on  the  minds  of  those 
not  well  informed,  that  the  responsibility  of  the  war  was  with  us.  This 
declaration  of  President  Lincoln  stands  in  striking  contrast  with  that  above 
quoted,  from  the  republican  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 


302  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAE, 

"  When  this  statement  was  made  by  President  Lincoln  it  was  well  known 
to  him  that  our  commissioners  sent  to  settle  the  whole  matter  in  dispute, 
peaceably,  were  refused  a  hearing  !  They  were  not  even  permitted  to  pre 
sent  their  terms  ! 

"  This  declaration  was  also  made  soon  after  it  was  well  known  throughout 
the  Confederate  States  at  least  that  a  distinguished  son  of  this  State,  who 
is  a  high  functionary  of  the  government  at  Richmond,  had  consented  as 
military  commissioner  to  bear  a  communication  in  writing  from  President 
Davis,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  our  armies,  to  President  Lincoln  himself, 
with  authority  to  confer  upon  matters  therein  set  forth.  This  commis 
sioner  sent  from  the  head  of  our  armies  was  not  granted  an  audience,  nor 
was  the  communication  he  bore  received.  That  communication,  as  was  after 
wards  known,  related  to  divers  matters  connected  with  the  general  conduct 
of  the  war.  Its  nature,  however,  or  to  what  it  referred,  President  Lincoln 
did  not  know  when  he  refused  to  receive  it.  But  from  what  is  now  known 
of  it,  if  he  had  received  it,  and  had  heard  what  terms  might  have  been  proposed 
for  the  general  conduct  of  the  war,  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude  that  the  dis 
cussion  of  these  and  kindred  topics  might  have  led  to  some  more  definite 
ideas  of  the  aims  and  objects  of  the  war  on  both  sides,  from  which  the  ini 
tiative  of  peaceful  adjustment  might  have  sprung;  unless  his  real  purpose 
be,  as  it  is  believed  to  be,  nothing  short  of  the  conquest  and  subjugation  of 
these  States.  His  announcement,  that  no  offer  of  terms  of  adjustment  had 
ever  been  made  to  him,  is  believed  to  be  an  artful  pretext  on  his  part  to 
cover  and  hide  from  the  people,  over  whom  he  is  assuming  such  absolute 
sway,  his  deep  designs  first  against  our  liberties,  and  then  against  theirs. 

HOW  PEACE  SHOULD  BE  SOUGHT. 

44  In  view  of  these  difficulties  it  may  be  asked,  when  and  how  is  this  war 
to  terminate  ?  It  is  impossible  to  say  when  it  may  terminate,  but  it  is  easy 
to  say  how  it  will  end.  We  do  not  seek  to  conquer  the  Northern  people,  and 
if  we  are  true  to  ourselves,  they  can  never  conquer  us.  We  do  not  seek  to 
take  from  them  the  right  of  self-government  or  to  govern  them  without  their 
consent ;  and  they  have  not  force  enough  to  govern  us  without  our  consent  or 
to  deprive  us  of  the  right  to  govern  ourselves.  The  blood  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  may  yet  be  spilt  and  the  war  will  not  still  be  terminated  by  force 
of  arms.  Negotiation  will  finally  terminate  it.  The  pen  of  the  statesman, 
more  potent  than  the  sword  of  the  warrior,  must  do  what  the  latter  has  failed 
to  do. 

"  But  I  may  be  asked  how  negotiations  are  to  commence  when  President 
Lincoln  refuses  to  receive  commissioners  sent  by  us,  and  his  Congress  re 
solves  to  hear  no  proposition  for  peace  ?  I  reply,  that  in  my  opinion  it  is 
our  duty  to  keep  it  always  before  the  Northern  people  and  the  civilized 
world,  that  we  are  ready  to  negotiate  for  peace  whenever  the  people  and 
government  of  the  Northern  States  are  prepared  to  recognize  the  great  fun- 


AND  WHO  KESPONSIBLE.  303 

damental  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  maintained  by  our 
common  ancestry — the  right  of  all  self-government  and  the  sovereignty  of  the 
States.  In  my  judgment  it  is  the  duty  of  our  government,  after  each  im 
portant  victory  achieved  by  our  gallant  and  glorious  armies  on  the  battle 
field,  to  make  a  distinct  proposition  to  the  Northern  government  for  peace 
upon  these  terms.  By  doing  this,  if  the  proposition  is  declined  by  them,  we 
will  hold  them  up  constantly  in  the  wrong  before  their  own  people  and  the 
judgment  of  mankind.  If  they  refuse  to  receive  the  commissioners  who  bear 
the  proposition,  publish  it  in  the  newspapers,  and  let  the  conduct  of  their 
rulers  be  known  to  the  people ;  and  there  is  reasonable  ground  to  hope  that 
the  time  may  not  be  far  distant  when  a  returning  sense  of  justice,  and  a  de 
sire  for  self-protection  against  despotism  at  home,  will  prompt  the  people  of 
the  Northern  States  to  hurl  from  power  those  who  deny  the  fundamental 
principle  upon  which  their  own  liberties  rest,  and  who  can  never  be  satiated 
with  human  blood.  Let  us  stand  on  no  delicate  point  of  etiquette  or  diplo 
matic  ceremony.  If  the  proposition  is  rejected  a  dozen  times,  let  us  tender 
it  again  after  the  next  victory — that  the  world  maybe  reassured  from  month 
to  month  that  we  are  not  responsible  for  the  continuance  of  this  devastation 
and  carnage. 

"  Let  it  be  repeated  again  and  again  to  the  Northern  people  that  all  we  ask 
is  that  they  recognize  the  great  principle  upon  which  their  own  government 
rests — the  sovereignty  of  the  States:  and  let  our  own  people  hold  our  own  gov 
ernment  to  a  strict  account  for  every  encroachment  upon  this  vital  principle. 

"  Herein  lies  the  simple  solution  of  all  these  troubles. 

"  If  there  be  any  doubt  or  any  question  of  doubt  as  to  the  sovereign  will 
of  any  one  of  all  the  States  of  this  Confederacy,  or  of  any  border  State  whose 
institutions  are  similar  to  ours  not  in  the  Confederacy,  upon  the  subject  of 
their  present  or  future  alliance,  let  all  armed  force  be  withdrawn,  and  let 
that  sovereign  will  be  fairly  expressed  at  the  ballot-box  by  the  legal  voters  of 
the  State,  and  let  all  parties  abide  by  the  decision. 

"  Let  each  State  have  and  freely  exercise  the  right  to  determine  its  own 
destiny  in  its  own  way.  This  is  all  that  we  have  been  struggling  for  from 
the  beginning.  It  is  a  principle  that  secures  k  rights  inestimable  to  freemen 
and  formidable  to  tyrants  only.' 

"  Let  both  governments  adopt  this  mode  of  settlement,  which  was  be 
queathed  to  them  by  the  great  men  of  the  Revolution,  and  which  has  since 
been  adopted  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  as  the  only  just  mode  for  the  gov 
ernment  of  States  or  even  provinces;  and  the  ballot-box  will  soon  achieve 
what  the  sword  cannot  accomplish — restore  peace  to  the  country  and  uphold 
the  great  doctrines  of  State  sovereignty  and  Constitutional  liberty. 

"If  it  is  a  question  of  strife  whether  Kentucky  or  Maryland  or  any  other 
State  shall  cast  her  lot  with  the  United  States  or  the  Confederate  States ; 
there  is  no  mode  of  settling  it  so  justly,  with  so  little  cost,  and  with  so  much 
satisfaction  to  her  own  people,  as  to  withdraw  all  military  force  from  her 


304  CAUSES  OF  THE  WAE, 

limits  and  leave  the  decision,  not  to  the  sword,  but  to  the  ballot-box.  If  she 
should  decide  for  herself  to  abolish  slavery  and  go  with  the  North,  the  Con 
federate  government  can  have  no  just  cause  of  complaint,  for  that  govern 
ment  had  its  origin  in  the  doctrine  that  all  its  just  'powers  are  derived  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed/  and  we  have  no  right  to  insist  on  governing  a 
sovereign  State  against  her  will.  But  if  she  should  decide  to  retain  her  in 
stitutions  and  go  with  the  South,  as  we  doubt  not  she  will  when  the  question 
is  fairly  submitted  to  her  people  at  the  polls,  the  Lincoln  government  must 
acquiesce,  or  it  must  repudiate  and  trample  upon  the  very  essential  principles 
on  which  it  was  founded,  and  which  were  carried  out  in  practice  by  the 
fathers  of  the  Republic  for  the  first  half  century  of  its  existence. 

"What  Southern  man  can  object  to  this  mode  of  settlement?  It  is  all 
that  South  Carolina,  Virginia,  or  Georgia  claimed  when  she  seceded  from 
the  Union.  It  is  all  that  either  has  at  any  time  claimed,  and  all  that  either 
ever  can  justly  claim.  And  what  friend  of  Southern  independence  fears  the 
result?  What  has  the  abolition  government  done  to  cause  the  people  of 
any  Southern  State  to  desire  to  reverse  her  decision  and  return  ingloriously 
to  its  embrace  ?  Are  we  afraid  the  people  of  any  seceded  State  will  desire 
to  place  the  State  back  in  the  abolition  union,  under  the  Lincoln  despotism, 
after  it  has  devastated  their  fields,  laid  waste  their  country,  burned  their 
cities,  slaughtered  their  sons,  and  degraded  their  daughters  ?  There  is  no 
reason  for  such  fear. 

"But I  may  be  told  that  Mr.  Lincoln  has  repudiated  this  principle  in  ad 
vance,  and  that  it  is  idle  again  to  tender  a  settlement  upon  these  terms. 
This  is  no  reason  why  we  should  withhold  the  repeated  renewal  of  the  prop 
osition.  Let  it  be  made  again  and  again,  till  the  mass  of  the  Northern  peo 
ple  understand  it :  and  Mr.  Lincoln  cannot  continue  to  stand  before  them 
and  the  world,  stained  with  the  blood  of  their  sons,  their  husbands,  and  their 
fathers,  and  insist,  when  a  proposition  so  fair  is  constantly  tendered,  that 
thousands  of  new  victims  shall  still  continue  to  bleed,  to  gratify  his  abolition 
fanaticism,  satisfy  his  revenge,  and  serve  his  ambition  to  govern  these 
States,  upon  the  decision  of  one  tenth  of  the  people  in  his  favor,  against  the 
other  nine  tenths.  Let  the  Northern  and  Southern  mind  be  brought  to  con 
template  this  subject  in  all  its  magnitude ;  and  while  there  may  be  extreme 
men  on  the  Northern  side,  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the  subjugation 
of  the  South  and  the  confiscation  of  our  property,  and  like  extremists  on 
the  Southern  side,  whose  morbid  sensibilities  are  shocked  at  the  mention  of 
negotiation,  or  the  renewal  of  an  offer  by  us  for  a  settlement  upon  any  terms ; 
I  cannot  doubt  that  the  cool-headed  thinking  men  on  both  sides  of  the  line, 
who  are  devoted  to  the  great  principles  of  self-government,  and  State  sover 
eignty,  including  the  scar-covered  veterans  of  the  army,  will  finally  settle 
down  upon  this  as  the  true  solution  of  the  great  problem,  which  now  em 
barrasses  so  many  millions  of  people,  and  will  find  the  higher  truth  between 
the  two  extremes. 


AND  WHO  RESPONSIBLE.  305 

"  If,  upon  the  sober  second  thought,  the  public  sentiment  North  sustains 
the  policy  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  he  proposes  by  the  power  of  the  sword  to 
place  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Con 
stitution  of  his  country  under  his  feet,  and  proclaims  his  purpose  to  govern 
these  States  by  military  power  when  he  shall  have  obtained  the  consent  of 
one  tenth  of  the  governed ;  how  can  the  same  public  sentiment  condemn  him, 
if  at  the  head  of  his  vast  armies  he  shall  proclaim  himself  Emperor  of  the 
whole  country,  and  submit  the  question  to  the  vote  of  the  Northern  people, 
and  when  he  has  obtained,  as  he  could  easily  do,  the  vote  of  one  tenth  in  his 
favor,  he  sliall  insist  on  his  right  to  govern  them  as  their  legitimate  sover 
eign  ?  If  he  is  right  in  principle  in  the  one  case,  he  would  unquestionably 
be  right  in  the  other.  If  he  may  rightfully  continue  the  war  against  the 
South  to  sustain  the  one,  why  may  he  not  as  rightfully  turn  his  armies 
against  the  North  to  establish  the  other  ? 

"  But  the  timid  among  us  may  say,  how  are  we  to  meet  and  repel  his  armies, 
if  Mr.  Lincoln  shall  continue  to  reject  these  terms  and  shall  be  sustained  by 
the  sentiment  of  the  North  ?  as  he  claims  not  only  the  right  to  govern  us, 
but  he  claims  the  right  to  take  from  us  all  that  we  have. 

"  The  answer  is  plain.  Let  every  man  do  his  duty  ;  and  let  us  as  a  people 
place  our  trust  in  God  and  we  shall  certainly  repel  his  assaults  and  achieve 
our  independence,  and  if  true  to  ourselves  and  to  posterity  we  shall  main 
tain  our  Constitutional  liberty  also.  The  achievement  of  our  independence 
is  a  great  object ;  but  not  greater  than  the  preservation  of  Constitutional 
liberty. 

"The  good  man  cannot  read  the  late  proclamation  of  Mr.  Lincoln  without 
being  struck  with  the  resemblance  between  it  and  a  similar  one  issued, 
several  thousand  years  ago,  by  Ben-hadad,  king  of  Syria.  That  wicked 
king  denied  in  others  the  right  of  self-government ;  and  vaunting  himself  in 
numbers,  and  putting  his  trust  in  chariots  and  horses,  he  invaded  Israel,  and 
besieged  Samaria  with  an  overwhelming  force.  When  the  king  of  Israel, 
with  a  small  band,  resisted  his  entrance  into  the  city,  the  Syrian  King  sent 
him  this  message  :  *  Thou  shalt  deliver  me  thy  silver  and  thy  gold,  and  thy 
wives,  and  thy  children  ;  yet  I  will  send  my  servants  unto  thee  to-morrow, 
about  this  time,  and  they  shall  search  thy  house,  and  the  houses  of  thy  serv 
ants  ;  and  it  shall  be,  that  whatsoever  is  pleasant  in  thine  eyes  they  shall 
put  in  their  hands  and  take  it  away.'  The  king  of  Israel  consulted  the 
elders,  after  receiving  this  arrogant  message,  and  replied:  'This  thing  I 
may  not  do.'  Ben-hadad  enraged  at  this  reply,  and  confident  of  his  strength, 
sent  back  and  said  : 

*' '  The  Gods  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  the  dust  of  Samaria  shall  suffice, 
for  handfuls,  for  all  the  people  that  follow  me.'  The  king  of  Israel  answered 
and  said  :  *  Tell  him,  let  not  him  that  girdeth  on  his  harness  boast  himself 
as  he  that  putteth  it  off.' 

"The  result  was,  that  the  small  band  of  Israelites,  guided  by  Jehovah, 
20 


306  SHERMAN'S  INVASION". 

attacked  the  Syrian  armies,  and  routed  them  with  great  slaughter,  and  upon 
a  second  trial  of  strength  the  Syrian  armies  were  destroyed  and  their  king 
made  captive. 

"  When  Mr.  Lincoln,  following  the  example  of  this  wicked  king,  and  relying 
upon  his  chariots,  and  his  horsemen,  and  his  vast  armies,  to  sustain  a  cause 
equally  unjust,  proclaims  to  us,  that  all  we  have  is  his,  and  that  he  will  send 
his  servants,  whose  numbers  are  overwhelming,  with  arms  in  their  hands  to 
take  it,  and  threatens  vengeance  if  we  resist,  let  us — '  Tell  him,  let  not  him 
that  girdeth  on  his  harness  boast  himself  as  he  that  putteth  it  off.'  *  The  race 
is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong.'  '  God  is  the  judge,  he  put 
teth  down  one  and  setteth  up  another.' 

"  Not  doubting  the  justice  of  our  cause,  let  us  stand  in  our  allotted  places, 
and  in  the  name  of  Him  who  rules  the  hosts  of  Heaven  and  the  armies  of 
Earth,  let  us  continue  to  strike  for  liberty  and  independence,  and  our  eiforts 
will  ultimately  be  crowned  with  triumphant  success. 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 

On  the  17th  November,  1864,  Governor  Brown  sent 
the  following  message  to  the  Legislature,  to  which  that 
body,  representing  the  public  spirit  of  this  State,  promptly 
responded  by  the  passage  of  the  act  called  for,  and  by 
placing  the  whole  white  population  of  the  State  able  to  do 
military  duty,  between  16  and  55  years  of  age,  subject  to 

his  orders : — 

"EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  \ 

MlLLEDOEVILLE,  Nov.  7,  1864.  ) 

"  To  the  General  Assembly: 

"  I  have  received  what  I  consider  reliable  information,  that  the  enemy 
has  burnt  and  laid  waste  a  large  part  of  Atlanta,  and  of  several  other  towns 
in  upper  Georgia,  and  has  destroyed  the  State  Road  back  to  Allatoona,  and 
burnt  the  railroad  bridge  over  the  Chattahoochee  River,  and  is  now  advanc 
ing  in  heavy  force  in  the  direction  of  Macon,  and  probably  of  this  city,  lay 
ing  waste  the  country  and  towns  in  the  line  of  his  march. 

"  The  emergency  requires  prompt,  energetic  action.  If  the  whole  man 
hood  of  the  State  will  rally  to  the  front,  we  can  check  his  march  and  capture 
or  destroy  his  force.  There  are  now  in  the  State,  large  numbers  of  men  not 
under  arms  in  either  State  or  Confederate  service.  The  class  of  State  officers 
not  subject  to  militia  duty,  such  as  judges,  justices  of  the  inferior  courts, 
sheriffs,  etc  ,  will  amount  to  a  fine  regiment. 

•'  There  are  numerous  others  with  Confederate  details,  not  connected  with 
the  present  active  operations  of  the  front,  probably  amounting  to  several 
regiments.  All  these,  and  every  other  person  in  the  State  able  to  bear 


APPROPRIATION  FOR  DEFENCE.  307 

arms,  no  matter  what  his  position  may  be,  should  rally  to  the  standard  in 
the  field,  till  the  emergency  is  passed. 

"The  present  militia  laws  are  not  adequate  to  the  occasion,  and  I  respect 
fully  ask  the  passage  of  a  law,  with  the  least  possible  delay,  authorizing  the 
Governor  to  make  a  levy  en  masse  of  the  whole  male  population,  including 
every  man  able  to  do  military  duty,  during  the  emergency,  and  to  accept,  for 
such  length  of  time  as  may  be  agreed  upon,  the  services  of  any  companies, 
battalions,  regiments,  brigades,  or  divisions  of  volunteers  which  may  tender 
their  services,  with  any  number  of  men  which  he  may  consider  effective. 
Plenary  power  should  be  given  to  compel  all  to  report  who  fail  or  refuse  to 
do  so. 

"  I  respectfully  suggest  that  the  appropriation  bill  be  taken  up  and  passed 
without  delay,  and  that  a  military  bill  of  the  character  indicated  be  also 
passed,  and  that  the  Governor  and  Legislature  then  adjourn  to  the  front,  to 
aid  in  the  struggle  till  the  enemy  is  repulsed,  and  to  meet  again  if  we  should 
live  at  such  place  as  the  Governor  may  designate. 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 

On  the  same  day  the  Legislature  passed  an  act  ap 
propriating  $500,000  for  the  Georgia  Relief  and  Hospital 
Association ;  $6,000,000  for  indigent  widows,  orphans, 
and  soldiers'  families  of  Georgia,  and  disabled  soldiers ; 
$800,000  to  purchase  corn  for  bread  for  counties  over 
run  by  the  Federal  army;  $1,200,000  to  pay  any  part 
of  the  public  debt  to  become  due  in  1865 ;  $1,000,000  as 
a  military  fund  for  the  State ;  $1,500,000  to  be  used  in 
exporting  cotton  and  other  produce  to  pay  for  clothing, 
blankets,  and  other  necessaries  for  Georgia  troops,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  accumulating  exchange  in  Europe,  to 
pay  the  interest  on  the  sterling  debt  of  the  State,  and  to 
meet  the  demands  of  the  State  for  railroad  supplies,  and 
authorized  the  issue  of  treasury  notes  to  meet  these 
sums,  all  of  which  were  placed  by  the  act  under  the  con 
trol  of  the  Governor.  All  these  appropriations  resulted 
from  the  powerful  and  urgent  appeals  of  the  Executive 
in  his  messages. 

The  military  fund,  and  that  for  the  relief  of  the  in 
digent,  and  of  soldiers'  families,  were  largely  increased  at 


308  GEORGIA'S  LOSSES  IN  THE  WAK. 

the  extra  session  in  March,  1865,  held  at  Macpn.  And 
the  Quartermaster-General  of  the  State  was  authorized 
to  issue  clothing,  shoes,  hats,  and  blankets  to  all  Georgia 
soldiers  in  service. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  irregular  manner  of  raising  troops 
effectually  prevented  the  estimate  of  their  number  as 
well  as  the  commands  in  which  the  Georgians  served. 
It  is  also  not  now  practical  to  report  the  number  of  those 
who  died  of  sickness  and  accidents,  and  from  wounds  in 
battle,  or  the  number  of  the  maimed  or  disabled.  It  will 
never  be  pretended  by  any  candid  and  well-informed 
person  that  this  State  suffered  less  than  any  one  of  her 
sisters  in  proportion  to  population,  or  that  on  the  battle 
fields  they  were  less  gallant,  in  camp  and  on  the  march 
less  orderly  and  obedient,  or  in  the  times  of  trial,  hardship, 
or  affliction,  less  patient  and  enduring  and  uncomplaining. 
Her  voting  population  at  the  beginning  was  101,505  ;  she 
sent  a  larger  number  than  this  to  the  field;  of  course  many 
entered  the  service  who  were  not  voters.  The  confusion 
that  followed  the  downfall  of  the  Confederacy  prevented 
any  means  of  knowing  the  excess  of  loss  by  death  ovar 
those  coming  to  manhood  within  the  four  years  of  war. 

This  State  sent  her  men,  and  offered  her  material  re 
sources  on  the  altar  of  the  Confederacy.  In  1861  her 
property  was  valued  at  $672,731,901.  In  1868,  the 
earliest  period  at  which  official  reports  are  had,  it  was 
valued  at  $191,235,520  ;  a  loss  had  thus  accrued  in  prop 
erty  of  $481,497,381 ;  when  to  this  we  add  the  loss  by 
repudiated  securities  contracted  during  the  war  under 
Federal  dictation,  the  sum  of  $18,135,775,  anc}  the  untold 
amount  of  Confederate  paper  that  became  worthless,  we 
approximate  the  material  loss  of  this  great  State  by  the 
war  and  its  results. 


CONFLICT  WITH  THE  CONFEDERACY.  309 

In  March,  1864,  Governor  Brown  in  his  message  to  the 
Legislature  thus  speaks  of  the  matter  of 

CONFLICT  WITH  THE  CONFEDERATE  GOVERNMENT. 

"But  it  may  be  said  that  an  attempt  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  State 
will  produce  conflict  with  the  Confederate  Government.  I  am  aware  that 
there  are  those  who,  from  motives  not  necessary  to  be  here  mentioned,  are 
ever  ready  to  raise  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  to  criticise  and  condemn  the  action 
of  Georgia  in  every  case  where  her  constituted  authorities  protest  against 
the  encroachments  of  the  central  power,  and  seek  to  maintain  her  dignity 
and  sovereignty  as  a  State,  and  the  constitutional  rights  and  liberties  of  her 
people. 

"  Those  who  are  unfriendly  to  State  sovereignty  and  desire  to  consolidate 
all  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederate  Government,  hoping  to  promote 
their  undertaking  by  operating  upon  the  fears  of  the  timid;  after  each  new 
aggression  upon  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  States,  fill  the  newspaper 
presses  with  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  warn  the  people  to  beware  of  those  who 
seek  to  maintain  their  constitutional  rights  as  agitators  or  partisans  who  may 
embarrass  the  Confederate  Government  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

"  Let  not  the  people  be  deceived  by  this  false  clamor.  It  is  the  same  cry 
of  conflict  which  the  Lincoln  Government  raised  against  all  who  defended  the 
rights  of  the  Southern  States  against  its  tyranny.  It  is  the  cry  which  the 
usurpers  of  power  have  ever  raised  against  those  who  rebuke  their  encroach 
ments  and  refuse  to  yield  to  their  aggressions. 

"When  did  Georgia  embarrass  the  Confederate  Government  in  any  matter 
pertaining  to  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war?  When  did  she  fail  to 
furnish  more  than  her  full  quota  of  troops,  when  she  was  called  upon  as  a 
State  by  the  proper  Confederate  authority  ?  And  when  did  her  gallant  sons 
ever  quail  before  the  enemy,  or  fail  nobly  to  illustrate  her  character  upon  the 
battle-field  ? 

"  She  can  not  only  repel  the  attacks  of  her  enemies  on  the  field  of  deadly 
conflict,  but  she  can  as  proudly  repel  the  assaults  of  those  who,  ready  to 
bend  the  knee  to  power  for  position  and  patronage,  set  themselves  up  to  criti 
cise  her  conduct,  and  she  can  confidently  challenge  them  to  point  to  a  single 
instance  in  which  she  has  failed  to  fill  a  requisition  for  troops  made  upon  her 
through  the  regular  constitutional  channel.  To  the  very  last  requisition 
made  she  responded  with  over  double  the  number  required. 

"  She  stands  ready  at  all  times  to  do  her  whole  duty  to  the  cause  and  to 
the  Confederacy;  but  while  she  does  this, she  will  never  cease  to  require  that 
her  constitutional  rights  be  respected  and  the  liberties  of  her  people  pre 
served.  While  she  deprecates  all  conflict  with  the  Confederate  Government, 
if  to  require  these  be  conflict,  the  conflict  will  never  end  till  the  object  is 
attained. 


310          BROWN  TRUE  TO  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

'For  Freedom's  battle  once  begun, 
Bequeath'd  by  bleeding  sire  to  son, 
Though  baffled  oft  is  ever  won,' 

will  be  emblazoned  in  letters  of  living  light  upon  her  proud  banners,  until 
State  sovereignty  and  constitutional  liberty,  as  well  as  Confederate  independ 
ence,  are  firmly  established." 

When  his  own  State  was  invaded  and  overrun  by  the 
Federal  troops,  under  the  victorious  Sherman  in  his 
march  to  the  sea,  and  when  the  backbone  of  the  Confed 
eracy  was  virtually  broken,  and  the  circulation  of  its  life 
blood  impeded,  the  pulse  beating  low  and  extremities  in 
great  part  paralyzed  and  growing  cold,  and  the  people 
who  had  sustained  the  Governor  from  the  beginning  of 
the  struggle  were  desponding  and  almost  bereft  of  a  ves 
tige  of  hope,  there  was  an  incident  which  puts  forever 
in  the  form  of  detraction,  the  pretended  implication  or 
charge  that  Brown  was  not  to  the  last  true  to  the  Con 
federacy  and  the  common  cause  of  independence. 

General  Sherman  made  overture  to  him  as  Governor 
of  this  State  for  the  peace  of  the  State,  and  through  Mr. 
William  King  invited  him  to  a  conference  with  a  view  to 
this  consummation.  We  are  not  now  treating  of  the  mo 
tives  of  the  commanding  Federal  general,  but  with  the 
purposes  and  aims  of  Governor  Brown,  who  had  the 
opportunity  to  save  himself  and  the  State  from  farther 
devastation  and  ruin,  by  abandoning  his  confederates  in 
the  struggle,  and  acting  on  the  line  of  policy  then  ascribed 
to  him,  not  by  his  friends  or  an  impartial  public,  but  by 
his  foes  at  home  and  in  his  own  country. 

Brown  sent  back  to  General  Sherman  the  only  reply 
that  he  could  have  made  without  falsifying  his  past  record, 
his  principles  of  public  and  private  honor,  and  every 
emotion  and  sentiment  of  his  patriotic  heart : — 


BROWN  TRUE  TO  THE  CONFEDERACY.          311 

"  Say  to  General  Sherman  that  Georgia  has  entered  in 
to  a  confederation  with  her  Southern  sisters  for  the  main 
tenance  of  the  same  sovereignty  of  each,  severally,  which 
she  claims  for  herself,  and  her  public  faith  thus  pledged 
shall  never  be  violated  by  me.  Come  weal  or  come  woe, 
the  State  of  Georgia  shall  never,  by  my  consent,  withdraw 
from  the  confederation  in  dishonor.  She  will  never  make 
separate  terms  with  the  enemy  which  may  free  her  terri 
tory  from  invasion  and  leave  her  confederates  in  the  lurch." 

Such  was  the  decisive  action  of  a  man  in  high  official 
station  charged  with  the  honor  of  his  people,  after  the 
advancing  and  overwhelming  forces  of  the  public  enemy 
had  to  a  great  extent  placed  it  beyond  himself  and  his 
confederates  to  save  the  State  from  widespread  ruin. 

After  the  surrender  of  the  Confederate  armies,  and  not 
before,  Governor  Brown  surrendered  to  the  Federal  Gen 
eral  Wilson,  commanding  in  this  State,  and  accepted  from 
him  his  parol  and  retired  to  the  mansion  at  Milledgeville. 
His  parol  was  eoon  after  violated  by  an  actual  arrest  at 
his  own  home  by  Federal  soldiers  and  taken  from  him. 
He  was  hurried  away  to  Washington  City  and  imprisoned 
by  armed  force  without  delay,  without  the  privilege  of 
conferring  with  his  family  and  against  his  earnest  protest 
and  claim  of  personal  liberty  on  his  parol  from  the  Federal 
commander. 

He  was  afterwards  released  by  President  Johnson  and 
allowed  to  return  home,  where  the  State  was  under  entire 
military  occupation,  and  when  he  was  divested  of  all  mil 
itary  power  and  prevented  by  armed  force  from  exercis 
ing  any  civil  authority  in  the  State ;  and  therefore  he 
resigned  the  office  that  had  been  by  overpowering  force 
wrenched  from  him ;  and  the  cause  of  independence  for 
which  he  had  so  long  struggled,  and  the  hope  of  Constitu- 


312  FLIGHT  FEOM  MILLEDGEVILLE. 

tional  liberty  as  he  had  understood  it  in  the  nature  and 
history  of  the  Government  and  the  express  terms  of  the 
Federal  Constitution ;  retired  to  the  pursuit  of  private 
businesses  did  the  civil  officers  of  the  State,  as  well  as 
the  surviving  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Confederate 
armies. 

FLIGHT  FROM  MILLEDGEVILLE. 

The  approach  of  the  Federal  army  to  the  State  Capital 
while  the  Legislature  was  in  session  produced  a  panic  and 
a  stampede  of  that  body  and  caused  the  sudden  and  hasty 
departure  of  the  State  officials,  including  the  Governor, 
his  family,  and  staff.  The  enemies  of  Governor  Brown 
were  busy  in  circulating  reports  to  damage  him  in  the 
estimation  of  the  people.  It  was  charged  against  him, 
after  his  four  years  of  labor  and  unremitted  efforts  in  the 
cause  of  liberty  and  independence,  that  he  proved  to  be 
selfish  in  this  emergency,  even  in  the  small  matter  of 
taking  care  of  his  private  effects  to  the  neglect  of  those 
of  the  State,  which  might  have  been  saved,  but  which  he 
left  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  late  Gen. 
Eichard  Taylor,  brother-in-law  to  President  Davis,  and 
holding  high  military  rank  under  him,  having  referred  to 
this  criticism  in  his  book  entitled  "  Destruction  and  Re 
construction,"  has  given  it  sufficient  importance  to  call 
for  the  publication  of  the  facts  and  truths  of  the  removal 
from  Milledgeville. 

To  this  end  the  author  has  solicited  a  statement  from 
Gen.  Ira  R.  Foster,  the  laborious,  efficient,  and  indefatiga 
ble  Quartermaster-General  of  the  State  during  the  entire 
war;  which  statement,  descriptive  of  the  situation  and 
showing  the  criticism  referred  to  to  be  without  merit,  is 
here  given  : — 


FLIGHT  FROM  MILLEDGEVILLE.  313 

CUTHBEKT,  GA.,  December  19,  1880. 
"GEN.  IRA  R.  FOSTER,  Warreuton,  Ala. 

"Sir:— In  the  late  Gen.  Richard  Taylor's  book  entitled  «  Destruction  and 
Reconstruction,'  purporting  to  be  his  l  personal  experiences  in  the  late  war,' 
describing  his  visit  to  Georgia  and  the  confusion  produced  by  General  Sher 
man's  march  through  the  State,  reference  is  made  to  a  criticism  upon  Ex- 
Governor  Brown,  then  attributed  to  his  enemies,  to  the  effect  that,  in  leaving 
the  capitol  with  his  family,  he  disregarded  the  State's  property  in  order  to 
take  care  of  his  own  effects ;  that  he  even  brought  off  his  '  cow  and  cabbages.' 
He  also  refers  in  terms  calculated  to  disparage  the  State  troops.  These 
matters  derive  importance  from  the  high  character  of  the  gifted  author,  thus 
putting  them  in  permanent  print.  I  call  your  attention  to  them  as  the 
Quartermaster- General  of  the  State,  and  ask  a  statement  that  will  present 
the  facts'  and  truths  as  they  were  in  that  exciting  period,  in  order  to  do 
justice  to  this  State  represented  by  her  Executive. 

"  Respectfully  your  obt.  servant  and  friend, 

"  HERBERT  FIELDER." 

WARRENTON,  ALA.,  January  30,  1880. 

"  HON.  HERBERT  FIELDER  : 

"  Dear  Sir: — I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  19th  ult,  calling  my  atten 
tion  to  the  rumors  that  were  circulated  at  the  time  of  General  Sherman's 
advance  to  the  sea  by  way  of  Milledgeville,  to  the  effect  that  Governor 
Brown  in  leaving  the  capitol  with  his  family  to  escape  the  Federal  troops, 
disregarded  the  State's  property  in  order  to  take  care  of  his  own,  bringing 
away  his  *  cow  and  cabbages.' 

uln  answer  to  your  request  for  my  statement  in  regard  thereto,  I  have  to 
say — I  often  heard  these  reports,  and  knowing  them  to  be  untrue  I  as  often 
positively  contradicted  them.  I  was  there  in  person,  and  as  Quartermaster- 
General  of  the  State  had  immediate  and  entire  supervision  of  the  work  ;  I 
have  never  seen  more  interest  and  anxiety  manifested,  or  greater  efforts 
made  to  accomplish  any  object  than  was  shown  both  by  Governor  Brown 
and  his  wife  in  their  endeavors  to  secure  that  property  from  the  ravages  of 
the  opposing  army. 

4 '  It  is  well  known  that  Governor  Brown  owned  no  property  in  Milledgeville 
at  the  time,  and  that  he  had  no  private  interest  to  care  for  and  protect  ex 
cept  his  wife  and  children,  a  span  of  horses  and  carriage,  a  fine  cow  presented 
to  his  wife  by  a  friend.  These  were  removed  only  in  time  to  save  capture 
by  the  Federal  troops. 

"  I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  give  a  short  history  of  some  of  the  scenes  at 
Milledgeville  shortly  after  it  was  made  known  there  that  General  Sherman 
with  his  army  had  left  Atlanta,  and  was  on  his  way  to  the  sea. 

"  The  Legislature  was  in  session,  Governor  Brown  and  family  were  occupy 
ing  the  Executive  Mansion,  and  the  city  was  thronged  with  visitors.  When 


314  FLIGHT  FROM  MILLEDGEVILLE. 

hearing  of  the  movements  of  the  enemy  the  whole  people  became  excited, 
reaching  almost  to  a  panic.  In  the  afternoon  of  that  day  the  Legislature 
promptly  adjourned,  the  members  sought  their  respective  homes  as  best  they 
could,  some  taking  passage  on  railroad  trains,  others  in  carriages  and  on 
horseback,  thereby  draining  the  city  and  vicinity  of  wagon  transportation. 

"  Immediately  after  being  assured  of  the  enemy's  advance,  Governor  Brown 
issued  orders  to  me,  as  Quartermaster-General  of  the  State,  to  secure  and 
protect  as  best  I  could  the  most  valuable  of  the  State's  perishable  property 
in  and  around  the  seat  of  government.  I  at  once  took  in  the  situation,  and 
was  assured  that  nothing  short  of  Herculean  efforts  could  handle  the  vast 
quantity  of  goods  and  chattels  at  the  State  House,  Executive  Mansion,  Peni 
tentiary,  Armory,  Arsenal,  and  in  the  quartermaster's  and  commissariat's 
store-houses,  in  so  short  a  time,  with  my  limited  facilities  of  transportation. 

'*  Upon  consideration  Governor  Brown  and  myself  agreed  that  the  Lunatic 
Asylum  afforded  the  safest  and  in  many  respects  the  most  appropriate  de 
pository  for  our  immense  stores. 

"  I,  having  only  two  or  three  wagons  and  teams  at  that  place,  immediately 
put  them,  with  all  others  I  could  command  from  the  citizens  by  hire,  im 
pressment,  or  otherwise,  to  removing  the  property  to  that  place,  taking  the 
most  valuable  first.  I  continued  to  do  so  with  all  possible  rapidity  for  several 
hours,  until  I  became  convinced  that  from  the  long  distance  to  travel  it 
would  be  utterly  impossible  with  my  limited  means  to  remove  all  the  goods 
to  the  asylum  in  the  time  allotted  me,  and  so  reported  to  Governor  Brown. 
Upon  further  consultation  we  concluded  it  would  be  safer  and  a  wiser  policy 
as  well  as  more  expeditious,  to  haul  the  goods  to  and  load  them  on  cars  (the 
railroad  depot  being  much  nearer  than  the  asylum),  keep  the  cars  ready  to 
move  on  short  notice,  and  to  remove  them  to  southwest  Georgia.  We  then 
had  an  engine  and  several  cars  at  the  depot,  and  others  were  ordered  and 
supplied  immediately.  The  removal  to  and  loading  on  the  cars  was  com 
menced  and  continued  day  and  night  with  all  the  energy  and  rapidity  possible 
for  man  to  use. 

"  Very  soon  after  I  began  hauling  goods  to  the  depot  I  discovered  that,  from 
the  shortness  of  the  distance  to  that  place,  it  required  more  men  to  load  and 
unload  the  wagons  in  order  to  keep  the  teams  rapidly  moving,  and  so  reported 
to  Governor  Brown,  assuring  him  that  the  deficiency  could  not  be  supplied 
for  either  love  or  money.  Whereupon  he  informed  me  the  requisite  number 
could  be  furnished  in  a  few  minutes,  as  he  was  then  preparing  pardons  for 
most  of  the  penitentiary  convicts,  who  would  be  properly  equipped  and  put 
in  the  field  under  General  Wayne  as  soon  as  I  could  dispense  with  their 
service.  But  the  remainder  of  the  convicts,  about  ten  or  a  dozen,  composed 
of  life -time  prisoners  and  the  most  noted  desperadoes,  would  be  sent 
to  lower  Georgia  under  heavy  guard,  as  he  did  not  think  it  prudent  to 
leave  any  within  the  walls  of  the  penitentiary  to  be  released  by  General 
Sherman  and  turned  loose  against  us.  In  a  short  time,  therefore,  a  large 


FLIGHT  FKOM  MILLEDGEVILLE.  315 

number  of  ex-convicts  headed  by  the  noted  Doctor  Roberts  reported  for  duty, 
and  by  their  timely  and  efficient  aid  we  were  enabled  to  accomplish  our  great 
undertaking. 

"  The  removal  of  the  property  in  and  around  the  Executive  Mansion  was 
the  last  in  order.  Looking  around  to  ascertain  what  should  be  taken  away, 
I  discovered  a  luxuriant  lot  of  collards  in  the  garden ;  and  without  the 
knowledge  of  Governor  Brown  or  his  wife  I  ordered  Aunt  Celia,  an  old  colored 
cook,  to  cut  and  bring  them  to  where  the  wagons  were  being  loaded.  I  de 
signed  to  have  the  last  cabbage  cut  and  put  on  the  train  if  time  would  per 
mit,  knowing  the  Governor's  family  would  need  part  of  them  while  refugee- 
ing  from  place  to  place,  and  in  part  for  the  use  of  my  own  family  then 
camped  on  the  line  of  railroad  at  Dawson,  whither  they  had  gone  after  fleeing 
from  Atlanta  before  General  Sherman's  fierce  march.  But  not  for  Governor 
Brown's  and  my  own  family  alone  did  I  wish  to  save  and  bring  away  the 
cabbages.  The  greater  part  of  them  I  desired  and  hoped  to  give  to  the 
several  hundred  poor,  homeless,  destitute  exiles,  consisting  of  the  widows 
and  orphans  of  slain  Georgia  soldiers ;  families  of  brave  ones  still  at  the 
front,  aged  men  and  women,  and  not  a  f«w  of  our  noble  sons  who  had  long 
before  volunteered  and  gone  forth  in  the  cause  of  the  South  and,  after  much 
suffering  and  many  hard  battles,  had  returned  diseased,  maimed,  and  help 
less,  to  the  care  and  protection  of  those  for  whom  they  had  fought,  had  been 
driven  from  their  homes  in  Atlanta  and  vicinity  by  order  of  General  Sher 
man  and  left  on  line  of  railroad  to  Macon  and  below  there,  and  who  had 
been  gathered  up  and  taken  to  a  place  of  refuge  near  Dawson. 

"There,  by  order  of  Governor  Brown,  I  had  erected  about  one  hundred 
cabins  in  which  they  were  sheltered,  protected,  and  fed  at  the  expense  of  the 
State,  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  Milton  A.  Candler,  who  did  his 
whole  duty  in  their  behalf. 

"  I  also  discovered  on  the  premises  the  fine  milch  cow  alluded  to,  and  ad 
vised  Mrs.  Brown  to  have  her  shipped  on  a  stock  car,  as  she  would  be  of 
great  service  to  her  children,  and  as  by  leaving  her  she  would  be  stolen  or 
slaughtered  by  the  Federal  soldiers.  Mrs.  Brown  assented  and  the  cow  was 
driven  to  the  train  and  placed  on  the  car. 

"  As  we  were  loading  the  last  wagons  with  furniture  we  received  a  dispatch 
that  the  enemy's  cavalry  were  making  rapid  advances  toward  the  Central 
railroad  between  Macon  and  Milledgeville  ;  and  this  reminded  us  to  be  up 
and  off  lest  our  entire  train  might  be  captured  and  we  made  prisoners  of 
war.  The  loading  of  the  wagons  was  about  completecl  when  I  discovered 
the  small  pile  of  cabbages  cut  by  Celia  lying  in  the  yard  and  had  them 
thrown  on  top  of  the  furniture,  leaving  at  least  nine  tenths  in  the  garden 
uncut.  The  wagons  off  in  double-quick  time  and  with  wonderful  dispatch 
unloaded  on  cars ;  steam  being  up  we  left  immediately  and  made  the  trip 
to  Macon  in  perhaps  shorter  time  than  any  engine  had  ever  done  before. 

"On  reaching  Macon,  where  a  portion  of  the  State  troops  were  stationed,  we 


316  FLIGHT  FROM  MILLEDGEVILLE. 

found  that  our  fears  had  been  well  founded,  as  the  Federal  cavalry  had 
reached  and  cut  the  railroad  at  or  near  Griswoldville,  a  point  over  which  we 
had  passed  only  a  few  minutes  before. 

"  That  evening  or  the  next  morning  our  train  with  Governor  Brown  and 
his  family  went  down  to  Montezuma  on  the  Southwestern  railroad,  and 
stopped  on  a  sideling,  and  while  there  at  dinner,  at  Mrs.  Brown's  table  on 
board  the  cars,  I  remarked  to  her  that  she  ought  to  have  had  some  of  our 
Milledgeville  greens  cooked  for  dinner.  Until  then  I  have  no  idea  that  she, 
the  Governor,  or  any  member  of  the  family  knew  they  were  on  board  the 
cars.  They  had  all  left  the  mansion  before  the  last  loads  of  furniture  were 
taken  to  the  train.  Even  Aunt  Celia  did  not  know  that  those  cut  and  piled 
in  the  yard  had  been  brought  away.  Such  is  the  origin  and  history  of  the 
cow  and  cabbage  story. 

"You  allude  in  your  letter  to  the  work  of  General  Taylor,  and  to  another 
criticism  it  contains  upon  the  Georgia  State  troops,  and  the  policy  he  attrib 
utes  to  Governor  Brown  of  keeping  them  within  the  State  under  all  cir 
cumstances  ;  and  in  which  he  refers  to  the  fact  of  their  having  been  outside 
the  State,  in  South  Carolina  near  Savannah,  as  a  clever  trick  practised  on 
them  by  General  Toombs  when  they  did  not  know  where  they  were  going, 
and  done  without  the  authority  of  Governor  Brown. 

"This,  within  my  personal  knowledge,  does  great  injustice  to  the  gallant 
troops  who  were  at  that  time  in  the  State  service,  and  who  distinguished 
themselves  on  every  battle-field  from  the  time  they  entered  the  service  until 
the  end  of  the  struggle.  It  also  does  injustice  to  that  able  general,  Gustavus 
W.  Smith,  who  was  in  command  of  the  State  troops. 

"  After  General  Sherman  had  passed  Macon  on  his  march  to  the  sea,  I  heard 
a  conversation  between  Governor  Brown  and  General  Smith  in  reference  to 
the  use  of  the  State  troops  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State,  in  which  the  Gov 
ernor  instructed  General  Smith  in  emphatic  terms  to  use  the  troops  to  the 
very  best  of  his  ability  to  annoy  and  cripple  General  Sherman's  army  during 
their  march  through  the  State.  The  Governor  was  asked  by  General  Smith 
during  the  interview  whether,  if  within  his  opinion  the  public  interest  and 
good  of  the  cause  required  it,  he  should  carry  the  State  troops  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  State,  or  whether  he  should  confine  himself  within  its  bound 
aries.  To  which  the  Governor  replied  with  great  emphasis,  »  Cripple  the 
enemy  all  you  can  in  the  State.  But  if  you  see  where  any  advantage  can  be 
gained,  or  where  the  common  cause  can  be  served  by  carrying  them  into 
South  Carolina,  or  to  any  point  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State,  do  not  hesi 
tate  a  moment,  but  act  promptly,  and  do  all  you  can  for  Georgia  and  the 
Confederacy.' 

"  At  that  time  General  Wayne's  brigade  was  in  front  of  General  Sherman 
between  Macon  and  Savannah,  doing  all  they  could  to  guard  the  bridges  on 
the  Central  railroad.  And  the  body  of  the  State  militia  were  at  Macon,  where 
they  remained  in  the  trenches  for  the  protection  of  the  city  until  Sherman's 


FLIGHT  FROM  MILLEDGEVILLE.  317 

army  had  passed.  They  were  then  thrown  rapidly  by  rail  into  Sherman's 
front  near  Savannah,  and,  as  is  well  known  to  the  country,  were  carried  by 
General  Smith  across  the  Savannah  river  into  South  Carolina,  where  they 
fought  a  gallant  battle  and  defeated  the  Federal  general  in  command  with 
heavy  losses.  They  were  then  brought  back  to  Savannah,  and  did  all  they 
could  for  the  fortification  of  that  city.  When  Sherman's  army  beleaguered 
the  city,  they  were,  as  I  am  well  informed,  carried  across  on  a  pontoon  bridge 
into  South  Carolina,  and  did  all  they  could  to  annoy  the  enemy  in  that  State 
up  to  about  the  time  of  the  surrender.  I  am  informed  on  the  most  re 
liable  authority  that  there  was  no  drawing  back  or  murmuring  on  the  part 
of  the  State  troops  when  the  order  came  to  march  across  the  river  into  South 
Carolina.  But  that  they  moved  forward  gallantly  and  cheerfully  to  dis 
charge  that  important  duty  as  they  had  hitherto  done  in  every  instance  when 
duty  called.  Yours  respectfully, 

"  IRA  R.  FOSTER."    * 


CHAPTER  X. 

CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOVERNOR  BROWN  AND  JAMES  A. 
SEDDON,  SECRETARY  OF  WAR,  1864. 

Upon  the  invasion  of  Georgia  and  the  approach  of 
overwhelming  forces,  under  command  of  General  Sher- 
^man  to  the  city  of  Atlanta,  Governor  Brown  called  out 
the  State  militia,  the  boys  down  to  the  age  of  sixteen 
and  old  men  up  to  fifty-five  years  of  age,  and  the  State 
officials — some  of  whom  had  been  elected  or  appointed 
after  being  discharged  for  disability  in  the  Confederate 
service,  and  others  who  had  held  civil  office  and  had  not 
been  in  the  army.  This  force,  such  as  elsewhere  were 
non-combatants,  in  Georgia,  under  her  Governor,  was 
called  to  the  post  of  imminent  danger  and  hardship,  and 
responded  with  great  promptness.  It  amounted  to  about 
ten  thousand  men,  organized  in  companies  and  regiments, 
choosing  their  own  officers  by  election.  They  were  under 
Ma] or- General  Gustavus  W.  Smith,  with  General  Robert 
Toombs  as  chief  of  staff,  both  of  whom,  having  held  com 
mands  in  the  Confederate  army,  had  resigned,  and  ac 
cepted  commands  of  the  State  militia.  But  all  under  the 
command,  for  the  emergency  that  called  them  out,  of  the 
Confederate  General  Johnston,  until  his  removal,  and 
afterward  of  General  Hood — doing  noble  and  gallant  ser 
vice,  suffering  great  losses  and  hardships. 

President  Davis,  with  all  the  volunteer  forces — inde 
pendent  commands — of  this  State,  all  the  requisitions 
previously  made  more  than  filled,  and  all  the  arms-bear- 


CORRESPONDENCE.  319 

ing  men  liable  to  conscription  under  Confederate  laws, 
except  the  civil  and  militia  officers  already  in  service, 
made  through  Mr.  Seddon,  Secretary  of  War,  a  requisi 
tion  upon  Governor  Brown  for  these  troops  to  be  turned 
over  to  the  Confederate  Government.  The  correspond 
ence  that  ensued  is  pertinent  and  full  of  interest  upon 
the  subject  of  Georgia  and  the  Confederacy.  Hence  we 
give  it  entire  : — 


;RICA,  ) 

INT. 

[),  1864.  ) 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 

WAR  DEPARTMENT. 
RICHMOND,  VA.,  August  30, 

"HIS  EXCELLENCY  J.  E.  BROWN, 

"GOVERNOR  OF  GEORGIA, 

*'  Milledgeville,  Georgia. 

"  Sir: — The  condition  of  your  State,  subjected  to  formidable  invasion  and 
menaced  with  destructive  raids  in  different  directions  by  the  enemy,  requires 
the  command  of  all  the  forces  that  can  be  summoned  for  defence.  From  recent 
official  correspondence  submitted  to  the  Department,  it  appears,  on  your  state 
ment,  that  you  have  organized  ten  thousand  or  more  of  the  militia  of  your 
State,  and  I  am  instructed  by  the  President  to  make  requisition  on  you  for 
that  number,  and  such  further  force  of  militia,  to  repel  invasion,  as  you  mav 
be  able  to  organize,  for  Confederate  service.  Those  within  the  limits  of 
General  Hood's  Department  will  report  to  him;  those  outside,  to  the  Com 
mandant  of  the  Department  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia. 
"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  JAMES  A.  SEDDON, 

"  Secretary  of  War." 

"EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,       ) 
MI-LLEDGEVILLE,  GA.,  September  12,  1864.    ) 

"  HON.  JAMES  A.  SEDDON,  SECRETARY  OF  WAR, 

"  Sir: — Your  letter  of  the  30th  of  last  month  only  reached  me  by  last 

mail. 

• 

"You  refer  to  the  fact  that  I  have  organized  ten  thousand  of  the  militia 
of  this  State,  and  say  you  are  instructed  by  the  President  to  make  requisition 
upon  me  for  that  number  and  such  other  force  of  militia  to  repel  invasion  as 
I  may  be  able  to  organize. 

"You  preface  this  requisition  by  the  remark  that  the  condition  of  my 


320  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

State,  subjected  to  formidable  invasion  and  menaced  with  destructive  raids 
in  different  directions  by  the  enemy,  requires  the  command  of  all  the  forces 
that  can  be  summoned  for  defence. 

"In  common  with  the  people  of  Georgia,  I  have  abundant  reason  to  regret 
that  the  President  has  been  so  late  in  making  this  discovery.  This  'formid 
able  invasion  '  commenced  in  May  last,  and  has  steadily  forced  its  way,  by 
reason  of  overwhelming  numbers,  through  the  most  fertile  section  of  Georgia, 
till  its  leader  is  now  in  possession  of  the  city  of  Atlanta,  menacing  the 
centre  of  the  State,  threatening  by  his  winter  campaign  to  cut  the  last  line 
of  railroad  that  connects  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  with  Alabama  and  Mis 
sissippi.  The  President,  during  most  of  the  time  since  the  campaign  against 
Atlanta  began,  has  had  at  his  command  a  large  force,  said  to  number  some 
30,000  men,  in  Texas  and  Louisiana.  Since  the  brilliant  victories  achieved 
.by  our  armies  in  the  latter  State  early  in  the  season,  this  large  force  has  had 
no  enemy  to  confront,  except  the  troops  of  a  few  garrisons,  who  were  in  no 
condition  to  penetrate  the  interior  of  the  country  or  do  any  serious  damage. 
lie  has  also,  if  correctly  reported,  had  about  20,000  men  under  General  Early 
invading  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  thereby  uniting  Northern  sentiment 
against  us  and  aiding  President  Lincoln  to  rally  his  people  to  reinforce  his 
armies.  About  the  same  time  General  Morgan  was  raiding  in  Kentucky, 
and  General  Forrest,  the  great  cavalry  leader,  has  been  kept  in  Northern  Mis 
sissippi  to  repel  raids  after  the  country  had  been  so  often  overrun  as  to  leave 
but  little  public  property  for  them  to  destroy. 

"Thus,  reversing  the  rule  upon  which  most  great  generals  who  have  been 
successful  have  acted,  of  rapid  concentration  of  his  forces  at  vital  points  to 
destroy  the  invading  arm}T,  the  President  has  scattered  his  forces  from  Texas 
to  Pennsylvania  while  a  severe  blow  was  being  struck  at  the  heart  of  the 
Confederacy ;  and  Atlanta  has  been  sacrificed  and  the  interior  of  Georgia 
thrown  open  to  further  invasion  for  want  of  reinforcements  to  the  army  of 
Tennessee.  Probably  few  intelligent  men  in  the  country,  except  the  Presi 
dent  and  his  advisers,  have  failed  to  see  that  if  Generals  Forrest  and  Morgan 
had  been  sent  to  destroy  the  railroads  over  which  General  Sherman's  sup 
plies  have  been  transported  for  three  hundred  miles  through  an  enemy's 
country,  and  to  keep  the  roads  cut  for  a  few  weeks,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
forces  of  General  E.  Kirby  Smith  and  Major-General  Early,  or  even  half  of 
them,  had  been  sent  to  reinforce  General  Johnston,  or,  after  he  was  super 
seded,  General  Hood,  the  army  of  invasion  might  not  only  have  been  re 
pulsed  and  driven  back,  but  routed  and  destroyed. 

"  This  would  instantly  have  relieved  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Ten 
nessee  from  invasion  and  raids,  and  have  thrown  open  the  green  fields  of  Ken 
tucky  for  the  support  of  our  gallant  troops.  As  the  army  of  General  Sher 
man  is  the  only  protection  provided  by  the  Lincoln  government  for  the 
Western  States,  and  as  the  battle  for  the  possession  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  as  well  as  of  the  Gulf  States,  was  to  be  fought  in  Geor- 


. 

AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  321 

gia,  justice,  not  only  to  the  people  of  Georgia,  but  the  people  of  all  the  States, 
required  that  all  the  troops  which  were  not  actually  necessary  to  the  defence 
of  .Richmond,  and  to  hold  the  enemy  in  check  at  the  most  vital  points  on  the 
coast,  should  have  been  concentrated  for  the  destruction  of  the  Federal  army 
in  Georgia,  which  would,  in  all  probability,  have  brought  the  war  to  a  speedy 
termination. 

"  I  have  begged  the  President  to  send  reinforcements  to  the  army  for  the 
defence  of  Atlanta  ever  since  the  enemy  were  at  Etowah.  But  a  very  small 
number  have  been  sent,  and,  if  I  am  correctly  informed,  part  of  the  troops  un 
der  General  Hood's  command  have  been  ordered  from  this  to  other  States. 

"  While  we  have  been  sorely  pressed  by  the  enemy,  a  camp  of  30,000  Federal 
prisoners  has  been  kept  in  the  rear  of  our  army,  which  has  added  greatly  to 
our  embarrassments,  and  has  it  seems  required  all  the  small  force  of  Confed 
erate  reserves,  organized  by  Major-General  Cobb,  with  other  occasional  re 
inforcements,  to  guard  them.  The  reserve  force  organized  under  the  late 
Conscript  Act  for  the  State  defence  has  been  thus  employed,  I  presume,  by 
order  of  the  President,  and  in  the  hour  of  her  peril  Georgia  has  not  had  a  single 
one  of  them  at  the  front  with  a  musket  in  his  hand  to  aid  in  her  defence.  Had 
the  militia  been  at  his  command  for  such  service  as  he  might  have  ordered, 
and  at  such  place  as  he  might  designate,  the  presumption  is  that  the  same  re 
mark  might  have  been  applicable  to  them,  as  other  employment  could,  as  in 
case  of  the  local  companies  under  the  President's  command,  have  been  found 
for  them  at  other  places  while  the  enemy  were  besieging  Atlanta. 

"  Another  remarkable  fact  deserves  attention.  During  the  whole  march  of 
the  enemy  upon  Atlanta,  and  for  more  than  a  month  after  it  was  closely  in 
vested  and  shelled  by  the  enemy,  it  never  seems  to  have  occurred  to  the  Pres 
ident  to  make  requisition  upon  me  for  the  militia  of  Georgia  to  aid  in  re 
pelling  this  'formidable  invasion'  or  these  'destructive  raids,'  and  it  is 
only  when  he  is  informed  that  I  have  an  organization  of  gallant,  fearless  men, 
ready  to  defend  the  State  against  usurpations  of  power  as  well  as  invasions 
by  the  enemy,  that  he  makes  requisition  upon  me  for  this  force  and  all  others 
I  can  organize.  I  must  express  my  astonishment,  however,  that  you  and  the 
President  should  seem  to  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  this  force  was  organized 
by  me  to  aid  in  repelling  the  army  of  invasion,  that  it  was  placed  by  me  un 
der  the  command  of  General  Johnston  and  afterwards  of  General  Hood  for 
the  defence  of  Atlanta,  and  that  the  brave  men  of  which  it  is  composed,  under 
the  command  of  the  general  appointed  by  the  President  for  the  defence  of 
the  city,  have  taken  their  full  share  in  the  dangers,  fatigues  and  sufferings  of 
the  campaign,  and  have  acted  with  distinguished  valor  both  upon  the  battle 
field  and  for  over  forty  days  in  the  trenches  around  the  city  of  Atlanta,  and 
that  they  formed  the  rear  guard  when  Atlanta  was  evacuated,  and  brought 
off  with  them  safe  and  in  good  order  the  reserve  artillery  of  the  army  which 
was  especially  intrusted  to  them  by  the  Commander-in-Chief.  For  all  this  no 
word  of  thanks  or  praise  comes  from  the  President  to  encourage  them.  They 
21 


322  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

were  militia.     Their  generals  and  other  officers  were  not  appointed  by  the 
President  and  their  services  are  ignored  by  him. 

"  In  making  this  requisition  it  is  quite  clear  that  it  was  no  part  of  the  Pres 
ident's  object  to  get  these  brave  men  into  service.  They  were  there  at  the 
time,  in  the  trenches,  among  those  who  were  nearest  to  the  enemy,  where  they 
never  faltered  in  a  single  instance.  It  was  not  done  to  produce  harmony  in 
the  command,  for  the  most  perfect  harmony  has  existed  between  me  and  both 
the  generals  who  have  commanded  the  army  since  the  militia  were  called 
out,  and  it  is  well  known  that  I  placed  them  for  the  time  under  the  absolute 
control  of  the  Confederate  General  commanding.  It  was  not  done  to  increase 
the  number  in  service  at  the  front,  for  the  President  is  too  familiar  with  the 
obstacles  thrown  in  my  way  by  Confederate  officers  when  I  have  attempted 
to  compel  men  to  go  to  the  trenches,  to  have  committed  this  mistake.  It 
was  certainly  not  done  to  cause  Georgia  to  furnish  her  quota  of  troops  re 
quired  in  like  proportion  of  other  States,  for  she  has  already  furnished  more 
than  her  just  quota,  and  to  every  call  responded  with  more  than  were  required, 
while  she  has  borne  the  rigors  of  conscription  executed  with  as  much  severity 
as  in  any  other  State-.  I  hear  of  no  similar  requisition  having  been  made 
upon  any  other  State.  While  Georgia  has  more  than  filled  every  requisition 
made  upon  her  in  common  with  her  sister  States,  and  has  borne  her  full  share 
of  conscription,  and  has  for  months  had  her  reserved  militia  under  arms  from 
sixteen  to  fifty-five  years  of  age,  I  am  informed  that  even  the  Confederate  re 
serves  of  other  States  from  seventeen  to  eighteen,  and  from  forty-five  to  fifty, 
have  till  very  lately  been  permitted  by  the  President  to  spend  much  of  their 
time  at  home  attending  to  their  ordinary  business.  Without  departing  from 
legitimate  inquiry  as  to  the  cause  of  this  requisition,  I  might  ask  why  this 
distinction  is  made  against  the  good  people  of  this  State,  and  why  ht-r  Con 
federate  reserves  are  kept  constantly  in  service,  and  why  requisition  is  made 
for  her  whole  militia,  when  the  same  is  not  required  of  any  other  State.  It 
is  quite  clear  that  it  was  not  made  either  to  compel  the  State  to  do  her  just 
part,  which  she  has  always  done,  or  to  put  more  of  her  sons  into  active  service 
for  her  defence,  for  every  man  called  for  by  the  requisition  was  iu  service  be 
fore  it  was  made.  The  President  must  then  have  had  some  other  motive  in 
making  the  requisition,  and  I  think  it  not  uncharitable  under  all  the  circum 
stance*  to  conclude  that  the  object  was  to  grasp  into  his  own  hands  the  en 
tire  control  of  the  whole  reserve  militia  of  the  State,  which  would  enable  him 
to  disband  its  present  organization,  and  place  in  power  over  it  his  own  par 
tisans  and  favorites  as  major-generals,  brigadier-generals  etc.,  etc.,  in  place 
of  the  distinguished  officers  who  were  appointed  to  command  in  conformity 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  country  and  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  who  have 
commanded  the  organization  with  so  much  honor  to  themselves,  satisfaction 
to  the  troops,  aud  advantage  to  the  public  service. 

"  Again,  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  requisition  is  made  upon  me  for. 
the  whole  militia  of  the  State— all  I  have  organized  and  all  I  can  organize — 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAK.  323 

•without  limitation  of  time  or  place  of  service.  If  I  comply  with  it  the 
militia  of  Georgia,  after  the  President  has  obtained  absolute  control  over 
them,  may  be  taken  for  the  war  from  their  State,  as  tens  of  thousands  of  their 
br;.V3  fellow  citizens  no.v  aie,  while  Georgia  and  their  homes  are  being  over 
run.  If  I  am  asked  to  trust  the  sound  judgment  and  good  faith  of  the 
President  for  their  discharge  and  return  to  their  homes  at  such  times  as  their 
services  are  not  indispensable  in  the  military  field,  I  cannot  forget  the  faith 
that  was  violated  last  fall  to  thousands  of  Georgians  who  were  organized 
under  a  requisition  from  the  President  to  be  'employed  in  the  local  defence 
of  important  cities,  and  in  repelling  in  emergencies  the  sudden  or  transient  in 
cursions  of  the  enemy,'  to  be  employed  '  only  when  and  so  long  as  they 
might  be  needed,'  '  with  the  privilege  of  remaining  at  home  in  the  pursuit 
of  their  ordinary  avocations  unless  when  called  for  a  temporary  exigency  to 
active  duty.' 

'•  Thousands  of  these  men,  organized  for  six  months'  service  with  the 
guarantees  above  mentioned,  were  called  out  early  in  September  last  and 
were  kept  constantly  in  service  till  the  expiration  of  their  term  in  March. 
During  most  of  the  time  they  were  guarding  no  important  city.  There  was 
no  sudden  emergency  or  transient  incursion  of  the  enemy,  no  exigency  for 
the  last  four  months  of  the  time,  and  still  they  were  kept  in  service  in  viola 
tion  of  the  faith  that  had  been  pledged  to  them,  and  were  denied  the  privi 
lege  of  going  home  or  attending  to  the  'pursuit  of  any  of  their  ordinary 
avocations,'  and  this  too  after  the  contract  under  which  they  had  entered 
the  service  had  been  pressed  upon  the  consideration  of  the  President. 

"It  is  impossible  for  the  agricultural  and  other  industrial  pursuits  of  the 
people  to  be  saved  from  ruin  if  the  whole  reserve  militia  of  the  State  from 
16  to  55  are  put  permanently  into  the  service  as  regular  troops.  Judging 
from  the  past,  I  cannot  place  them  at  the  command  of  the  President  for  the 
war  without  great  apprehension  that  such  would  be  their  fate.  Indeed,  not 
even  the  President's  promise  to  the  contrary  is  found  in  the  requisition  you 
now  make.  I  am  not,  therefore,  willing  to  expose  the  whole  reserve  militia 
of  Georgia  to  this  injustice,  and  our  agricultural  and  other  interests  to  ruin 
when  no  other  State  is  required  to  make  any  such  sacrifice  or  to  fill  any  such 
requisition. 

"The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  authorizes  the  States  as  well 
as  the  Confederacy  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war  when  actually  invaded,  as 
Georgia  now  is.  Her  militia  have  been  organized  and  called  into  active  ser 
vice  under  her  own  laws  for  her  own  defence,  and  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am 
authorized  to  destroy  her  military  organization  at  the  behest  of  the  Presi 
dent,  or  to  surrender  to  him  the  command  of  the  troops  organized  and  re 
tained  by  her  by  virtue  of  her  reserved  power  for  her  own  defence  when 
greatly  needed  for  that  purpose,  and  which  are  her  only  remaining  protec 
tion  against  the  encroachments  of  centralized  power.  I  therefore  decline  to 
comply  with  or  fill  this  extraordinary  requisition.  While  I  refuse  to  gratify 


324  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

the  President's  ambition  in  this  particular,  and  to  surrender  the  last  vestige 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  State  by  placing  the  remainder  of  her  militia  under 
his  control  for  the  war,  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  order 
them  to  the  front,  and  they  will  not  shun  the  thickest  of  the  fight  when  the 
enemy  is  to  be  met  upon  the  soil  of  their  beloved  State.  Nor  will  I  withhold 
them  from  the  temporary  command  of  the  Confederate  general  who  controls 
the  army  during  great  emergencies  when  he  needs  their  aid. 

"  I  shall,  however,  retain  the  power  to  withdraw  them  and  to  furlough  or 
disband  them  for  a  time  to  look  to  their  agricultural  and  other  vital  interests 
which  would  otherwise  be  ruined  by  neglect,  whenever  I  see  they  can  be 
spared  from  the  military  field  without  endangering  the  safety  of  the  State. 
Of  this  the  Governor  of  the  State  at  Milledgeville,  where  he  is  near  the  field 
of  operations  and  can  have  frequent  interviews  with  the  commanding  gen 
eral,  ought  to  be  as  competent  to  judge  as  the  President  of  the  Confederacy 
some  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  scene  of  action,  charged  with  the  defence  of 
llichniond  and  all  the  other  responsibilities  which  require  his  attention  and 
divide  his  time. 

"  Georgia  now  has  upon  the  soil  of  Virginia  nearly  fifty  regiments  of  as 
brave  troops  as  ever  met  the  enemy  in  deadly  conflict,  not  one  of  which 
ever  faltered  in  the  hour  of  trial.  She  has  many  others  equally  gallant 
aiding  in  the  defence  of  other  States.  Indeed,  the  blood  of  her  sons  has 
crimsoned  almost  every  battle-field  east  of  the  Mississippi  from  the  first 
Manassas  to  the  fall  of  Atlanta.  Her  gallant  sons  who  still  survive  are 
kept  by  the  President's  orders  far  from  her  soil  while  their  homes  are  being 
overrun,  their  wives  .and  children  driven  out  before  the  enemy  and  reduced 
to  beggary  and  want,  and  their  almost  idolized  State  exposed  to  temporary 
subjugation  and  ruin.  Experience  having  shown  that  the  army  of  Tennes 
see  with  the  aid  of  the  militia  force  of  the  State  is  not  able  to  withstand  and 
drive  back  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  army  of  invasion,  as  the  Exec 
utive  of  Georgia,  in  behalf  of  her  brave  sons  now  absent  in  other  States  as 
well  as  of  her  whole  people  at  home,  I  demand  as  an  act  of  simple  justice  that 
such  reinforcements  be  sent  as  are  necessary  to  enable  the  army  upon  her  soil 
to  stop  the  progress  of  the  enemy  and  dislodge  and  drive  him  back.  In  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  permanent  possession  of  Georgia  by  the  enemy  not  only 
ruins  her  people,  but  cuts  the  Confederacy  east  of  the  Mississippi  in  two,  and 
strikes  a  death  blow  at  the  Confederate  Government  itself,  I  trust  this  most 
reasonable  request  will  be  granted.  If,  however,  I  should  be  informed  that 
the  President  will  send  no  reinforcements  and  make  no  further  effort  to 
strengthen  our  defences,  I  then  demand  that  he  permit  all  the  sons  of 
Georgia  to  return  to  their  own  State  and  within  her  own  limits  to  rally 
around  her  glorious  flag — and  as  it  flutters  in  the  breeze  in  defiance  of  the 
foe,  to  strike  for  their  wives  and  their  children,  their  homes  and  their  altars, 
and  the  'green  graves'  of  their  kindred  and  sires;  and  I  as-  their  Executive 
promise  that  whoever  else  may  be  withdrawn  from  her  defence,  they  will 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  325 

drive  the  enemy  back  to  her  borders,  or,  overwhelmed  and  stricken  down, 
they  will  nobly  perish  in  one  last  grand  and  glorious  effort  to  wrest  the 
standard  of  her  liberties  and  independence  from  the  grasp  of  the  oppressor 
and  plant  it  immovably  upon  her  sacred  soil. 
"  I  am  very  respectfully, 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


"  CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA,     ) 

WAR  DEPARTMENT, 
RICHMOND,  October  8,  1864.     ) 
"HIS  EXCELLENCY  J.  E.  BROWN, 

"GOVERNOR  OF  GEORGIA, 

"  Miliedgeville,  Ga. 

"  Sir : — Your  letter  of  the  12th  ult.  reached  me  some  days  since.  Its  tenor 
and  spirit  have  caused  painful  surprise.  It  requires  forbearance  in  reply  to 
maintain  the  respect  I  would  pay  your  station  and  observe  the  official  pro 
priety  you  have  so  transcended.  I  shall  seek  to  notice  only  such  portions  as 
appropriately  pertain  to  an  official  communication. 

"  The  department,  on  the  30th  of  August,  under  the  direction  of  the  Presi 
dent,  made  a  requisition  upon  you  for  the  entire  militia  which  had  been  or 
should  be  organized  by  you,  that  they  might  be  employed  to  repel  the  « for 
midable  invasion  *  of  Georgia  by  the  enemy,  and  to  secure  her  from  *  de 
structive  raids.'  The  requisition  was  for  militia  in  a  state  of  organization. 
The  appointment  of  the  officers  of  militia  is  secured  by  the  Constitution  to  "^ 
the  State  from  which  they  are  drawn,  and  in  proposing  to  accept  organized 
militia,  the  officers  legally  appointed  would  necessarily  accompany  their 
commands. 

"The  inducements  to  this  call  were  several.  You  had  in  official  commu 
nication  stated  that  you  had  ten  thousand  militia  organized,  and  you  were 
known  to  be  apparently  busy  in  organizing  others.  Of  these,  a  portion,  it 
was  known,  were  with  the  army  of  Tennessee  in  some  auxiliary  relation,  and 
had  rendered  valuable  service  with  that  army  in  the  defence  of  Georgia.  Only 
a  limited  number,  however,  not  believed  to  constitute  half  of  the  number 
reported  by  you  to  be  actually  organized,  were  so  employed,  and  were,  as  has 
been  announced  by  you,  held  there  only  at  your  pleasure,  and  for  such  time 
and  during  such  operations  as  you  might  approve.  The  services  of  these 
gallant  defenders  of  their  State  were  so  appreciated  as  to  render  it  desirable 
that  the  full  number,  organized  or  to  be  organized,  should  be  secured  to 
repel  the  formidable  invasion  threatening  to  overrun  the  State ;  and  both  to 
impart  greater  unity  and  efficiency  to  the  command  of  them  and  enable  the 
general  commanding  to  rely  on  the  period  and  tenure  of  their  services,  it  was 
necessary  they  should  be  in  Confederate  service,  and  subject  not  to  your 
judgment  or  disposal,  but  to  the  control  of  the  constitutional  commander-in- 


320-  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

chief.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  uncertainty  as  to  their  control  or  retention 
must  impair  reliance  by  the  commander  on  these  troops,  and  embarrass  all 
calculations  for  their  employment  and  efficiency  in  combined  operations. 
^Vn  additional  ground  of  the  call  was  that  some  of  these  troops  hud  been 
detailed  for  objects  not  admitted  by  the  enrolling  officers  in  the  State  to  be 
authorized  by  Confederate  law,  and  others  were  claimed  as  primarily  liable, 
or  previously  subjected  to  Confederate  service.  This  had  engendered  con 
troversy,  and  endangered  collision  between  the  local,  Confederate  and  State 
authorities  which  it  was  most  desirable  to  anticipate  and  preclude. 

"  Besides,  these  militia,  as  far  as  they  were  serving  the  Confederate  army, 
had  to  be  subsisted  from  the  commissary  stores  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
might  equitably  expect  pay  from  its  treasury ;  but  if  held  as  State  troops 
only,  both  subsistence  and  pay  constituted  a  charge  on  the  State  alone. 

"  Serious  embarrassments  had  already  arisen  on  these  very  points,  and  de 
parture  had  been  necessary  from  the  regular  obligations  of  the  Confederate 
Government,  which  were  not  just  to  either  that  Government  or  its  disbursing 
officers.  The  powers  of  the  Confederate  Government  to  provide  for  the 
common  defence  are  exercised  according  to  laws  through  agencies  adopted 
by  Congress.  None  of  these  laws  contemplated  the  fulfilment  of  this  duty, 
by  troops  organized  and  held  by  the  State  in  its  own  service,  and  under 
officers  responsible  only  to  it. 

"The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  does  not  confer  on  the  State 
the  power  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war.  The  States  are  prohibited  from 
'  keeping  troops  or  ships  of  war  in  time  of  peace,  entering  into  any  agree 
ment  or  compact  with  another  State,  or  with  a  foreign  power,  or  engaging  in 
war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such  imminent  danger  as  will  not  admit  of 
delay.'  The  power  of  keeping  troops  in  time  of  war  is  thus  reserved,  and 
naturally  includes  whatever  is  necessary  to  accomplish  the  object  of  the  reser 
vation,  and  is  limited  in  its  scope  and  operation  only  by  the  Constitution  of 
the  Confederate  States  '  and  the  laws  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance 
thereof.'  It  does  not  imply  any  withdrawal  from  the  Confederate  Govern 
ment,  of  those  instrumentalities  and  agencies  that  the  Constitution  has  con 
fided  to  the  Government  of  the  Confederacy  for  the  fulfilment  of  the 
obligations  it  has  imposed  upon  it. 

"The  powers  to  declare  war,  to  raise  armies,  to  maintain  a  navy,  to  make 
rules  for  the  government  of  the  land  and  naval  forces,  to  make  rules  concern 
ing  captures  on  land  and  water,  to  protect  each  of  the  States  against  in 
vasion,  which  are  deposited  with  Congress,  manifest  the  purpose  of  the  States 
in  forming  their  Constitution,  to  charge  the  Confederate  Government  with 
the  burden  of  providing  for  the  common  defence.  The  clause  in  the  Consti 
tution  relative  to  the  militia  was  framed  in  harmony  with  the  same  purpose. 
The  Constitution  charges  Congress  with  the  organization,  equipment,  and  dis 
cipline  of  the  militia,  and  designates  the  President  as  Commander-m-Chief  of 
those  that  may  be  called  into  service. 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  327 

"It  was  evidently  the  design  of  the  Constitution,  and- of  the  laws  of  Con 
gress,  in  pursuance  thereof,  which  are  the  supreme  laws  of  the  land,  that  the 
President  should  have  the  discretion  and  the  power  of  calling  this  militia 
into  service,  and  having  personally  or  through  Confederate  commanders,  the 
disposition  and  command  of  them.  In  a  crisis  of  great  peril,  and  in  a  case 
of  plain  invasion  of  your  State,  he  has  exercised  this  power,  and  made  the 
Constitutional  requirements  on  you.  You  have  met  it  with  a  distinct 
refusal. 

"This  is  the  first  instance  in  the  annals  of  the  Confederacy  of  the  sug 
gestion  of  a  doubt  on  the  right  of  the  President  to  make  such  call,  and  the 
obligation  of  compliance  by  the  State  Executive. 

"  During  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain,  a  question  of  the  kind  was  made 
by  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  with  the  President  of  the 
then  United  States.  They  claimed  to  decide  whether  the  exigencies  existed 
which  authorize^  the  President  to  make  a  requisition  for  militia  to  repel  in 
vasions,  and  denied  his  power  to  associate  them  with  other  troops  under  a 
Federal  officer.  They  affected  to  believe  the  exercise  of  such  a  power,  im 
perilled  State  rights,  and  promoted  personal  ambition.  The  judicial  tribunals 
determined  adversely  to  the  pretensions  of  these  Governors,  and  the  country 
did  not  fail  to  discover,  lurking  under  their  specious  pretences,  hostility 
scarcely  less  than  criminal  to  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  Union,  an  un 
licensed  ambition  in  themselves,  and  a  dangerous  purpose,  in  the  midst  of 
war,  to  cripple  patriotic  efforts  for  the  public  defence.  The  impression  was 
not  wanting,  either  then  or  since,  that  they  were  even  in  communication  with 
the  enemy,  or  at  least  proposed  to  give  them  encouragement  and  moral 
support. 

"  Without  imputing  to  you  such  designs,  I  cannot  repress  apprehensions 
of  similar  effects  from  your  analogous  course  under  the  present  more  trying 
circumstances,  as  indeed  it  must  be  admitted  in  all  particulars,  •  and 
especially  on  the  main  point  of  the  existence  of  invasion,  there  was  more 
plausibility  in  their  case  than  in  yours,  on  the  grounds  assigned  for  refusal. 

"  On  analyzing  your  Excellency's  letter,  it  is  apparent  that  the  prominent 
and  influencing  reasons  of  your  action,  spring  from  a  spirit  of  opposition  to 
the  government  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  animosity  to  the  Chief  Mag 
istrate  whom  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  have  honored  by  their  choice 
and  confidence.  Your  reasons  may  be  reduced  to  the  following: 

"  1.  That  the  campaign  in  Georgia,  not  having  been  controlled  by  the 
President,  according  to  your  conceptions  or  with  the  means  you  advised,  you 
will  not  permit  any  force  you  can  control  to  be  subject  to  his  disposition, 
but  will  yourself  retain  their  control  and  mete  out  your  assistance  according 
to  your  views  of  policy  and  State  interest. 

"  2.  That  you  suspect  the  President  of  a  design,  after  the  reception  of  these 
militia,  to  disorganize  or  disband  them  that  he  may  displace  the  officers 
commanding  them  and  substitute  his  partisans  and  favorites. 


328  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  GOV.  BROWN 

"  3.  You  apprehend  that  these  militia,  under  the  President's  control,  will  be 
eraplo}Ted  for  such  length  of  time  and  under  such  conditions  as  will  be  delete 
rious  to  the  interests  of  themselves  and  the  State,  and  esteem  yourself  a  bet 
ter  judge  on  these  points,  especially  as  to  when  and  where  they  shall  be 
employed,  furloughed,  or  discharged,  etc. 

"  4.  That  these  troops,  besides  being  necessary  as  a  defence  against  inva 
sion,  are  also  necessary  to  defend  the  State  against  usurpations  of  power  and 
as  '  a  protection  against  the  encroachment  of  centralized  power,'  and  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  President  of  their  ability  and  disposition  to  do  this  was  the 
motive  for  the  call  on  you. 

"In  reference  to  the  first,  it  might  not  be  safe,  as  it  would  not  be  expedi 
ent,  now  to  expose  the  circumstances  of  the  present  campaign,  the  counsels 
that  guided,  or  the  resources  that  have  been  or  could  be  commanded  for  its 
operations. 

"  None  should  have  known  more  certainly  than  your  Excellency  the  zeal 
and  energy  with  which  the  President  and  this  department,  under  his  auspices, 
have  striven  to  command  resources  and  means  for  the  defence  of  Georgia  and 
the  overthrow  of  the  invader,  nor  the  impediments  and  difficulties  often  un 
fortunately  resulting  from  the  obstruction  of  the  local  authorities  which  they 
had  to  encounter.  Aware  early  of  the  danger  that  menaced  the  State,  be 
sides  concentrating  troops  from  other  departments  for  its  defence,  this 
department  strained  all  the  powers  vested  in  it  for  recruiting  the  army 
within  the  limits  of  Georgia  and  accumulating  supplies  for  its  support. 
The  legislation  of  the  Congress  that  ended  its  session  in  February  last  had 
been  comprehensive  and  vigorous. 

"  Your  Excellency  cannot  have  forgotten  how  that  legislation  was  de 
nounced  and  the  efforts  of  the  department  impaired  by  the  countervailing 
action  of  the  Executive  and  local  authorities  of  your  State.  To  the  depart 
ment  it  cannot  be  imputed  as  a  fault  that  Georgia  was  invaded  by  «  over 
whelming  numbers.'  The  ten  thousand  militia  you  boast  to  have  organized, 
without  adding  to  the  count  those  you  are  proceeding  to  organize,  if  incor 
porated  with  the  veteran  regiments  prior  to  the  first  of  May,  would  have  been 
an  invaluable  acquisition  to  the  army  of  Tennessee  and  not  improbably  have 
hurled  back  the  invader  from  the  threshold  of  your  State.  That  they,  or  a 
large  proportion  of  them  at  least,  were  not  ready  for  that  service  and  other 
auxiliary  means  to  its  operations  were  not  afforded,  I  am  bound  to  think  was 
due  to  the  obstacles  and  embarrassments  interposed  by  your  Excellency  and 
the  local  authorities,  with  your  countenance,  to  the  enforcement  of  the  Acts 
of  Congress  for  the  recruitment  and  maintenance  of  the  armies.  Your  Ex 
cellency  may  not  have  foreseen  and  realized  the  extent  and  import  of  the 
approaching  invasion,  but  to  whom  then  with  most  safety  and  wisdom  (apart 
even  from  constitutional  obligation)  can  the  disposition  and  command  of  the 
troops  in  question  be  committed? 

*'  In  your  second  reason  it  is  difficult  to  find  anything  but  the  ascription 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  329 

to  the  President  of  an  unworthy  design — a  design  that  cannot  be  accom 
plished  without  disappointing  the  objects  which  I  have  explained  as  the 
cause  of  the  requisition.  The  disbanding  of  the  militia  organizations  after 
their  call  into  service  would  result  in  the  discharge  of  such  of  the  men  as 
are  not  liable  to  service  under  the  Act  of  Congress  of  February  last,  and  those 
who  are  liable,  in  such  an  event,  would  be  placed  in  those  veteran  regiments 
raised  for  Confederate  service  in  the  State  of  Georgia  prior  to  April,  1862, 
whose  diminished  numbers  attest  the  fidelity,  valor,  and  suffering  with  which 
they  have  performed  their  duty.  Whether,  therefore,  the  militia  be  retained 
in  their  militia  organizations,  as  is  contemplated,  or  be  disbanded  as  you  ap 
prehend  may  be  done,  in  neither  event  can  new  organizations  be  made  or 
new  officers  appointed.  Your  suspicions  as  to  the  motives  and  designs  of 
the  President  are  simply  chimerical. 

"  In  your  third  reason  your  Excellency  has  apparently  forgotten  the  true 
inquiry,  where,  constitutionally  and  legally  in  all  such  matters,  the  discretion 
of  decision  is  lodged,  and  further,  that  a  provision  adequate  in  the  view  of 
Congress  against  abuse  has  been  provided  in  the  limitation  of  time  for  which 
the  milit;a  may  be  called  out  to  six  months.  In  illustrating  the  danger  of 
undue  detention  in  Confederate  service  your  Excellency  refers  to  the  course 
pursued  towards  the  troops  for  local  service  enlisted  by  you  last  fall  under  a 
call  from  the  department.  During  the  last  winter  your  Excellency  addressed 
to  this  department  an  acrimonious  letter  on  this  subject,  which  was  replied 
to  in  a  spirit  of  forbearance  and  with  a  careful  abstinence  from  the  use  of 
recriminating  language. 

"Justice  to  myself  demands  that  I  should  place  upon  the  records  of  the 
department  the  facts  to  which  you  have  again  alluded  in  the  same  language 
of  acrimonious  reproach.  It  had  been  designed  to  raise  troops  for  special 
defence  and  local  service  as  the  general  rule  throughout  the  State,  to  consti 
tute  a  part  of  the  provisional  army,  and  to  be  subject  to  the  call  of  the 
President  when  needed.  You  asked  to  supervise  and  control  the  whole 
matter,  and  unfortunately  the  privilege  was  yielded. 

"  You  abused  it  to  form  nondescript  organizations,  not  conforming  to  the 
regulations  of  the  provisional  army,  scant  in  men  and  abounding  in  officers, 
with  every  variety  of  obligation  for  local  service,  generally  of  the  most  re 
stricted  character,  and  for  the  brief  period  of  only  six  months.  Thus  it  was 
that  you  were  enabled  to  indulge  the  vain  boast  of  raising  some  sixteen  thou 
sand  men  for  the  defence  of  the  State,  while  in  fact  scarce  a  decent  division  of 
four  thousand  men  could  be  mustered  for  the  field,  and  those  only  for  six 
months'  service.  From  the  time  they  were  passed  to  Confederate  service 
there  was  pressing  necessity  for  their  presence  in  the  field,  for  Georgia  was 
not  only  menaced,  but  actually  invaded,  and  the  number  was  too  limited  to 
allow  substitution  or  furlough.  Apart  from  this,  you  persistently  claimed 
that  they  should  be  held  and  regarded  as  militia.  In  that  view,  they 
could  not  if  dismissed  be  recalled  on  emergency  as  local  troops,  and  this 


330  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

naturally  induced  their  detention  for  the  full  period  of  their  limited  term  of 
service. 

"  To  your  last  reason  I  refrain  from  replying  as  its  character  would  justify. 
I  cannot  think  the  sJgnificancy  of  the  language  quoted  has  been  duly  appre 
ciated  by  your  Excellency.  I  prefer  to  consider  them  as  inconsiderate  utter 
ances  rather  than  the  foreshadowing  of  a  guilty  purpose  to  array  your  State 
in  armed  antagonism  against  the  Confederacy,  and  so  to  betray  the  cause  of 
herself  and  sister  States. 

"  Such  purpose  I  know  would  be  scorned  and  rebuked  by  her  heroic  sol 
diery  and  loyal  people,  and  it  will  not,  while  it  be  possible  to  avoid  it,  be 
ascribed  by  me  to  one  whose  official  station  makes  him  their  recognized  or 
gan.  I  must,  however,  gravely  regret  that  the  spirit  of  your  Excellency's 
past  action  and  public  expressions  has  caused  grievous  misconceptions  in 
relation  to  the  feelings  and  purposes  of  yourself,  and  perhaps  of  others  of 
influence  in  your  State,  in  the  convictions  of  our  enemies  to  their  encourage 
ment,  and  the  mortification  of  many  patriotic  citizens  of  the  Confederacy. 

"  Our  enemies  appear  to  have  conceived  you  were  even  prepared  to  enter 
tain  overtures  of  separate  accommodation,  and  that  your  State,  so  justly 
proud  of  its  faith,  valor  and  renown,  could  be  seduced  or  betrayed  to  treach 
ery  and  desertion.  So  painful  a  manifestation  of  the  hopes  inspired  by  your 
indulgence  of  resentments  and  suspicions  against  the  Confederate  Adminis 
tration  will,  it  is  hoped,  awaken  to  consideration  and  a  change  of  future 
action.  To  the  department  it  would  be  far  more  grateful,  instead  of  being 
engaged  in  reminding  of  constitutional  obligations  and  repelling  unjust  im 
putations,  to  be  co-operating  with  your  Excellency  in  a  spirit  of  unity  and 
confidence,  in  the  defence  of  your  State  and  the  overthrow  of  the  invader. 
"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"JAMES  A.  SEDDON, 

"  Secretary  of  War." 

"EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

MlLLEDGEVILLE,    GA., 

November  14, 1864. 
"  HON.  JAMES  A.  SEDDON,  SECRETARY  OP  WAR. 

"  Sir:— Official  engagements  have  prevented  earlier  attention  to  your  letter 
of  8th  ult.,  which  reached  me  on  the  20th. 

"  You  are  pleased  to  characterize  a  portion  of  my  letter  as  acrimonious,  and 
claim  that  I  have  transcended  the  bounds  of  official  propriety,  and  seem  to 
desire  me  to  understand  that  you  labor  under  difficulties  in  restraining  your 
self  within  the  bounds  of  forbearance  in  your  reply.  As  the  acrimony  of 
my  letter  consisted  in  a  simple  narrative  of  truths,  communicated  in  a  plain 
straightforward  manner,  calling  things  by  their  right  name,  I  feel  that  I  am 
due  you  no  apology.  Of  course  no  personal  disrespect  was  intended.  I  am 
dealing  not  with  individuals,  but  with  great  principles,  and  with  the  conduct 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR  331 

of  an  administration  of  the  government,  of  which  your  department  is  but 
one  branch.  And  if  you  will  not  consider  the  remark  acrimonious,  I  will 
add  that  the  people  of  my  State,  not  being  dependent,  and  never  intending 
to  be,  upon  that  government  for  the  privilege  of  exercising  their  natural 
and  Constitutional  rights,  nor  the  Executive  of  the  State  for  his  official  ex 
istence,  I  shall  on  all  occasions  feel  at  liberty  to  exercise  perfect  independ 
ence  in  the  discharge  of  my  official  obligations,  with  no  other  restraints  than 
those  thrown  around  me  by  a  sense  of  duty,  and  the  Constitution  of  my 
country,  and  the  laws  of  my  State. 

"You  remark  that  this  is  the  first  instance  in  the  annals  of  the  Confederacy 
of  a  suggestion  of  a  doubt  on  the  right  of  the  President  to  make  such  a  call, 
and  the  obligation  of  compliance  by  the  State  Executive.  Doubtless  you 
are  right,  as  this  is  unquestionably  the  first  instance  in  the  annals  of  either 
the  old  or  new  Confederacy  of  such  a  call,  made  by  the  President.  It  pre 
sents  the  isolated  case  of  an  attempt  by  the  President  to  single  out  a  partic 
ular  State,  and,  by  grasping  into  his  own  hands  its  whole  military  strength, 
to  divest  it  of  its  last  vestige  of  power  to  maintain  its  sovereignty  ;  not  only 
denying  to  it  the  right  plainly  reserved  in  the  Constitution  to  keep  troops 
in  time  of  war  when  actually  invaded,  but  claiming  the  power  to  deprive  it 
of  its  whole  militia  and  leave  it  not  a  man  to  aid  in  the  execution  of  its  laws, 
or  to  suppress  servile  insurrection  in  its  midst. 

"  The  President  demands  that  Georgia  shall  turn  over  to  him,  and  relin- 
quish  her  command  and  control  over  every  militiaman  now  organized  by  her 
Executive,  and  all  he  may  be  able  to  organize.  The  militia  is  composed 
mainly  of  a  class  of  men  and  boys,  between  ages  not  subject  by  the  laws  of 
Congress  or  of  the  State  to  serve  in  the  Confederate  armies.  The  President 
calls  for  all  the  State  has  of  the  above  description.  As  no  such  requisition 
was  ever  before  made  upon  any  State,  and  it  probably  never  entered  into  the 
mind  of  any  statesman  that  suck  a  call  ever  would  be  made,  it  never  became 
necessary  to  question  the  right  to  make  it. 

"  You  cite  the  case  of  the  refusal  of  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  during  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain,  to  furnish  troops  for 
the  common  defence  upon  the  requisition  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  say  it  must  be  admitted  that  my  course  is  analogous  to  theirs  '  in 
all  particulars,'  and  that  there  was  more  plausibility  in  their  case  than  in 
mine,  on  the  grounds  assigned  for  refusal.  Let  us  test  this  statement  by  the 
standard  of  truth.  You  say  the  cases  are  analogous  *  in  all  particulars.'  I 
deny  that  they  are  analogous  in  any  particular.  To  show  the  character  of 
that  call,  I  quote  the  language  of  President  Monroe  : 

"  '  It  will  be  recollected  that  when  a  call  was  made  on  the  militia  of  that 
State,  for  service  in  the  war,  under  an  arrangement  which  was  alike  appli 
cable  to  (he  militia  of  all  the  States,  and  in  conformity  with  the  acts  of  Con- 
gre>s,  the  Executive  of  Massachusetts  refused  to  comply  with  the  call.'  That, 
then,  was  a  call  under  an  arrangement  alike  applicable  to  the  militia  of  all  the 


332  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

Slates.  This  is  not  a  call  made  under  an  arrangement  alike  applicable  to  the 
militia  of  all  the  States,  or  indeed  of  any  of  the  other  States.  This  is  a  call 
for  all  the  militia  which  the  Executive  of  Georgia  has  organized  or  may  be 
able  to  organize.  No  such  call  was  made  by  the  President  upon  the  militia 
of  any  other  State.  The  analogy  fails  then  at  the  very  first  step.  But  let 
us  trace  it  a  little  further.  That  was  a  call  for  men  within  the  age  required 
to  do  military  service  in  the  armies  of  the  United  States.  This  is  a  call  for 
men  who  are  exempt  by  act  of  Congress  from  all  service  in  the  Confederate 
armies,  and  of  whom  it  is  expressly  declared,  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature 
of  Georgia,  that  they  shall  not  be  *  liable  to  any  draft  or  other  compulsory 
process  to  Jill  any  requisition  for  troops  upon  the  Governor  of  the  State  by 
the  President  of  the  Confederate  States.'  That  was  a  call  which  the  Presi 
dent  could  legally  make,  and  which  the  Governors  had  lawful  authority  to 
fill.  This  is  a  call  which  the  President  had  no  lawful  right  to  make,  and 
which  the  Governor  could  not  fill  without  violating  a  positive  statute  of  his 
State.  That  was  a  call  for  active  militia  who  were  not  in  service,  but  were 
at  home  attending  to  their  ordinary  pursuits.  This  is  a  call  for  reserve 
militia,  who,  at  the  time  it  was  made  and  for  months  past,  had  been  in 
actual  service — most  of  the  time  in  the  trenches  around  Atlanta,  under  the 
constant  fire  of  the  guns  of  the  enemy.  In  that  case,  the  Governors  of  Mas 
sachusetts  and  Connecticut  refused  to  place  the  militia  of  those  States  under 
the  command  of  a  Federal  general.  In  this  case  the  militia  had  already 
been  placed  by  the  Governor  of  Georgia  under  the  command  of  a  Confederate 
general,  where  they  were  on  the  very  day  the  call  was  made,  and  had  been 
for  some  months  previous. 

"In  that  case,  the  Governors  of  those  States  adjudged  that  no  emergency 
existed  to  justify  the  call  for  the  militia,  after  the  President  had  decided  that 
it  did,  and  they  refused  to  order  them  into  the  field.  In  this  case,  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Georgia  admitted  that  the  emergency  did  exist,  and  had  ordered 
them  in,  months  before  the  President  saw  the  emergency  and  called  for  the 
services  of  the  militia.  In  that  case,  the  President  was  making  an  honest 
effort  to  get  the  militia  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  into  service,  to 
aid  in  repelling  any  assaults  that  might  be  made  by  the  enemy.  In  this 
case,  the  President,  after  the  reserve  militia  of  Georgia  had  been  called  out 
.by  the  Governor  and  put  into  active  service,  was  using  his  official  influence 
as  shown  by  General  Orders  Nos.  63  and  67,  issued  by  his  Adjutant-General, 
to  get  the  militia  of  Georgia  out  of  service,  where  they  were  confronting  the 
enemy  and  shedding  their  blood  in  the  defence  of  their  State. 

"When  they  were  in  the  trenches  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  the  Presi 
dent  held  out,  as  a  reward  for  their  delinquency  in  case  of  their  desertion 
from  the  State  militia  and  return  home,  a  guarantee  of  the  privilege  of  re 
maining  there  in  local  companies,  to  be  called  out  only  in  emergencies  to 
defend  their  own  counties  and  vicinage. 

**I  append  to  this  letter,  paragraph  1,  General  Order  No.  63.  and  a  para- 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  333 

graph  of  General  Order  No.  67,  by  reference  to  which  it  will  be  seen  that  all 
detailed  men  were  required,  and  all  exempts  from  Confederate  service  invited 
to  enroll  themselves  in  local  companies  at  home,  with  promise  that  they 
should  be  called  out  only  in  emergencies  to  defend  the  counties  of  their 
residence  and  contiguous  counties. 

"  The  present  militia  of  Georgia  are  composed  of  exempts  from  Confederate 
service  and  such  detailed  men  as  are  not  in  the  military  service  of  the  Con 
federate  States.  The  militia  of  the  State,  then  at  the  front,  was  composed 
of  men  of  these  classes  only.  The  order  was  addressed  to  all  men  of  both 
classes.  The  President  denied  the  right  of  the  Governor  of  Georgia  to  call 
out  the  detailed  men  for  service,  and  would,  if  consistent,  stand  ready  to  pro 
tect  them  in  case  they  would  desert  the  militia  service  and  return  home  and 
join  his  local  companies.  Thus  the  strong  temptation  of  remaining  at  home 
was  held  out  by  the  President  to  these  men  if  they,  would  ingloriously  aban 
don  Atlanta  when  beleaguered  by  the  enemy,  and,  after  desertion  from  the 
militia,  enlist  in  Confederate  service,  which  would  give  the  President  the  en 
tire  command  of  them  and  enable  him  to  destroy  the  militia  organization  of 
the  State.  Fortunately,  the  temptation  succeeded  in  inducing  but  a  small 
portion  of  the  militia  to  desert  and  return  home.  They  were  generally  true 
men  and  stood  gallantly  by  their  colors,  knowing  their  country  needed  their 
services  at  the  front  and  not  in  local  companies  in  the  rear.  General  Order 
No.  63  was  issued  on  the  6th  of  August  and  was  followed  by  General  Order 
No.  67  on  the  16th  of  the  same  month.  The  President  then  waited  two 
weeks  and  as  the  militia  still  remained  in  the  trenches  around  Atlanta  he 
found  it  necessary  to  change  his  policy  and  resort  to  a  requisition  upon  me 
for  the  whole  militia  of  the  State  as  the  only  means  left  of  accomplishing  his 
objects. 

"  President  Madison  offered  no  such  inducements  to  and  made  no  such  requi 
sition  upon  the  militia  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  So  much  for  the 
analogy  of  the  two  cases.  But  you  are  as  unfortunate  in  your  facts  as  in 
your  analogy,  as  will  be  further  seen  by  your  statement  that  the 'judicial 
tribunals  determined  adversely  to  the  pretensions  of  the  Governors.'  By  ref 
erence  to  the  8th  volume  Massachusetts  Reports  Supplement,  page  519,  you 
will  find  that  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court  of  that  State  had  the  case 
before  them  and  determined  every  point  made  by  Governor  Strong  in  his 
favor  and  '  adversely  to  the  pretensions '  of  the  President. 

"  But  you  remind  me  that  the  10,000  militia,  which  you  say  I  had  organ 
ized,  with  those  I  was  proceeding  to  organize,  if  incorporated  with  the  veteran 
regiments  prior  to  the  first  of  May,  would  have  been  an  invaluable  acquisi 
tion  to  the  army  of  Tennessee  and  not  improbably  have  hurled  back  the 
invaders  from  the  threshold  of  my  State.  If  this  were  true  and  the  move 
ments  and  strength  of  the  enemy  were  so  much  better  understood  by  the 
President  than  by  myself,  as  you  would  have  the  country  believe,  why  was  it 
that  the  President  made  no  call  for  the  militia  in  May  when  the  armies  were 


334  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

above  Dalton?  Why  was  the  call  delayed  till  the  30th  of  August,  two  days 
before  Atlanta  fell,  and  then  mailed  to  me  too  late  to  reach  Milledgeville  till 
after  the  fall?  If  the  control  of  the  whole  militia  of  the  State  by  the  Pres 
ident  was  so  essential  to  the  defence  of  Atlanta,  how  do  you  account  for  the 
neglect  of  the  President  to  call  for  them  till  after  the  campaign  had  ended  in 
the  surrender  of  the  city  to  the  enemy  ? 

"  Seeing  that  the  President  did  not  seem  to  appreciate  the  emergency  and 
the  danger  to  Atlanta,  upon  consultation  with  that  far-seeing  general  and 
distinguished  soldier,  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  I  had  ordered  the  militia  to  report 
to  him  and  aid  the  gallant  army  of  Tennessee.  I  first  ordered  out  the  civil  and 
military  officers  of  the  State,  when  the  armies  were  near  Dalton,  and  afterwards 
called  out  the  reserved  militia,  including  all  between  sixteen  and  fifty-five 
years  of  age,  when  they  were  at  Kennesaw.  During  all  this  time  and  for 
nearly  two  months  afterwards  no  call  was  made  by  the  President  for  their 
services.  If  the  statements  you  now  make  are  correct,  surely  such  neglect 
by  the  President  in  so  critical  an  emergency  involves  little  less  than 
criminality. 

"  Again  you  state  as  one  of  the  inducements  to  the  call  that  I  had  stated  in 
official  correspondence  that  I  had  ten  thousand  militia  organized — that  a  por 
tion  of  these  were  known  to  be  with  the  army  of  Tennessee  in  some  auxiliary 
relation — only  a  limited  number,  however,  not  believed  to  constitute  half  the 
number  reported  by  me  to  be  actually  organized. 

"  You  are  again  incorrect  in  your  facts  and,  unfortunately,  ignorant  of  the 
strength  of  the  force  that  was  under  your  command. 

"In  the  official  correspondence  to  which  I  suppose  you  allude,  I  did  not 
state  that  I  had  organized  ten  thousand  militia.  The  language  used  was, 
'nearly  ten  thousand  armed  men.'  At  that  time  the  two  regiments  of  the 
State  Line,  who  are  regular  troops  for  the  war,  numbered  nearly  fifteen  hun 
dred.  They  too  were  placed  under  the  Confederate  commander  and  nearly 
five  hundred  of  them  while  under  his  command  have  been  disabled  or  lost 
upon  the  battle-field.  But  if  I  had  made  the  statement  as  you  incorrectly 
charge,  it  would  have  been  true. 

"  The  tri-monthly  report  forwarded  by  Major-General  G.  W.  Smith,  who 
commands  the  division  of  State  militia,  to  General  Hood,  dated  September 
10,  1864,  but  a  few  days  after  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  showed  upon  the  muster 
rolls  of  his  division  nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  seventy  men.  This  re 
port  did  not  include  the  regiment  of  Fulton  county  militia,  which  had  been 
detached  for  local  service  in  the  city  under  the  command  of  Brigadier-General 
M.J.Wright  of  the  Confederate  army;  nor  the  regiment  of  Troup  county 
militia  which  was  stationed  by  the  commanding  general  at  West  Point  under 
Brigadier-General  Tyler  of  the  Confederate  army.  Nor  did  it  include  the 
two  regiments  of  the  State  Line  which  had  been  ordered  into  other  divisions 
of  the  army  of  Tennessee.  Nor  did  it  include  the  battalion  of  cadets  of 
the  Georgia  Military  Institute,  who  did  gallant  service  in  the  trenches  of 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  335 

Atlanta.  Nor  did  it  embrace  the  names  of  the  gallant  dead  of  this  division, 
who  never  turned  their  backs  to  the  enemy  but  fell  upon  the  battle-field  or 
died  in  the  hospital.  These  had  rendered  the  last  service  in  the  power  of 
the  patriot  to  his  country  before  the  President  saw  the  necessity  which  in 
duced  him  to  call  for  them,  and  as  they  slept  at  the  date  of  his  call  in  the 
soldiers'  grave  they  were,  unfortunately,  unable  to  respond.  But  if  you  say  that 
the  whole  ten  thousand  were  not  in  the  trenches  with  muskets  in  their  hands, 
I  reply  that,  while  many  were  sick  and  some  absent  without  leave,  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  number  upon  the  muster  rolls  were  there  than  of  probably 
any  other  division  in  General  Hood's  army,  and,  judging  from  the  late 
speecli  of  the  President  in  Macon,  a  much  larger  number  than  the  usual 
average  in  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy. 

"  As  I  understand  your  letter,  you  deny  that  it  was  the  purpose  of  the 
President  to  disband  or  disorganize  the  militia,  and  say  he  intended  to  take 
the  organization  with  all  its  officers  and  maintain  it.  I  do  not  pretend  to 
quote  your  language,  but  state  what  I  understand  to  be  the  substance. 
Unfortunately  your  own  record  contradicts  you.  In  the  requisition  made  by 
you  occurs  this  sentence :  '  Those  within  the  limits  of  General  Hood's 
department  will  report  to  him  ;  those  outside  to  the  Commandant  of  the 
department  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.'  The  line  between  these  depart 
ments  cuts  in  two  General  Smith's  division  and  probably  three  of  the  four 
brigades  of  which  it  is  composed,  and  the  requisition  orders  that  part  of  this 
division  and  those  brigades  on  one  side  of  it  to  report  to  General  Hood,  then 
at  Atlanta,  and  that  part  on  the  other  side,  to  the  Commandant  whose  head 
quarters  were  at  Charleston.  But  this  was  not  all  ;  it  amounted  to  an 
order  in  advance,  if  I  responded  to  the  call,  to  a  large  proportion  of  the 
militia  then  under  arms  to  leave  Atlanta  in  the  very  crisis  of  her  fate  and 
return  home  and  report  to  General  Jones  whose  headquarters  were  at 
Charleston.  This  would  not  only  have  permanently  divided  and  disbanded 
the  militia  organization  as  it  existed  under  the  laws  of  the  State,  but  would 
have  aided  the  President  in  carrying  out  his  policy  already  referred  to  of 
withdrawing  the  militia  from  Atlanta  before  its  fall,  and  compelling  armed 
men  then  aiding  in  its  defence  to  leave  and  report  to  a  Commandant  upon 
the  coast  where  there  was  no  attack  anticipated  from  the  enemy.  So  deter 
mined  was  the  President  to  accomplish  both  these  objects  that  he  did  not 
pretend  to  conceal  his  purpose,  but  incorporated  it  into  the  requisition  itself. 

"Past  experience  has  also  shown  that  the  President  will  surmount  all 
obstacles  to  secure  to  himself  the  appointment  of  the  officers  who  are  to 
command  troops  under  his  control.  Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  war 
Georgia  tendered  to  him  an  excellent  brigade  of  her  most  gallant  sons,  fully 
armed,  accoutred  and  equipped  with  two  months' training  in  camp  of  instruc 
tion.  He  refused  to  accept  it  as  it  waa,  but  disbanded  it  and,  refusing  to  recog 
nize  the  commanding  general  (though  every  officer,  I  believe,  in  the  brigade, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  petitioned  to  have  him  retained),  scattered  the 


336  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

regiments  into  other  brigades.  The  twelve  months'  men  entered  the  service 
with  officers  elected  by  them,  and  he  accepted  them  with  their  officers.  The 
Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States,  as  I  have  heretofore  most  conclu 
sively  shown,  and  as  the  Legislature  of  the  State  lias  resolved,  as  well  as 
the  laws  of  the  State,  authorize  them  to  elect  officers  to  fill  all  vacancies  that 
occur.  The  President  has  disregarded  this  right,  and  claims  and  exercises 
the  right  to  appoint  all  such  officers  for  them.  His  past  course,  as  well  as 
the  plain  language  of  the  requisition,  shows  that  you  misrepresent  the  Presi 
dent  when  you  deny  that  it  was  his  purpose  in  making  the  requisition  to  dis 
band  the  militia;  and  I  am  satisfied  that  I  do  him  no  injustice  in  supposing 
that  it  was  his  intention,  after  they  were  disbanded,  to  appoint  his  own 
partisans  and  favorites  to  command  them. 

"  Reference  is  made  in  your  letter  to  the  act  of  Congress  to  show  that  the 
President  could  only  hold  the  militia  six  months  under  a  call  upon  the  Gov 
ernor  for  their  services.  You  seem  to  forget  that  many  of  those  then  in 
service  for  whom  he  called  had  already  served  nearly  four  months.  And 
you  seem  to  suppose  that  I  will  be  unmindful  how  easy  it  would  be  at  the 
end  of  six  months  for  the  President  simply  to  renew  the  call  for  another  six 
months,  and  continue  this  to  the  end  of  the  war,  and  in  this  way  keep  the 
old  men  and  boys  of  Georgia  constantly  in  service  to  the  destruction  of  all 
her  agricultural  and  other  material  interest,  while  no  such  requirement  is 
made  of  any  other  State.  But  if  this  were  not  possible  by  these  repeated 
calls,  what  guaranty  have  they  under  the  act  of  Congress  and  the  promise  of 
the  President  that  they  would  be  disbanded  at  the  end  of  six  months?  The 
original  twelve  months'  men  entered  the  service  under  the  like  protection,  as 
they  supposed,  of  an  act  of  Congress  and  a  solemn  contract  with  the  Presi 
dent  that  they  should  be  discharged  at  the  end  of  their  time.  But  before 
the  time  expired  the  President  procured  another  act  of  Congress  which 
changed  the  law  on  that  subject,  and  he  then  refused  to  be  bound  by  his  con 
tract,  and  those  of  them  who  survive  are  yet  in  service  near  the  end  of  the 
fourth  year.  Even  the  furloughs  promised  them  were  not  allowed.  And 
ministers  of  religion  who  .made  a  contract  with  the  Government  to  serve  for 
one  year,  and  others  who  agreed  to  serve  three  years  in  the  ranks,  are  held 
after  the  expiration  of  their  time,  when  they  would  be  embraced  in  the 
exemption  act,  which  protects  those  at  home  if  the  Government  had  kept  its 
faith  and  discharged  them  according  to  the  contract. 

"  In  this  connection  I  must  also  notice  your  remarks  in  reference  to  the 
six  months'  men  of  last  fall  in  this  State.  And  as  every  material  statement 
you  now  make  upon  that  subject  is  contradicted  by  the  records  of  your  de 
partment,  made  up  over  your  own  signature,  the  task  is  an  unpleasant  one. 

k<  You  say  '  it  had  been  designed  to  raise  troops  for  special  defence  and 
local  service  FOR  THE  WAR  with  the  obligation  of  service  as  the  general  rule 
throughout  the  State,  to  constitute  a  part  of  the  provisional  army,  and  to  be 
subject  to  the  call  of  the  President  when  needed.'  If  this  statement  means 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  337 

anything,  it  is  intended  to  mean  that  the  call  was  made  on  me  for  the  troops 
to  serve  for  (he  war,  with  obligation,  as  the  general  rule,  to  do  service  through 
out  the  State.  That  is  what  you  now  say.  What  did  youthen  say  ?  I  quote 
from  your  requisition  of  6th  June,  1863. 

** '  The  President  has  therefore  determined  to  make  a  requisition  on  the 
Governors  of  the  several  States,  to  furnish  by  an  appointed  time,  for  service 
within  the  State,  and  for  the  limited  period  of  six  months,  a  number  of  men,' 
etc.  Again,  in  the  same  requisition  you  say,  '  I  am  instructed  by  the  Presi 
dent,  in  his  name,  to  make  on  you  a  requisition  for  eight  thousand  men,  to 
be  furnished  by  your  State,  for  the  period  of  six  MONTHS  from  the  first  day 
of  August  next,  unless  in  the  intermediate  time  a  volunteer  force  organized 
under  the  law  for  local  defence  and  special  service,  of  at  least  an  equal  num 
ber,  be  mustered  and  reported  as  subject  to  his  call  for  service  within  your 
State.' 

"This  does  not  look  much  as  if  the  call  was  made  for  troops  FOR  THE 
WAR  !  Was  it  for  troops  to  serve  as  the  general  rule  throughout  the  State  ?  I 
quote  from  the  same  document.  You  say,  *  it  becomes  essential  that  the 
reserves  of  our  population  capable  of  bearing  arms,  etc.,  be  relied  on  for  em 
ployment  in  the  local  defence  of  important  cities,  and  in  repelling  in  emergencies 
the  sudden  or  transient  incursions  of  the  enemy.'  Again,  'local  organizations 
or  enlistments  by  volunteering  for  limited  periods  and  special  purposes,  if  they 
can  be  induced,  would  afford  more  assurance  of  prompt  and  efficient  action.' 
You  then  refer  to  the  two  acts  of  Congress  for  local  defence  and  special  ser 
vice,  and  enclose  copies  of  them  and  call  my  attention  to  them.  And  you 
proceed  to  say,  'under  the  former  of  these,  if  organizations  could  be  effected, 
with  the  limitations  prescribed  in  their  muster  rolls,  of  service  only  at  home  or  at 
specified  points  of  importance  within  the  particular  State,  they  would  be  ad 
mirably  adapted  to  obtain  the  desired  end.'  In  speaking  of  the  inducements 
to  be  held  out  to  those  who  will  form  volunteer  companies  under  the  act  of 
Congress,  you  speak  of  them  as  '  organizations  for  special  service  within  the 
State,  under  officers  of  their  own  selection,  and  with  the  privilege  of  remain 
ing  at  home  in  the  pursuit  of  their  ordinary  aoocatlons,  unless  when  called  for 
a  temporary  exigency  to  active  duty.'  In  reference  to  the  service  to  be  per 
formed  by  these  organizations,  you  then  use  this  language  : 

"  *  Without  the  general  disturbance  of  a  call  on  the  militia,  the  organiza 
tions  nearest  to  the  points  of  attack  would  always  be  readily  summoned  to  meet 
the  emergency,  and  the  population  resident  in  cities  and  their  vicinities  would, 
without  serious  interruption  to  their  business  or  domestic  engagements,  stand 
organized  and  prepared  to  man  their  entrenchments  and  defend,  under  the 
most  animating  incitements,  their  property  and  homes.' 

"  You  remark  again,  '  After  the  most  active  and  least  needed  portion  of 

the  reserves  were  embodied  under  the  former  law,  the  latter  would  allow 

smaller  organizations  with  more  limited  range  of  service,  for  objects  of  police 

and  the  pressing  contingencies  of  neighborhood  defence.     Could  these  laws  be 

22 


338  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BEOWN 

generally  acted  -on,  it  is  believed,  as  full  organizations  of  the  reserve  popula 
tion  would  be  secured  for  casual  needs  as  would  be  practicable.' 

"  There  is  not  a  word  in  any  of  this  about  service  as  the  general  rule 
throughout  the  State.  But  every  impression  looks  to  local  and  limited  services 
in  sudden  emergencies,  such  as  the  sudden  incursions  of  the  enemy,  and  to 
the  defence  of  their  own  homes  and  the  entrenchments  around  them,  by  those 
who  live  in  cities,  '  to  neighborhood  defence,'  '  casual  raids,'  etc.,  with  the 
clear  promise  to  all  that,  so  soon  as  the  emergency  had  passed  they  should  be 
permitted  to  return  home  and  attend  to  their  'ordinary  avocations,'  their 
'business  or  domestic  engagements,'  etc.  The  troops  recollect  how  this 
promise  was  kept. 

"  But  you  charge  that  I  had  formed  nondescript  organizations  not  con 
forming  to  the  regulations  of  the  provisional  army,  scant  in  men  and 
abounding  in  officers,  with  every  variety  of  obligation  for  local  service,  gen 
erally  of  the  most  restricted  character,  and  for  the  brief  period  of  only  six 
months. 

"Each  organization  formed  by  me  was  in  conformity  to  the  statutes, 
copies  of  which  you  enclosed  as  the  guide  for  my  action,  and  for  the  exact 
time  designated  in  your  requisition  over  your  own  signature.  Each  had  the 
number  of  men  specified  in  the  statutes,  and  no  one  of  them  had  a  super 
numerary  officer,  with  my  consent,  or  so  far  as  I  know  or  believe.  The  requi 
sition  expressly  authorized  me  to  accept  troops  for  local  defence,  of  the  most 
restricted  character,  with  '  the  limitations  prescribed  in  their  muster  rolls  of 
service  only  at  home  or  at  specified  points  of  importance.'  But  while  you  ex 
pressly  authorized  this  I  refused  to  do  it,  except  in  case  of  companies  of  me 
chanics  and  other  workmen  in  cities — the  operatives  in  factories,  and  the 
employees  of  railroads,  etc.,  when  the  nature  of  their  avocations  made  it 
actually  necessary.  In  all  other  cases  I  refused  to  accept  the  companies 
when  tendered,  if  their  mutter  rolls  did  not  cover  and  bind  them  to  defend,  at 
least  one-fourth  of  the  whole  territory  of  the  State.  Many  of  them  covered 
the  whole  territory  of  the  State  with  the  conditions  of  their  muster  rolls. 
Some  complaints  were  made  at  my  course,  because  I  required  more  than  was 
required  by  either  the  acts  of  Congress,  or  the  requisition  of  the  Secretary  of 
War. 

"  Another  charge  is,  that  when  called  out  '  scarce  a  decent  division  of  four 
thousand  men  could  be  mustered  for  the  field,  and  then  only  for  six  months.' 
Your  obliviousness  of  facts,  as  well  as  of  records,  is  indeed  remarkable. 
Only  those  whose  mutter  rolls  embraced  Atlanta  and  the  territory  between  it 
and  the  Tennessee  line  were  called  out  till  near  the  end  of  the  period  for 
which  all  were  enlisted,  and  you  got  a  division  of  many  more  than  four 
thousand  within  that  boundary. 

"  The  others,  over  twelve  thousand,  were  at  home,  engaged  in  their  '  ordi 
nary  avocations,'  ready  to  respond  to  your  call  in  case  of  an  'emergency,'  or 
'  sudden  incursion  of  the  enemy.'  But  you  never  called  for  any  of  them  till 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  339 

a  short  time  before  the  end  of  the  term  of  their  enlistment.  Those  you  then 
called  out  you  never  even  armed,  and  it  was  believed  by  them  that  they 
were  only  assembled  for  the  convenience  of  the  conscript  officers,  to  save 
them  the  trouble  of  searching  through  the  country  to  see  if  any  among  them 
were  subject  to  conscription.  Nobody  pretended  that  there  was  any  '  emer 
gency  '  or  '  sudden  incursion  of  the  enemy*  at  the  time  of  the  last  call,  in  the 
sections  of  the  State  they  had  agreed  to  defend.  I  have  gone  thus  fully  into 
this  record  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  palpable  injustice  which  you 
attempt  to  do  me,  and  of  exposing  the  flimsy  pretext  under  which  you  seek 
to  defend  the  bad  faith  which  was  exercised  by  the  Government  towards  the 
gallant  men  who,  by  their  prompt  response,  more  than  doubly  rilled  your 
requisition  in  its  letter  and  spirit. 

"  As  a  last  means  of  escape  you  say  I  persistently  claimed  that  they  should 
be  held  and  regarded  as  militia.  '  In  that  case  they  could  not,  if  dismissed, 
be  recalled  on  emergency  as  local  troops,  and  this  naturally  induced  their 
detention  for  the  full  period  of  their  limited  term  of  service.'  I  should  have 
been  greatly  obliged  if  you  had  given  a  reason  why  militia  mustered  into 
service  for  the  period  of  nix  months,  with  the  express  promise  that  they 
should  be  permitted  to  remain  at  home  in  the  pursuit  of  their  '  ordinary 
avocations,'  except  in  'emergencies  '  or  to  meet  '  sudden  and  transient  incur 
sions  of  the  enemy,'  could  not  receive  furloughs  and  return  home  between 
'emergencies'  and  'sudden  and  transient  incursions  of  the  enemy,'  and  re 
assemble  on  the  recurrence  of  the  emergency.  Why  could  not  the  same 
men,  living  in  the  same  district,  united  for  the  same  purpose,  to  defend  the 
same  territory  against  'sudden  and  transient  incursions  of  the  enemy,'  have 
received  furloughs  to  return  home  and  attend  to  the  pursuit  of  their  '  ordinary 
avocations,'  if  called  militia  and  commanded  by  officers  appointed  as  the  Con 
stitution  provides,  by  the  States,  as  well  as  if  called  local  companies,  and 
commanded  by  officers  appointed  by  the  President  ?  What  strange  magic  is 
there  about  the  President's  commission  which  would  enable  men,  organized 
for  service  under  officers  holding  it,  to  receive  furloughs  when  not  needed 
for  service, which  the  same  men,  organized  for  the  same  service,  could  not  get 
if  their  officers  received  their  commissions  in  the  constitutional  mode  from 
the  State?  If  the  same  companies,  composed  of  the  same  officers  and  men, 
may  be  temporarily  dismissed  when  not  needed  for  the  service  they  have 
engaged  to  render  when  called  by  the  name  '  local  companies,'  why  may  this 
not  be  done  when  they  are  called  by  the  name  militia? 

"  As  no  reason  can  exist  for  the  distinction  you  attempt  to  draw  as  a  justi 
fication  of  the  President's  conduct,  none  was  assigned  by  you.  It  is  simply 
absurd  to  say  that  the  militia  cannot  be  furloughed  and  sent  home  when  not 
needed,  to  be  recalled  when  needed.  But  for  the  interruption  of  our  militia 
organization,  which  grew  out  of  the  Conscript  Act  of  February  last,  instead 
of  ten  thousand,  I  could  have  sent  nearer  thirty  thousand  to  Atlanta,  to  aid 
in  its  defence. 


340  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

•'  The  Legislature,  unfortunately  for  Georgia,  turned  over  to  the  President's 
control  that  part  of  the  organized  militia  within  the  ages  specified  in  the 
act  of  Congress  and,  when  the  hour  of  peril  came,  out  of  all  the  large  num 
ber  embraced  in  the  act  of  Congress,  and  turned  over  to  his  control  by  the 
resolution  of  the  Legislature,  he  had  not  a  single  one  at  the  front  with  a 
musket  in  his  hands,  to  aid  in  the  defence  of  the  State.  Of  all  the  Confed 
erate  reserves,  to  which  the  State  was  told  she  might  safely  look  for  defence, 
not  a  man  with  a  musket  in  his  hands  was  at  the  front  during  the  whole 
march  of  the  Federal  army  from  Dalton  till  its  triumphant  entrance  into 
Atlanta.  And  if  action  had  been  delayed  until  the  President  called,  as 
shown  by  the  date  of  his  call,  not  a  man  of  all  the  reserve  militia  of  the 
State  would  have  been  there.  The  Confederate  reserves  organized  were  not 
sufficiently  numerous  to  guard  the  unarmed  Federal  prisoners  in  the  State, 
and  I  had  to  furnish,  when  their  services  were  much  needed  at  the  front,  a 
battalion  of  militia  to  aid  them. 

"  The  interruption  by  the  State  authorities,  to  which  you  refer,  is  entirely 
imaginary.  After  the  decision  of  the  Legislature,  your  officers  were  left 
perfectly  free  to  execute  the  law  of  Congress  in  all  its  rigor.  But  if  it  were 
real,  surely  the  President,  with  the  aid  of  his  large  force  of  officers  in  this 
State,  should  have  been  able  to  get  somebody  to  the  front.  A  single  man 
with  a  good  musket  might  have  rendered  some  assistance.  Or  if  this,  by 
reason  of  inefficiency,  could  not  be  done,  if  he  had  ordered  his  corps  of  con 
script  officers  there,  as  I  ordered  the  State  officers,  they  were  sufficiently 
numerous  to  have  done  essential  service.  For  even  this  favor,  at  that  crit 
ical  period,  the  people  of  Georgia  would  have  been  under  great  obligations 
to  him. 

"  I  must  not  forget  another  ground  of  the  call,  as  you  term  it,  which  was 
that  some  of  these  troops  (the  ten  thousand  organized  militia)  had  been  de 
tailed  for  objects  not  admitted  by  enrolling  officers  in  the  State  to  be  au 
thorized  by  Confederate  law,  and  others  were  claimed  as  primarily  liable, 
or  previously  subject  to  Confederate  service.  This,  you  say,  had  'engen 
dered  controversy,'  which  it  was  most  desirable  to  '  anticipate  and  preclude.' 
As  Confederate  enrolling  officers  had  denied  the  right  of  the  State  to  make 
details,  and  had  claimed  certain  men  whom  the  Governor  held  as  a  part  of 
the  militia  of  the  State,  and  as  the  Governor  did  not  at  once  yield  to  the 
pretensions  of  those  Confederate  officers,  but  was  disposed  to  contend  for 
the  rights  of  the  State,  the  President,  unwilling  to  allow  the  controversy, 
determined  to  relieve  the  State  of  her  whole  militia,  by  making  requisition  for 
it,  and  taking  it  all  into  his  own  hands,  which  would  4  anticipate  and  pre 
clude  '  any  further  controversy  ;  as  the  State,  having  no  militia  left,  need 
have  no  further  controversy  about  her  right  to  any  particular  individuals  as 
part  of  it. 

"  This  new  discovery  of  the  President  of  the  mode  of  settling  a  contro 
verted  right,  and  the  magnanimity  and  statesmanship  displayed  by  him  in 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  341 

this  affair,  cannot  be  too  highly  appreciated.  By  imitating  his  example  in 
future,  the  stronger  party  can  always  make  a  speedy  settlement  with  the 
weaker,  without  allowing  any  unpleasant  controversy  about  rights. 

"  Your  assertion,  that  my  past  action  and  public  expressions  have  given 
encouragement  to  our  enemies,  to  the  mortification  of  many  patriotic  citizens 
of  the  Confederacy,  may  be  properly  disposed  of  by  the  single  remark,  that 
if  we  may  judge  of  the  encouragement  of  our  enemies  by  the  general  ex 
pression  of  their  public  journals,  the  President  gave  them  more  delight,  hope, 
and  encouragement,  by  his  single  speech  at  Macon,  than  all  the  past  acts 
and  public  expressions  of  my  life  could  have  done,  had  I  labored  constantly 
to  aid  and  encourage  them.  He  who  can  satisfy  the  enemy  that  two-thirds 
of  the  men  who  compose  our  gallant  armies  are  absent  from  their  posts, 
affords  them  delight  and  encouragement  indeed,  as  they  will  no  longer 
doubt,  if  this  be  true,  that  the  spirit  of  our  people  is  broken,  and  that  our 
brave  defenders.can  no  longer  be  relied  on  to  sustain  our  cause  in  the  field. 
All  remember  the  mortification  which  this  speech  of  the  President  caused  to 
the  patriotic  citizens  of  the  Confederacy.  If  it  had  been  true,  surely  it 
should  not  have  been  publicly  proclaimed  by  the  President.  But  I  am  satis 
fied  it  was  not  true,  and  that,  in  making  the  statement,  the  President  did 
grievous  injustice  to  the  brave  men  who  compose  our  gallant,  self-sacrificing 
armies. 

"  It  has  also  been  agreeable  to  you  to  speak  of  my  action  as  springing  from 
a  spirit  of  opposition  to  the  Confederate  Government,  and  animosity  to  the 
Chief  Magistrate.  I  have  but  a  word  of  reply  to  this  unjust  and  ungenerous 
attack.  Some  men  are  unable  to  distinguish  between  opposition  to  a  gov 
ernment  and  unwillingness  blindly  to  endorse  all  the  errors  of  an  adminis 
tration,  or  to  discriminate  between  loyalty  to  a  cause  and  loyalty  to  their 
master.  My  loyalty  is  only  due  to  my  country ;  you  can  bestow  yours  where 
your  interest  or  inclinations  may  prompt. 

"  I  do  not  consider  that  the  point  you  attempt  to  make  about  the  pay  and 
subsistence  of  the  militia,  while  under  the  Confederate  general  commanding 
the  department,  has  in  it  even  a  show  of  plausibility.  They  were  accepted 
by  him  for  the  time  as  an  organization,  and,  while  under  his  control,  he  has 
the  absolute  command  of  them,  and  the  Governor  of  the  State  does  not  exer 
cise  the  slightest  control  over  them.  What  possible  pretext  for  saying  that 
he  may  not  order  this  division  subsisted  and  paid  as  well  as  any  other  division 
under  his  command?  There  is  just  as  much  reason  for  saying  that  a  divis 
ion  of  Georgians  under  Gen.  Lee  should  not  be  subsisted  and  paid  by  the 
Confederacy,  while  under  his  command,  as  that  this  division  under  Gen. 
Hood  should  not  be  subsisted  and  paid  while  he  commanded  them.  The 
truth  at  the  bottom  of  all  this  is  so  visible  that  it  cannot  be  concealed  even 
by  an  attempt  to  muddy  the  water. 

"  I  find  the  statement  emphasized  by  you,  that  the  Constitution  of  the  Con 
federate  States  does  not  confer  on  the  States  the  power  to  keep  troops  in  time 


342  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

of  war.  As  the  States  were  sovereign  and  possessed  all  power  when  they 
formed  the  Constitution  which  gave  life  to  the  Confederate  Government, 
neither  that  Government  nor  the  Constitution  could  confer  any  power  on 
the  States.  They  retained  all  that  they  did  not  confer  upon  it.  But  admit 
your  statement,  and  what  follows  ?  You  were  obliged  to  admit  in  the  next 
sentence  that  the  States  did  reserve  that  power.  Having  reserved  it,  they 
are  certainly  authorized  to  exercise  it.  As  you  admit,  they  not  only  reserved 
the  power,  but  the  reservation  naturally  includes  whatever  is  necessary  to 
accomplish  the  object  of  it.  But  you  then  attempt  to  explain  it  away,  by 
denying  that  the  reservation  means  anything,  and,  in  effect,  contend  that 
the  Confederate  Government  may  take  from  the  State  the  last  one  of  the 
troops  which  she  has  reserved  the  power  to  keep,  without  violating  the  re 
served  rights  of  the  State.  In  other  words,  the  State  has  plainly  reserved 
the  right  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war  when  actually  invaded.  But  this 
right  you,  in  effect,  say  is  subordinate  to  the  will  of  the  President,  who  may 
take  the  last  one  of  them  from  her  whenever  he  chooses  to  do  so. 

"According  to  your  mode  of  reasoning,  if  a  State  or  an  individual  dele 
gates  certain  powers  to  an  agent,  and  reserves  certain  other  powers,  the  re 
served  powers  are  limited  by  and  subordinate  to  the  delegated  powers,  and 
may  be  entirely  destroyed  by  them  when,  in  the  opinion  of  the  agent,  this 
is  necessary  to  enable  him  to  execute,  to  their  fullest  extent,  the  delegated 
powers.  In  other  words,  the  reserved  powers  are  to  be  construed  strictly,  and 
the  delegated  powers  liberally,  and  the  reserved  are  to  yield  to  the  delegated 
whenever  there  is  apparent  conflict.  I  confess  I  had  not  understood  this  to 
be  the  doctrine  of  the  State  Rights  or  Jeffersonian  school.  I  had  been 
taught  that  the  delegated  powers  are  to  be  construed  strictly,  and  in  case  of 
a  delegation  of  powers  with  certain  reservations,  that  the  delegated  powers 
are  limited  and  controlled  by  the  reserved  powers.  This  well-established 
rule  is  repudiated  by  you  when  it  conflicts  with  the  purposes  of  the  Confed 
erate  administration,  and  you  claim  that  the  power  reserved  by  the  States  to 
keep  troops  in  time  of  war,  when  actually  invaded,  simply  means  that  they 
may  keep  them  till  the  Confederate  Executive  chooses  to  call  for  and  take 
the  last  one  of  them  out  of  their  control. 

"To  justify  all  this,  you  are  driven  to  the  usual  plea  of  necessity.  You 
say  it  was  necessary  that  the  whole  militia  of  Georgia  should  be  in  Con- 
feaerate  service,  and  subject,  not  to  my  judgment  or  disposal,  but  to  the 
control  of  the  constitutional  commander-in- chief. 

"I  deny  that  the  President  is,  or  ever  can  be,  without  the  consent  of  the 
State,  the  constitutional  commander-in-chief  of  the  whole  militia  of  the  State. 
When  we  take  the  whole  context  together,  the  Constitution  is  plain  upon 
this  point.  He  is  declared  to  be  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
navy  of  the  Confederate  States  and  of  the  militia  of  the  several  States  when 
called  into  actual  service  of  the  Confederate  States. 

"Congress  has  power  to  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  343 

laws.of  the  Confederate  States,  suppress  insurrections,  and  repel  invasions. 
Congress  has  power  to  provide  for  organizing,  arming  and  disciplining 
the  militia,  and  for  governing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  Confederate  States.  Then  comes  the  qualification.  The 
States  reserve  the  right  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war,  when  actually  invaded. 
If  she  is  not  invaded,  under  provision  made  by  Congress,  they  may  be  called 
forth  if  the  emergency  requires  it.  If  she  is  invaded,  she  may  keep  such 
part  of  them  as  she  thinks  proper,  under  her  reserved  right,  and  they  cannot 
be  taken  without  her  consent.  The  whole  case  is  in  a  nutshell.  Congress 
may  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia,  and  for  governing  suchpart  of  them 
as  are  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  President  is, 
for  the  time,  commander-in-chief  of  all  who  are  so  employed.  And  all  may 
be  so  employed,  except  such  as  the  State  determines  to  keep,  by  virtue  of  her 
reserved  right  in  time  of  war,  when  actually  invaded.  These  Congress  has 
no  right  to  call  forth,  and  no  right  to  provide  for  governing;  and  of  these 
the  President  is  not  the  constitutional  Commander-in-chief,  but  the  Governor 
of  the  State  is,  so  long  as  the  State  keeps  them,  and  she  has  an  unquestion 
able  right  to  keep  them  as  long  as  the  invasion  of  her  territory  lasts. 

"  This  I  understand  to  be  the  constitutional  right  of  the  State  of  Georgia. 
By  this,  as  her  Executive,  I  stand,  and  regard  with  perfect  indifference  all 
assaults  upon  either  my  loyalty  or  motives  by  those  who  deny  this  right,  or 
seek  to  wrest  it  from  her  to  increase  their  own  power  or  gratify  their  own 
ambition. 

"  A  word  as  to  the  use  I  shall  make  of  this  militia  and  of  all  the  troops  at 
the  command  of  the  State.  No  sentence  in  my  former  letter  is  an  'incon 
siderate  utterance.'  No  word  in  it  justifies  the  construction  that  I  will 
array  my  State  in  '  armed  antagonism  against  the  Confederacy.'  On  the 
contrary,  I  will  use  the  troops  to  support  and  maintain  all  the  just  rights  and 
constitutional  powers  of  the  Confederacy  to  the  fullest  extent.  No  State  is 
truer  to  the  Confederacy  than  Georgia;  and  none  will  make  greater  sacrifices 
to  maintain  its  rights,  its  just  powers,  and  its  independence.  The  sacrifices 
of  her  people  at  home,  and  the  blood  of  her  sons  upon  the  battle-field,  have 
abundantly  established  this  truth.  But  while  I  will  employ  all  the  force  at 
my  command  to  maintain  all  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  Confederacy 
and  of  my  State,  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  use  the  same  force  to  protect  the 
same  rights  against  external  assaults  and  internal  usurpations.  Those  who 
imagine  themselves  to  be  the  Confederacy,  and  consider  only  loyalty  to 
themselves  as  loyalty  to  it,  and  who  recognize  in  neither  the  people  nor  the 
State  any  rights  which  conflict  with  their  purposes  or  future  designs,  doubt 
less  see  in  this  the  « foreshadowing  of  a  guilty  purpose.'  It  is,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  a  fixed  purpose. 

"  It  is  not  only  my  right,  but  my  duty,  to  uphold  the  constitutional  rights 
and  liberties  of  the  people  of  Georgia  by  force,  if  necessary,  against  usurpations 
and  abuses  of  power  by  the  central  Government.  The  militia  is,  under  the 


344  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

Constitution,  one  of  the  proper  instrumentalities  for  that  purpose.  There 
is  scarcely  a  single  provision  in  the  Constitution  for  the  protection  of  life, 
liberty,  or  property  in  Georgia,  that  has  not  been  and  is  not  now  constantly 
violated  by  the  Confederate  Government  through  its  officers  and  agents. 

"  It  has  been  but  a  short  time  since  one  of  the  stores  of  the  State  of  Georgia, 
containing  property,  in  the  peaceable  possession  of  the  State,  was  forcibly 
entered  by  a  Confederate  officer  and  the  property  taken  therefrom  by  force. 
I  had  no  militia  present  at  the  time  to  repel  this  invasion  of  the  rights  of 
the  sovereign  State,  but  should  have  had  them  there  soon  if  the  property  had 
not  been  restored. 

"  A  single  Confederate  provost  marshal  in  Georgia  admits  that  thirty 
citizens  and  soldiers  have  been  shot  by  his  guard,  without  his  right  to  shoot 
citizens  being  questioned  till  within  the  last  few  days,  when  he  was  greatly 
enraged  that  a  true  bill  for  murder  should  have  been  found  by  a  grand  jury 
against  one  of  them  for  shooting  down  a  citizen  in  the  streets  who  offended 
him  by  questioning  his  authority  over  him.  Every  citizen  in  the  State,  both 
man  and  woman,  is  arrested  in  the  cars,  streets  and  highways,  who  presumes 
to  travel  without  a  pass.  They  are  arrested  without  law.  and  imprisoned  at 
pleasure  of  Government  officials.  The  houses,  lands,  and  effects  of  the  people 
of  Georgia  are  daily  seized  and  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  Government 
or  its  agents  without  the  shadow  of  law,  without  just  compensation,  and  in 
defiance  of  the  decision  of  the  supreme  judicial  tribune  o^f  the  State;  and 
her  officers  of  justice  are  openly  resisted  by  the  officers  of  the  Confederate 
States.  The  property  of  the  families  of  soldiers  now  under  arms  to  sustain 
the  Confederacy  is  forcibly  taken  from  them  without  hesitation,  and  appro 
priated  in  many  cases  without  compensation. 

"  In  this  state  of  things  the  militia  are  necessary  to  uphold  the  civil  tribu 
nal  of  the  State,  and  will  be  used  for  that  purpose  whenever  the  proper  call 
is  made  by  the  proper  authorities. 

"No  military  authority,  State  or  Confederate,  can  be  lawfully  used  for 
any  other  purpose  than  to  uphold  the  civil  authorities,  and  so  much  of  it  as 
the  Constitution  of  my  country  has  confided  to  my  hands  shall  be  used  for 
that  purpose,  whether  civil  society,  its  Constitution  and  laws  shall  be  in 
vaded  from  without  or  from  within.  Measured  by  your  standard,  this  is 
doubtless  disloyalty.  Tested  by  mine,  it  is  a  high  duty  to  my  country. 

"  Respectfully,  etc., 

"  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  345 

i 

"  CONFEDERATE   STATES  OF  AMERICA, 
WAR  DEPARTMENT,  RICHMOND,  VA.,  December  13,  1804. 

"HIS  EXCELLENCY  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN, 
GOVERNOR  OF  GEORGIA, 

Macon,  Ga. 

"  Sir: — Your  letter  of  the  14th  ult.  has  been  received.  In  accordance  with 
the  rule  I  have  prescribed  to  myself  in  my  correspondence  with  you,  I  shall 
avoid  all  notice  of  the  observations  in  your  letter  which  do  not  in  my  opin 
ion  form  matter  proper  for  official  communication;  and  therefore  much  of 
your  letter  will  have  no  response. 

"An  act  of  Congress  of  the  27th  of  February,  1861,  provided:  <  That  to  /•- ' 
enable  the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States  to  maintain  its  jurisdiction 
over  all  questions  of  peace  and  war,  and  to  provide  for  the  public  defence, 
the  President  be,  and  he  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to  assume  control 
of  all  military  operations  in  every  State,  having  reference  to  or  connection 
with  questions  between  said  States,  or  any  of  them,  and  powers  foreign  to 
them.'  On  the  6th  March  of  the  same  year,  they  empowered  the  President 
*  to  employ  the  militia,  military  and  naval  forces  of  the  Confederate  States 
to  repel  invasion,  maintain  the  rightful  possession  of  the  Confederate  States 
in  every  portion  of  the  territory  belonging  to  each  State,  and  to  secure  the 
public  tranquillity  and  independence  against  threatened  invasion.'  These  acts 
of  Congress  do  not  exceed  the  competency  of  that  body  under  the  Constitu 
tion.  They  confer  plenary  powers  upon  the  President  to  employ  all  the 
military  power  of  the  Confederate  States  to  meet  the  extraordinary  emergen 
cies  that  might  arise,  and  which  were  then  foreshadowed.  You  do  not  deny 
the  existence  of  the  emergency  anticipated  and  provided  for  by  Congres-5. 
You  simply  contend  that  you  should  employ  the  militia  instead  of  the  Presi 
dent.  That  you  should  conduct  some  military  operations,  rather  than  the- 
President,  and  that  Congress  judged  unwisely  in  confiding  ppwer  to  him, 
rather  than  to  yourself.  Jn  my  judgment,  these  acts  of  Congress  bind  you, 
both  as  a  citizen  and  an  officer,  and  you  owe  prompt,  cordial,  and  unhesitating 
obedience  to  them. 

"  In  stating  the  parallel  case  of  the  conduct  of  the  refractory  Governors  of 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  in  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  during  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Madison,  I  was  aware  that  the  former  had  the  support 
of  the  opinion  of  the  judges  of  that  State,  as  contained  in  a  letter  addressed 
to  him,  and  as  cited  by  you.  They  had  also  the  support  of  their  State  Leg- 
tslatures  and  of  the  resolves  of  the  Hartford  Convention,  composed  of  dele 
gates  from  those  and  other  States.  The  authority  of  these  different  public 
officers  and  agencies  support  your  Excellency;  but  the  judicial  opinions  of 
the  supreme  court  of  New  York,  and  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  United 
States,  as  rendered  in  the  line  of  their  duty  in  cases  before  them,  and  the 
general  sentiment  of  the  people  and  the  uniform  action  of  the  authorities  of 
loyal  States,  afford  no  such  support. 


346  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

• 

"Maj.-Gen.  Cobb  informs  the  Department  that  he  has  made  a  satisfactory 
adjustment  of  this  difficulty,  and  I  dismiss  the  subject  without  further 
remark. 

*'  In  the  summer  of  1863,  it  became  apparent  that  unless  the  population  of 
the  different  States  who  were  not  embraced  in  the  acts  of  Congress  of  the 
16th  April  and  27th  September,  1862,  providing  for  the  public  defence, 
usually  termed  Conscription  Acts,  were  organized  for  service,  that  the  country 
would  be  exposed  to  frequent  arid  injurious  incursions  from  the  enemy,  by 
which  it  would  be  devastated  before  the  means  of  defence  could  be  carried 
to  the  place  of  invasion.  A  proposal  for  the  organization  was  prepared  and 
communicated  to  the  Governors  of  all  the  States.  This  plan  was  to  organize 
all  the  non-conscript  population  in  companies  under  the  acts  of  Congress  to 
provide  for  the  local  defence  or  special  service.  These  acts  provided  only 
for  voluntary  enlistments,  and  an  alternative,  or  rather  an  auxiliary  propo 
sition,  was  presented  to  facilitate  the  accomplishment  of  this  leading  and 
prominent  object. 

"I  addressed  you  on  the  6th  of  June,  1863,  a  letter  on  the  subject,  a  tele 
gram  on  the  12th,  and  a  second  letter  on  the  10th  of  the  same  month.  The 
general  orders  of  the  department,  embodying  its  views  as  to  the  nature  of 
these  volunteer  organizations,  and  disclosing  the  details  of  the  measure,  were 
published  by  the  Adjutant  and  Inspector-General,  the  22d  June,  1863. 
These  orders  required  that  those  companies  should  be  formed  for  service 
during  the  war;  that  they  were  not  to  be  called  into  service  except  in  cases 
of  emergency  ;  that  they  were  not  to  be  employed  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
State;  that  when  the  emergency  terminated  they  were  to  be  dismissed  to 
their  homes  ;  that  service  in  those  companies  would  excuse  from  service  as 
militia  ;  that  those  companies  were  preferred  to  militia  organizations  ;  that 
they  were  to  be  armed  by  the  Confederate  States  as  far  as  necessary,  and 
were  to  be  paid  by  them  while  in  service.  A  copy  of  this  order  is  enclosed. 

"  These  views  were  disclosed  in  the  letters  I  have  before  referred  to.  The 
extracts  you  have  made  from  them  to  defend  your  conduct  do  not  represent 
the  views  of  the  department  fairly. 

"  In  my  letter  of  the  6th  of  June,  I  state  the  necessity  for  organization  of 
the  non-conscript  population ;  the  many  and  grave  objections  to  the  use  of 
the  militia ;  the  superiority  of  the  system  of  defence  proposed  by  voluntary 
organizations  for  home  defence,  and  the  motives  that  might  be  addressed  to 
the  people  to  adopt  that  mode  of  defence.  I  state  in  that  letter  that :  *  For 
this  (the  organization)  the  legislation  of  Congress  has  made  a  full  provision 
by  two  laws,  one  entitled  An  Act  to  provide  for  Local  Defence  and  Special 
Service,  approved  August  21,  1861;  the  other  entitled  An  Act  to  authorize 
the  formation  of  Volunteer  Companies  for  Local  Defence,  approved  October 
13,  1862,  to  which  your  attention  is  invited,  and  of  which,  as  they  are 
brief,  copies  are  appended.  Under  the  former  of  these,  if  organizations 
could  be  effected  with  the  limitations  presented  in  the  muster  rolls  of  service 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  347 

only  at  home,  or  at  specified  points  of  importance  within  the  particular 
State,  they  would  be  admirably  adapted  to  obtain  the  desired  ends  of  calling 
out  tho^e  best  qualified  for  the  service ;  of  employing  them  only  when  and 
so  long  as  they  might  be  neede(J;  of  having  them  animated  with  esprit  du 
corps,  reliant  on  each  other  and  their  selected  officers,  and  of  thus  securing 
the  largest  measure  of  activity  and  efficiency,  perhaps,  attainable  from  other 
than  permanent  soldiers.  After  ihe  most  active  and  least  needed  portion  of 
the  reserves  were  embodied  under  the  former  law,  the  latter  would  allow 
smaller  organizations  with  more  limited  range  of  service  for  obj'-cts  of  police 
and  the  pressing  contingencies  of  neighborhood  defence.  Could  these  laws 
be  generally  acted  on,  it  is  believed  as  full  organization  of  the  reserve  popu 
lation  would  be  secured  for  casual  needs  as  would  be  practicable.' 

"  I  closed  that  letter  by  saying :  *  I  am  instructed  by  the  President  in  his 
name  to  make  on  you  a  requisition  for  five  thousand  men,  to  be  furnished  by 
your  State  for  service  therein,  unless  in  the  intermediate  time  a  volunteer 
force,  organized  under  the  law  for  local  defence  and  special  service,  of  at  least 
an  equal  number  be  mustered  and  reported  as  subject  to  liis  call  for  service 
within  your  State.' 

"  In  my  telegram  of  the  12th,  I  say  :  '  Your  assurance  of  co-operation  is 
gratifying.  Organizations  under  the  law  of  the  Provisional  Congress  are 
preferred,  because  of  their  longer  terms  of  duration  and  greater  adaptation 
for  ready  call  on  temporary  service  and  then  for  dismissal  to  their  ordinary 
pursuits.' 

"In  my  letter  of  the  19th  of  June,  I  repeated  the  arguments  in  favor  of 
organizations  for  local  defence  in  preference  to  4  militia  organizations  or 
organizations  on  a  basis  similar  to  the  militia  for  a  limited  period  of  service.' 
I  stated  to  you  that  '  I  did  not  suppose  there  would  be  such  difficulties, 
delays,  or  confusion  as  you  anticipated  ;  that  the  process  of  forming  the  or 
ganizations  is  very  simple  and  familiar  to  your  people  as  having  been  gen 
erally  adopted  in  volunteering  for  the  provisional  army.  There  will  be  no 
occasion  to  send  on  to  the  department  here  anything  but  the  muster  rolls, 
which,  under  the  regulations  to  be  issued,  may  be  verified  by  a  judge,  justice, 
or  colonel  of  militia.  I  think,  with  deference  to  your  opinion,  the  whole 
matter  of  prompt  and  easy  accomplishment.' 

"  The  regulations  referred  to  were  published  on  the  22d  of  June,  1863. 
They  declare  their  object  to  be  to  afford  '  instructions  as  to  the  method  by 
which  such  organizations  may  be  made,  and  the  privileges  they  may  claim  ; ' 
and  with  these  regulations  the  Act  of  Congress  of  August  21,  1861,  was 
published,  which  authorized  the  President  to  accept  the  services  of  volun 
teers  of  such  kind  and  in  such  proportion  as  he  may  deem  expedient,  to 
serve  for  such  time  as  he  may  prescribe,  for  the  defence  of  exposed  places  or 
localities,  or  such  special  service  as  he  may  deem  expedient. 

"  The  general  features  of  these  regulations  I  have  already  stated.  They 
define  with  exactness  the  conditions  as  to  time  of  enlistment,  the  place  of 


348  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

service,  the  duration  of  their  special  and  particular  service  upon  the  Presi 
dential  call.  These  were  the  organizations  that  you  were  expected  to  form, 
and  you  seem  to  have  entirely  overlooked  or  forgotten  the  duty  that  you 
undertook  to  fulfill. 

"  It  is  not  pretended  by  you  that  you  carried  into  effect  this  plan  for  the 
organization  of  the  State  reserves,  and  that  your  promised  co-operation  was 
unproductive  of  the  results  anticipated  from  it.  You  followed  the  suggestions 
of  your  own  mind,  and  did  not  act,  and,  so  far  as  this  department  knows, 
did  not  attempt  to  act  comformably  to  the  views  presented  to  you. 

"I  made  no  complaint  of  your  failure  to  do  this,  nor  was  the  failure  made 
the  subject  of  any  observation  until  you  assumed  the  ground  of  being  the 
injured  party,  from  which  you  railed  at  the  President,  and  the  department, 
as  wanting  in  faith  to  you ;  while  the  fact  was,  if  there  was  any  want  of 
faith  or  breach  of  duty,  you  alone  were  the  guilty  party.  I  recur  to  the 
subject  now  simply  to  correct  the  misrepresentation  of  the  conduct  of  the 
department  by  your  garbled  extracts  from  its  correspondence — extracts 
which  do  not  exhibit  fairly  the  subject  under  consideration.  I  abstain  now 
from  imputing  your  conduct  to  bad  faith  to  the  department,  in  repelling  the 
wanton  and  reckless  assault  upon  the  integrity  of  the  administration  of  this 
department. 

"  Your  remarks  upon  the  patriotism  and  services  of  the  people  of  Georgia 
will  have  no  contradiction  from  me.  I  fully  appreciate  both.  I  have  not 
believed  that  they  could  be  seduced  from  their  fidelity  to  the  Confederate 
States  or  their  duties  under  their  Constitution.  I  have  not  supposed  that 
they  could  be  betrayed  into  any  desertion  of  the  common  cause.  The  unan 
imous  voice  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State  was  not  required  to  assure  me  of 
their  truth  and  loyalty.  It  has  but  confirmed  the  opinion  that  the  seeds  of 
baleful  jealousies,  suspicions,  and  irritation,  that  have  so  industriously  been 
scattered  among  them,  have  been  wholly  unproductive  of  the  fruit  antici 
pated. 

"  It  is  to  be  hoped  in  the  future  that  all  the  energy  that  has  been  thus  em 
ployed  will  be  diverted  to  the  legitimate  object  of  achieving  the  independence 
of  the  Confederate  States,  securing  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  and  promoting  thereby  the  true  greatness  of  Georgia. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  JAMES  A.  SEDDON, 
"  Secretary  of  War." 

"EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,      ) 
MACON,  GA.,  Jan.  6,  1865.  f 
"HON.  JAMES  A.  SEDDON,  SECRETARY  OF  WAR: 

"  Sir : — It  becomes  my  duty  to  notice  your  communication  of  13th  December, 
which  reached  me  a  few  days  since. 

"  After  citing  the  Acts  of  Congress  of  28th  February  and  the  6th  March, 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  349 

1861,  conferring  power  upon  the  President  to  assume  control  of  military 
operations  in  the  States  aud  to  call  forth  the  militia,  etc.,  you  declare  that 
Congress  in  passing  these  Acts  did  not  exceed  its  competency  under  the  Con 
stitution,  and  you  then  insist  on  a  construction  of  these  Acts  which  denies 
the  right  reserved  by  the  States  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war,  and  which 
confers  upon  the  President  the  power  to  call  upon  one  State  for  a  class  of 
her  population  which  are  not  subject  under  any  law  of  Congress  to  do  mil 
itary  duty,  and  for  which  he  makes  no  similar  requisition  upon  any  other 
State. 

"The  Acts  which  you  quote  are  not  properly  susceptible  of  any  such  con 
struction  as  you  are  obliged  to  place  upon  them  to  make  them  serve  your 
purpose.  If  they  were,  there  could  be  no  doubt  upon  the  mind  of  any  lawyer 
who  understands  the  rudiments  of  constitutional  law  that  Congress  had  no 
power  or  authority  to  pass  them.  No  candid  lawyer  will  insist  for  a  moment 
that  an  Act  of  Congress  can  take  from  the  States  the  right  which  they  have 
plainly  reserved  in  the  Constitution  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war,  or  that  the 
President  has  any  power  or  control  over  any  troops  which  a  State  may  so 
keep,  or  that  he  can  justly  and  legally  make  requisition  for  them,  or  that  he 
has  any  legal  or  just  grounds  of  complaint  if  a  State  refuses  to  turn  them 
over  to  him  if  he  should  transcend  his  legal  authority  by  making  the  requi 
sition.  Nor  will  any  lawyer  insist  that  the  President  has  any  power  to  make 
requisition  for  militia  which  Congress  has  not  made  provision  for  'organizing,' 
or  for  men  or  boys  not  subject  to  militia  duty  under  the  laws  of  Congress. 
As  these  Acts  of  Congress  could  confer  upon  the  President  no  powers  which 
are  denied  to  him  by  the  Constitution,  and  as  his  late  requisition  upon  tlje 
Executive  of  this  State  was  in  clear  violation  of  her  reserved  rights  under 
the  Constitution,  I  am  surprised  that  you  should  attempt  to  justify  this 
usurpation  of  undelegated  powers  by  a  resort  to  congressional  action  as 
directory  to  the  President  to  violate  the  rights  of  the  States. 

"  In  your  former  letter  you  declared  that  my  refusal  to  fill  this  requisition 
of  the  President  was  analogous  in  '  all  particulars '  to  the  conduct  of  the 
Governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  in  the  last  war  with  Great 
Britain  in  refusing  to  fill  the  requisition  made  upon  them  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  In  my  answer,  I  showed  too  conclusively  for  reply, 
that  the  cases  were  not  analogous  in  any  particular.  Without  attempting  to 
make  good  your  assertion,  or  to  controvert  a  single  position  in  my  argument, 
or  to  trace  the  analogy  in  a  single  particular,  you  again  allude  to  the  subject 
in  your  last  letter  by  saying:  'In  stating  the  parallel  case  of  the  conduct  of 
the  refractory  Governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,'  etc.  Now  no 
one  knew  better  than  yourself  that  the  cases  were  in  no  degree  parallel  and 
that  you  could  neither  trace  the  parallel  lines  nor  point  out  the  analogy. 

"  To  avoid  a  misstatement  contained  in  your  former  letter  that  *  the  judicial 
tribunals  determined  adversely  to  the  pretensions  of  these  Governors,'  you 
say  you  were  aware  that  the  former  (the  Governor  of  Massachusetts)  had 


350  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

the  support  of  the  opinion  of  the  judges  of  that  State  and  of  the  Legislatures 
of  those  States,  etc.  ;  and  that  the  authority  of  these  supports  me  in  my  posi 
tion.  Here  again  you  are  as  incorrect  as  I  have  shown  you  to  be  in  almost 
every  important  statement  which  has  been  made  by  you.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  opinion  of  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court  of  Massachusetts  sustain 
ing. the  Governor  of  that  State  which  gives  the  slightest  support  to  my  posi 
tion,  or  that  has  the  least  bearing  upon  the  controversy  between  us.  What 
were  the  points  decided  by  that  opinion  of  the  court?  They  were  substan 
tially  the  following  : 

"  1.  That  when  the  President  made  a  requisition  upon  the  Governor  of  a 
State  for  the  militia  to  repel  threatened  invasion,  it  was  the  right  of  the 
Governor  to  judge  whether  the  emergency  existed.  He  decided  that  it  did  not. 

"  2.  That  when  the  militia  were  called  out  under  a  requisition  from  the 
President,  no  Federal  officer  but  the  President  in  person  had  the  right  to 
command  them.  These  were  the  positions  of  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  opinion  of  the  judges  sustained  him. 

"Neither  of  these  questions  has  arisen  in  this  discussion.  I  have  not 
denied  the  existence  of  the  exigency,  but  foresaw  it  and  had  the  reserve 
militia  in  the  field  in  battle  with  the  enemy  months  before  the  President  seems 
to  have  seen  it,  at  least  months  before  he  realized  it  to  an  extent  to  cause 
him  to  make  the  requisition. 

"  I  have  not  raised  the  question  as  to  the  right  of  a  Confederate  officer 
other  than  the  President  in  person,  to  command  this  militia  so  called  out  by 
me  while  in  service.  On  the  contrary,  I  had  placed  them  under  the  com 
mand  of  a  Confederate  general  long  before  the  requisition  was  made. 
With  these  facts  before  you,  a  little  reflection  cannot  fail  to  show  you  how- 
much  mistaken  you  are  when  you  make  the  assertion  that  the  decision  of  the 
judges  of  the  supreme  court  of  Massachusetts,  or  of  the  Legislatures  of 
those  two  States,  sustains  my  course  or  any  position  I  have  taken.  As  there 
is  neither  analogy  nor  parallel  between  the  cases  cited  by  you  and  my  own 
case,  no  decision  sustaining  the  Governors  in  those  cases  can  either  sustain 
or  condemn  my  course  upon  an  entirely  different  state  of  facts  and  circum 
stances. 

"  But  you  say  the  judicial  opinions  of  the  supreme  court  of  Xew  York,  and 
of  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States  as  rendered  in  the  line  of  their 
duty,  afford  no  such  support.  As  you  have  not  shown  how  the  action  of  the 
Governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  or  the  correctness  of  their 
position  could  have  come  judicially  before  the  supreme  court  of  New  York, 
or  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States ;  and  as  you  have  not  been  able  to 
cite  any  case  in  which  the  question  of  the  conduct  of  those  Governors  wus 
ever  before  either  of  said  courts,  I  am  left  to  suppose  that  you  are,  as  T  have 
shown  you  to  be  in  so  many  instances,  again  unfortunate  in  your  statement 
of  facts,  and  that  in  attempting  to  sustain  an  erroneous  statement  in  your 
other  letter,  you  have  added  another  to  former  mistakes. 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  351 

"As  an  excuse  for  dismissing  the  subject  without  further  attempt  to  sus 
tain  your  position,  you  remark  that  Major-General  Cobb  informs  the  depart 
ment  that  he  has  made  a  satisfactory  adjustment  of  this  difficulty.  While 
there  has  been  perfect  harmony  between  General  Cobb  and  myself  in  mili 
tary  matters  from  the  commencement  of  Sherman's  advance  upon  Atlanta 
to  the  present  time,  as  there  has  been  between  Generals  Johnston,  Hood, 
Beauregard  and  rmself;  there  has  been  no  adjustment  whatever  between  me 
and  General  Cobb  of  what  you  are  pleased  to  term  *  this  difficulty.'  I  have 
neither  by  word  nor  act  done  anything  to  recognize  the  right  of  the  Presi 
dent  to  make  this  requisition,  or  to  admit  the  obligation  of  the  Governor  to 
fill  it.  I  have  stood  in  reference  to  General  Cobb,  as  I  have  towards  you  and 
the  President,  upon  the  reserved  rights  of  the  State,  and  have  refused  to  re 
linquish  the  control  of  the  State  over  her  reserved  militia  while  she  deter 
mines  to  keep  them,  or  to  fill  a  requisition  which  the  President  had  no  right  to 
make.  I  am  happy  to  find  that  upon  reflection  you  seem  to  see  your  error, 
and  are  prepared  to  accept  this  as  a  satisfactory  adjustment  of  a  controversy 
which  you  have  unjustly  provoked,  and  in  which  you  cannot  sustain  yourself 
upon  any  known  principle  of  reason  or  law. 

"You  devote  a  greater  part  of  your  letter  to  another  attempt  to  justify 
your  bad  faith  to  the  Georgia  troops  called  out  under  the  President's  requisi 
tion  of  6th  June,  1863,  and  to  prove,  contrary  to  the  plain  language  of  the 
requisition,  that  they  were  called  for  during  the  war.  You  complain  of  what 
you  call  my  *  garbled  extracts,'  and  you  quote  extensively  from  the  requisition, 
but  you  are  particularly  careful  to  so  '  garble  '  your  own  extracts  as  not  to 
quote  that  essential  part  of  it  twice  stated  in  the  letter,  as  I  have  already 
shown,  that  they  were  required  only  for  six  months.  It  was  upon  this  requisi 
tion,  with  the  two  Acts  of  Congress,  which  you  sent  with  it  as  the  guide  for 
iny  conduct,  that  I  promised  co-operation  with  you  in  the  organization.  The 
promise  was  redeemed  both  in  letter  and  spirit,  and  your  call  for  eight  thou 
sand  men  (not  five  thousand  as  you  now  erroneously  state  in  your  last  letter) 
was  met  with  more  than  double  the  number  required,  organized  in  strict  ac 
cordance  with  the  plain  language  of  the  requisition  and  the  Acts  of  Congress 
on  that  subject. 

"  As  candor  and  truth  at  least  are  expected  of  one  occupying  your  posi 
tion,  it  is  painful  to  witness  the  shifts  to  which  you  resort  to  do  injustice  to 
my  State,  and  to  misrepresent  the  conduct  of  her  Executive  in  a  matter 
where  he  more  than  doubly  filled  your  requisition. 

"  I  am  now  favored  by  you  with  a  copy  of  a  general  order  issued  by  Adju 
tant-General  Cooper  weeks  after  the  requisition  was  made,  which  I  do  not 
recollect  that  I  ever  saw  till  I  received  your  letter,  and  you  complain  that  I 
did  not  carry  out  your  views  as  expressed  in  that  order.  I  obey  no  orders 
from  your  department ;  nor  was  this  order  furnished  to  me  when  you  made 
the  requisition,  or  during  the  organization  of  the  troops,  with  even  a  request 
that  I  conform  to  it.  I  was  asked  by  you  to  organize  the  troops  in  accord- 


352  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  GOV.  BROWN 

ance  with  your  letter  containing  the  requisition  and  the  two  Acts  of  Congress, 
of  which  you  enclosed  copies  for  six  months'  service,  with  the  pledges  con 
tained  in  your  letter  to  which  I  referred  in  my  last  letter,  that  they  should 
only  be  called  out  for  sudden  emergencies,  etc.  This  I  did  on  my  part,  and 
you  refused  to  redeem  the  pledges  made  on  your  part.  This  is  the  whole 
case,  and  I  here  dismiss  this  part  of  the  subject  with  my  regrets  that  justice 
to  myself  and  the  large  number  of  citizens  of  my  State  who  suffered  unneces 
sarily  by  your  action,  has  made  it  a  duty  for  me  to  expose  your  bad  faith 
and  the  misstatements  to  which  you  have  resorted  to  sustain  an  interpretation 
of  your  requisition  which  its  plain  language  unquestionably  precludes. 

"By  the  expression  in  your  letter  that:  *  It  (the  unanimous  voice  of  the 
Legislature  of  this  State)  has  but  confirmed  the  opinion  that  the  seeds  of 
baleful  jealousies,  suspicions  and  irritation  that  have  so  industriously  been 
scattered  among  them  (the  people)  have  been  wholly  unproductive  of  the 
fruits  anticipated,'  I  am  left  to  conclude  that  in  your  disingenuous  effort  by 
insinuation  to  call  in  question  my  motives  in  protesting  against  the  Presi 
dent's  usurpations  and  abuses  of  power,  you,  as  is  your  habit,  base  your  as 
sertion  upon  an  assumption  of  facts  which  does  not  exist.  The  Legislature 
of  this  State  at  the  late  session  passed  no  resolutions,  and  expressed  no 
unanimous  voice  upon  any  question  connected  with  the  conduct  of  the  Ad 
ministration  of  which  you  are  a  member,  nor  did  they  utter  in  its  behalf 
any  voice  of  approbation. 

"  While  the  people  of  this  State  are  true  and  loyal  to  our  cause,  they  are 
not  unmindful  of  the  great  principles  of  Constitutional  Liberty  and  State 
Sovereignty  upon  which  we  entered  into  this  struggle,  and  they  will  not  hold 
guiltless  those  in  power  who,  while  charged  with  the  guardianship  of  the 
liberties  of  the  people,  have  subverted  and  trampled  personal  liberty  under^ 
foot,  and  disregarded  the  rights  of  private  property,  and  the  judicial  sanc 
tions,  by  which,  in  all  free  governments,  they  are  protected. 

"  The  course  pursued  by  the  administration  towards  Georgia,  in  her  late 
hour  of  extreme  peril,  has  shown  so  conclusively  as  to  require  no  further  ar 
gument  or  illustration,  the  wisdom  of  the  reservation  made  by  the  States,  in 
the  Constitution,  of  the  right  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war.  Georgia  has 
furnished  over  one  hundred  thousand  of  her  gallant  sons  to  the  armies  of 
the  Confederacy.  The  great  body  of  these  men  was  organized  into  regi 
ments  and  battalions  of  infantry  and  artillery,  which  have  been  sustained 
by  recruits  from  home,  from  month  to  month,  to  the  extent  of  our  ability. 
Those  who  survive  of  these  regiments  and  battalions  have  become  veterans 
in  the  service,  who,  if  permitted,  would  have  returned  to  their  State,  and 
rendered  Sherman's  march  across  her  territory  and  the  escape  of  his  army 
alike  impossible.  I  asked  that  this  be  allowed,  if  assistance  could  riot  be 
otherwise  affoided.  It  was  denied  us.  and  the  State  has  been  passed  over 
by  a  large  army  of  the  enemy.  Hundreds  of  miles  of  her  railroads  have  been 
for  the  present  rendered  useless.  A  broad  belt  of  her  territory  nearly  four 


AND  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR.  353 

hundred  miles  in  length,  has  been  devastated.  Within  this  belt  most  of  the 
public  property,  including  several  court  houses  with  the  public  records,  and 
a  vast  amount  of  private  property,  including  many  dwellings,  gin  houses, 
much  cotton,  etc.,  have  been  destroyed.  The  city  of  Atlanta,  with  several 
of  the  villages  of  the  State,  has  been  burnt ;  the  capital  has  been  occupied 
and  desecrated  by  the  enemy,  and  Savannah,  the  seaport  city  of  the  State, 
is  now  in  his  possession.  During  the  period  of  Sherman's  march  from  At 
lanta  to  Milledgeville,  there  was  not  one  thousand  men  of  all  the  veteran 
infantry  regiments  and  battalions  of  Georgians,  now  in  Confederate  service, 
upon  the  soil  of  this  State.  Nor  did  troops  from  other  States  fill  their 
places. 

**  Thus  *  abandoned  to  her  fate  '  by  the  President,  Georgia's  best  reliance 
was  her  reserve  militia  and  State  line,  whom  she  had  organized  and  still 
keeps,  as  by  the  Constitution  she  has  a  right  to  do.  Without  them,  much 
more  property  must  have  been  destroyed,  and  the  city  of  Macon,  so  impor 
tant  to  the  State  and  Confederacy,  must  have  shared  the  fate  of  Atlanta  and 
Savannah,  while  Augusta,  with  the  small  Confederate  force  by  which  she 
was  saved,  divided  with  Macon,  must  also  have  fallen. 

"  These  troops  whom  Georgia  keeps  have  not  only  acted  with  distinguished 
gallantry  upon  many  bloody  battle-fields  upon  the  soil  of  their  own  State, 
but  they  have,  when  an  important  service  could  be  rendered  by  them, 
marched  into  the  interior  of  other  States.  The  noble  conduct  of  the  Troup 
County  militia  in  their  march  to  Pollard,  Alabama,  to  aid  in  the  protection 
of  the  people  and  property  of  that  State  against  the  devastations  of  the 
enemy,  and  the  heroic  valor  displayed  by  Maj.-Gen.  G.  W.  Smith  and 
part  of  his  command  then  with  him  at  Honey  Hill,  in  South  Carolina^  where 
he  won — with  the  Georgia  militia,  her  State  line  and  a  small  number  of 
gallant  Confederate  troops,  most  of  whom  were  Georgians — one  of  the  most 
signal  victories  -of  the  war  in  proportion  to  the  number  engaged,  fully  attest 
the  correctness  of  my  assertion  in  their  behalf. 

"  In  view  of  these  facts,  with  the  late  bitter  experience  of  the  people  of 
this  State  fresh  in  his  recollection,  the  Georgia  statesman  must  indeed  be  a 
blind  worshipper  of  the  President  who  would  advocate  the  policy  of  turning 
over  to  his  control,  to  be  carried  out  of  the  State  at  his  bidding,  old  men  and 
boys  not  subject  under  the  laws  of  Congress  to  military  service,  and  of  a 
class  not  required  by  him  of  any  other  State. 

"  I  cannot  close  this  communication  without  noticing  certain  expressions 
in  your  letter  which  are  not  unfrequently  used  by  persons  in  authority  at 
Richmond,  such  as  *  refractory  Governors,'  '  loyal  States,'  etc.  Our  people 
have  become  accustomed  to  these  imperial  utterances  from  those  who  wield 
the  central  despotism  at  Washington,  but  such  expressions  are  so  utterly  at 
variance  with  the  principles  upon  which  we  entered  into  this  contest  in  186L 
that  it  sounds  harshly  to  our  ears  to  have  the  officers  of  a  government,  which 
is  the  agent  or  creature  of  the  States,  discussing  the  loyalty  and  disloyalty 
23 


354  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN. 

of  the  sovereign  States  to  their  central  agent — the  loyalty  of  the  creator  to 
the  creature — which  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being  only  at  the  will  of  the 
States ;  and  to  hear  their  praise  of  the  Governors  of  sovereign  States  for 
their  subserviency,  or  their  denunciation  of  those  not  subservient  as  « refrac 
tory.'  If  our  liberties  are  lost  the  fatal  result  will  not  be  properly  chargeable 
to  disloyal  States  or  « refractory  Governors ; '  but  it  will  grow  out  of  the  be 
trayal  by  those  high  in  Confederate  authority  of  the  sacred  principles  of  the 
Constitution  which  they  have  sworn  to  defend. 

"  Had  some  officials  labored  as  successfully  for  the  public  good  as  they 
have  assiduously  to  concentrate  all  power  in  the  Confederate  Government 
and  to  place  the  liberty  and  property  of  every  citizen  of  the  Confederacy  sub 
ject  to  the  caprice  and  control  of  the  President,  the  country  would  not  have 
been  doomed  to  witness  so  many  sad  reverses.  Nor  would  we  now  be  bur 
dened  to  support  the  vast  hoard  of  supernumerary  officers  and  political  favor 
ites,  who  are  quartered  upon  us  to  eat  out  our  substance  while  they  avoid 
duty  and  danger  in  the  field,  having  little  other  duty  to  perform  but  to  en 
dorse,  indiscriminately  and  publicly,  by  newspaper  communications  and 
otherwise,  every  act  of  the  President  whether  right  or  wrong ;  and  to  recon 
cile  the  people  by  every  means  in  their  power  to  the  constant  encroachments 
which  are  made  upon  their  ancient  usages,  customs,  and  liberties. 

"  If  all  these  favorites  of  power  who  are  able  for  active  duty  and  whose 
support  in  the  style  in  which  they  live,  while  all  around  them  is  misery  and 
want,  costs  the  people  millions  of  dollars,  were  sent  to  the  field  and  compelled 
to  do  their  part  in  battle,  the  President  would  have  no  reason  to  make  illegal 
requisitions  upon  this  State  for  her  old  men  and  boys,  who  are  not  subject  to 
his  control  under  any  law,  State  or  Confederate  ;  but  he  would  soon  be  able 
by  heavy  reinforcements  to  fill  the  depleted  ranks  of  the  armies  of  the  Con 
federacy.  As  the  President  is  clothed  with  all  the  power  necessary  to  com 
pel  these  political  favorites  to  shoulder  arms  and  aid  in  driving  back  the 
invader,  the  subject  is  respectfully  commended  to  your  consideration  as  well 
worthy  of  energetic  action. 

"  I  am,  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


CHAPTER  XL 

CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS  AND  GOVERNOR 
BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION. 

In  the  spring  of  1862,  upon  the  subject  of  raising 
troops,  there  sprung  up  a  fundamental  difference  of 
opinion  between  President  Davis  and  Governor  Brown. 
So  long  as  volunteer  forces  were  raised  in  the  States  by 
the  authority  of  the  President,  or  he  made  requisition  on 
the  Governor  for  them,  there  was  no  serious  or  exciting 
issue  between  them.  But  when,  as  will  appear,  in  order 
to  force  the  citizen  soldiers  of  other  States,  which,  unlike 
Georgia,  appeared  to  be  tardy  in  responding  to  his  calls, 
the  Congress,  at  the  request  of  the  President,  attempted 
to  place  all  within  given  ages  subject  to  summary  con 
scription,  the  execution  of  the  law  within  this  State 
gave  rise  to  a  severely  critical  correspondence.  It  relates 
to  and  contains  the  matters  that  tended  in  no  small  part, 
in  the  sequel,  to  the  failure  of  the  Confederacy.  It  was 
a  difference  in  opinion  between  men  who  were  each  in 
tent  on  independence  for  the  South,  which  will  appear  in 
the  letters  of  each.  To  avoid  all  appearance  of  unfair 
ness,  we  dispense  with  abbreviations,  and  set  forth  their 
entire  letters. 


"EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 
MILLEDGEVILLK,  GA.,  April  22,  1862 


•  I 


"  HIS  EXCELLENCY  JEFFERSON  DAVIS, 

Richmond,  Virginia : 

"Dear  Sir : — So  soon  as  I  received  from  the  Secretary  of  War  official  notice 
of  the  passage  by  Congress  of  the  Conscription  Act,  placing  in  the  military 
service  of  the  Confederate  States  all  white  men  between  the  ages  of  18  and 


'356        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

35  years,  I  saw  that  it  was  impossible  for  me  longer  to  retain  in  the  field  the 
Georgia  State  troops,  without  probable  collision  and  conflict  with  the  Con 
federate  authorities,  in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  I,  therefore,  acquiesced  in 
the  necessity  which  compelled  me  to  transfer  the  State  forces  to  the  com 
mand  of  the  Confederate  general  at  Savannah,  and  tendered  to  General 
Lawton,  who  commands  the  Military  District  of  Georgia,  not  only  the  con 
scripts  in  the  State  army,  but  also  those  not  conscripts,  for  the  unexpired 
term  of  their  enlistment.  General  Lawton  accepted  the  command  with  fhe 
assurance  that  he  would  interfere  as  little  as  possible  with  the  company  and 
regimental  organizations  of  the  troops.  This  assurance,  I  trust,  the  Gov 
ernment  will  permit  him  to  carry  out  in  the  same  spirit  of  liberality  in  which 
it  was  given.  If  the  State  regiments  are  broken  up  and  the  conscripts  be 
longing  to  them  forced  into  other  organizations  against  their  consent  it  will 
have  a  very  discouraging  effect.  If  the  regiments  and  companies  were 
preserved,  and  permission  given  to  the  officers  to  fill  up  their  ranks  by  re 
cruits,  there  would  be  no  doubt  of  their  ability  to  do  so;  and  I  think 
they  have  a  just  right  to  expect  this  privilege. 

"  Georgia  has  promptly  responded  to  every  call  made  upon  her  by  you  for 
troops,  and  has  always  given  more  than  you  asked ;  sshe  now  has  about 
60,000  in  the  field.  Had  you  called  upon  her  Executive  for  20,000  more, 
(if  her  just  quota,)  they  would  have  been  furnished  without  delay.  The  plea 
of  necessity,  so  far,  at  least,  as  this  State  is  concerned,  cannot  be  set  up  in 
defence  of  the  Conscription  Act. 

"  When  the  Government  of  the  United  States  disregarded  and  attempted 
to  trample  upon  the  rights  of  the  States,  Georgia  set  its  power  at  defiance 
and  seceded  from  the  Uuion,  rather  than  submit  to  the  consolidation  of  all 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  central  or  Federal  government. 

"  The  Conscription  Act  not  only  puts  it  in  the  power  of  the  Executive  of 
the  Confederacy  to  disorganize  her  troops,  which  she  was  compelled  to  call 
into  the  field,  for  her  own  defence,  in  addition  to  her  just  quota,  because  of 
the  neglect  of  the  Confederacy  to  place  sufficient  troops  upon  her  coast  for 
her  defence — which  would  have  required  less  than  half  the  number  she  has 
sent  to  the  field — but  also  places  it  in  his  power  to  destroy  her  State  gov 
ernment  by  disbanding  her  law-making  power. 

"  The  Constitution  of  this  State  makes  every  male  citizen  who  has  attained 
the  ago  of  21  years  eligible  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
General  Assembly,  and  every  one  who  has  attained  the  age  of  25  eligible 
to  a  seat  in  the  Senate.  There  are  a  large  number  of  the  members  of  the 
General  Assembly  between  the  ages  of  18  and  35.  They  are  white  citizens 
of  the  Confederate  States,  and  there  is  no  statute  in  the  State,  and  I  am 
aware  of  none  in  the  Confederate  States  code,  which  exempts  them  from 
military  duty.  They,  therefore,  fall  within  the  provisions  of  the  Conscription 
Act.  It  may  become  necessary  for  me  to  convene  the  General  Assembly  in 
extra  session  ;  or,  if  not,  the  regular  session  will  commence  the  first  Wednes- 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        357 

day  in  November.  When  the  members  meet  at  the  Capitol,  if  not  sooner, 
they  might  be  claimed  as  conscripts  by  a  Confederate  officer,  and  arrested 
with  a  view  to  carry  them  to  some  remote  part  of  the  Confederacy,  as  re 
cruits,  to  fill  up  some  company  now  in  service.  They  have  no  military 
power,  and  could  only  look  to  the  Executive  of  the  State  for  military  pro 
tection  ;  and  I  cannot  hesitate  to  say  that,  in  such  case,  I  should  use  all  the 
remaining  military  force  of  the  State  in  defence  of  a  co-ordinate  constitu 
tional  branch  of  the  government.  I  can,  therefore,  permit  no  enrolment  of 
the  members  of  the  General  Assembly  under  the  Conscription  Act.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  judges  of  the  supreme  and  superior  courts,  should  any 
of  them  fall  within  the  ages  above  mentioned ;  and  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
Executive  departments  ;  the  heads  and  necessary  clerks  of  the  other  de 
partments  of  the  State  government ;  and  the  tax  collectors  and  receivers 
of  the  different  counties,  who  are  now  in  the  midst  of  their  duties,  and  are 
not  permitted  by  law  to  supply  substitutes,  and  whose  duties  must  be  per 
formed,  or  the  revenues  of  the  State  cannot  be  collected.  The  same  remark 
applies  to  the  staff  of  the  Commander-in-Chief.  There  is  no  statute  exempt 
ing  them  from  military  duty,  for  the  reason  that  they  are  at  all  times  sub 
ject  to  the  command  of  the  Governor,  and  are  not  expected  to  go  into  the 
ranks. 

"  The  State's  quartermaster,  commissary,  ordnance  and  engineers'  depart 
ments  fall  within  the  same  rule.  The  major-generals,  brigadier-generals, 
and  other  officers  of  the  militia,  would  seem  to  be  entitled  to  like  consider 
ation. 

"  Again,  the  Western  &  Atlantic  Railroad  is  the  property  of  the  State, 
and  is  under  the  control  and  management  of  the  Governor.  It  is  a  source  of 
revenue  to  the  State  and  its  successful  management  is  a  matter  of  great 
military  importance,  both  to  the  State  and  the  Confederacy.  I  now  have  an 
efficient  force  of  officers  and  workmen  upon  the  road,  and  must  suspend  opera 
tions  if  all  between  18  and  35  are  taken  away  from  the  road. 

"I  would  also  invite  your  attention  to  the  further  fact  that  the  State 
owns  and  controls  the  Georgia  Military  Institute  at  Marietta,  and  now  has 
in  the  Institute  over  125  cadets,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  are  within 
the  age  of  conscripts.  If  they  are  not  exempted,  this  most  important  insti 
tution  is  broken  up.  I  must  not  omit,  in  this  connection,  the  students  of 
the  State  University,  and  of  the  other  colleges  of  the  State.  These  valuable 
institutions  of  learning  must  also  be  suspended  if  the  law  is  enforced  against 
the  students. 

"  I  would,  also,  respectfully  call  your  attention  to  the  further  fact  that  in 
portions  of  our  State  where  the  slave  population  is  heavy,  almost  the  entire 
white  male  population  capable  of  bearing  arms  except  the  overseers  on  the 
plantations  are  now  in  the  military  service  of  the  Confederacy.  Most  of 
these  overseers  are  over  18  and  under  35.  If  they  are  carried  to  the  field 
thousands  of  slaves  must  be  left  without  overseers,  and  their  labor  not  only 


358        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

lost  at  a  time  when  there  is  great  need  of  it  in  the  production  of  provisions 
and  supplies  for  our  armies,  but  the  peace  and  safety  of  helpless  women  and 
children  must  be  imperilled  for  want  of  protection  against  bands  of  idle 
slaves,  who  must  be  left  to  roam  over  the  country  without  restraint. 

"  It  is  also  worthy  of  remark,  that  a  large  proportion  of  our  best  mechanics, 
and  of  the  persons  engaged  in  the  various  branches  of  manufacturing  now 
of  vital  importance  to  the  success  of  our  cause,  are  within  the  ages  which 
subject  them  to  the  provisions  of  the  Conscription  Act. 

"  My  remark  that  I  cannot  permit  the  enrolment  of  such  State  officers  as 
are  necessary  to  the  existence  of  the  State  government,  and  the  working 
of  the  State  road,  does  not,  of  course,  apply  to  persons  engaged  in  the  other 
useful  branches  of  industry  considered  of  paramount  importance,  but  I 
must  ask,  in  justice  to  the  people  of  this  State,  that  such  exemptions 
among  these  classes  be  made  as  the  public  necessities  may  require. 

"As  you  are  well  aware,  the  military  operations  of  the  Government  cannot 
be  carried  on  without  the  use  of  all  our  railroads,  and  the  same  necessity 
exists  for  the  exemption  of  all  other  railroad  officers  and  workmen  which  ex 
ists  in  the  case  of  the  State  road. 

"  There  are  doubtless  other  important  interests  not  herein  enumerated 
which  will  readily  occur  to  you,  which  must  be  kept  alive  or  the  most  serious 
consequences  must  ensue. 

"  The  Constitution  gives  to  Congress  the  power  to  provide  for  organizing, 
arming,  and  disciplining  the  militia,  and  for  governing  such  part  of  them  as 
may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  reserving  to  the 
States,  respectively,  the  appointment  of  the  officers,  and  the  authority  of  training 
the  militia  according  to  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Congress.  The  Conscrip 
tion  Act  gives  the  President  the  power  to  enroll  the  entire  militia  of  the 
States  between  18  and  35,  and  takes  from  the  States  their  constitutional 
right  to  appoint  the  officers  and  to  train  the  militia. 

*  "  While  this  Act  does  not  leave  to  the  States  the  appointment  of  a  single 
officer  to  command  the  militia  employed  in  service  of  the  Confederate  States 
under  its  provisions,  it  places  it  in  the  power  of  the  President  to  take  a 
major-general  of  the  militia  of  a  State,  if  he  is  not  35  years  of  age,  and 
place  him  in  the  ranks  of  the  Confederate  States  array,  under  the  command  of 
a  3d  lieutenant  appointed  by  the  President,  and  to  treat  him  as  a  deserter  if 
'he  refuses  to  obey  the  call  and  submit  to  the  command  of  the  subaltern 
placed  over  him. 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood,  in  any  portion  of  this  letter,  to  refer  to  the 
intentions  of  the  President,  but  only  to  the  extraordinary  powers  given  him 
by  the  Act. 

"  This  Act  not  only  disorganizes  the  military  system  of  all  the  States,  but 
consolidates  almost  the  entire  military  power  of  the  States  in  the  Confederate 
Executive  with  the  appointment  of  the  officers  of  the  militia,  and  enables  him 
at  his  pleasure  to  cripple  or  destroy  the  civil  government  of  each  State,  by 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        359 

arresting  and  carrying  into  the  Confederate  service  the  officers  charged  by 
the  State  Constitution  with  the  administration  of  the  State  government. 

"I  notice  by  a  perusal  of  the  Conscription  Act  that  the  President  may,  with 
the  consent  of  the  Governors  of  the  respective  States,  employ  State  officers  in 
the  enrolment  of  the  conscripts.  While  I  shall  throw  no  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  the  general  enrolment  of  persons  embraced  within  the  Act,  except  as 
above  stated,  1  do  not  feel  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Executive  of  a  State  to 
employ  actively  the  officers  of  the  State  in  the  execution  of  a  law  which  vir 
tually  strips  the  State  of  her  constitutional  military  powers,  and,  if  fully  ex 
ecuted,  destroys  the  legislative  department  of  her  government,  making  even 
the  sessions  of  her  General  Assembly  dependent  upon  the  will  of  the  Confed 
erate  Executive.  I  therefore  respectfully  decline  all  connection  with  the  pro 
posed  enrolment,  and  propose  to  reserve  the  question  of  the  constitutionality 
of  the  Act,  and  its  binding  force  upon  the  people  of  this  State,  for  their  con 
sideration  at  a  time  when  it  may  less  seriously  embarrass  the  Confederacy  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

"  You  will  much  oblige  by  informing  me  of  the  extent  to  which  you  pro 
pose  making  exemptions,  if  any,  in  favor  of  the  interests  above  mentioned, 
and  such  others  as  you  may  consider  of  vital  importance.  The  question  is 
one  of  great  interest  to  our  people,  and  they  are  anxious  to  know  your  pleas 
ure  in  the  premises. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


"  RICHMOND,  April  28,  1862. 
"  TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN, 

"  GOVERNOR  OF  THE  STATE  OP  GEORGIA  : 

"  Dear  Sir: — I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  22d  inst.,  informing  me  of 
your  transfer  of  the  Georgia  State  troops  to  General  Lawton,  commanding 
Confederate  forces  at  Savannah — suggesting  that  there  be  as  little  interfer 
ence  as  possible  on  the  part  of  the  Confederate  authorities  with  the  present 
organization  of  those  troops — and  mentioning  various  persons  and  classes  as 
proper  subjects  for  exemption  from  military  service  under  the  provisions  of 
an  'Act  to  further  provide  for  the  public  defence,'  approved  on  the  16th 
inst. 

"  I  enclose  copies  of  the  Act  for  receiving  State  troops  tendered,  as  organized, 
and  of  the  Exemption  Act.  By  the  first,  interference  with  the  present  or 
ganization  of  companies,  squadrons,  battalions,  or  regiments,  tendered  by 
Governors  of  States,  is  specially  disclaimed.  By  the  other,  exemptions  are 
made  which  explain  (satisfactorily,  I  trust,)  the  policy  of  Congress  with  re 
gard  to  the  persons  and  interests  you  specify. 

*'  The  constitutionality  of  the  Act  you  refer  to  as  the  *  Conscription  Bill ' 
is  clearly  not  derivable  from  the  power  to  call  out  the  militia,  but  from  that 


360        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

to  raise  armies.  With  regard  to  the  mode  of  officering  the  troops  now  called 
into  the  service  of  the  Confederacy,  the  intention  of  Congress  is  to  me,  as  to 
you,  to  be  learned  from  its  Acts ;  and  from  the  terms  employed,  it  would 
seem  that  the  policy  of  election  by  the  troops  themselves  is  adopted  by  Con 
gress. 

"  With  great  regard,  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"JEFFERSON  DAVIS." 

"EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

MILLEDGEVILLE,  GA.,  May  9,  1862. 
"HIS  EXCELLENCY  JEFFERSON  DAVIS: 

"Dear  Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  favor  of 
the  28th  ult.,  in  reply  to  my  letter  to  you  upon  the  subject  of  the  Conscrip 
tion  Act.  I  should  not  trouble  you  with  a  reply  were  it  not  that  principles 
are  involved  of  the  most  vital  character,  upon  the  maintenance  of  which,  in 
my  opinion,  depend  not  only  the  rights  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  States,  but 
the  very  existence  of  State  government. 

"  While  I  am  always  happy  as  an  individual  to  render  you  any  assistance 
in  my  power  in  the  discharge  of  the  laborious  and  responsible  duties  assigned 
you,  and  while  I  am  satisfied  you  will  bear  testimony  that  I  have  never,  as 
the  Executive  of  this  State,  failed  in  a  single  instance  to  furnish  all  the  men 
and  more  than  you  have  called  for  and  to  assist  you  with  all  the  other  means 
at  my  command,  I  cannot  consent  to  commit  the  State  to  a  policy  which  is  in 
my  judgment  subversive  of  her  sovereignty  and  at  war  with  all  the  principles 
for  the  support  of  which  Georgia  entered  into  this  revolution. 

"  It  may  be  said  that  it  is  no  time  to  discuss  constitutional  questions  in 
the  midst  of  revolution,  and  that  State  rights  and  State  sovereignty  must 
yield  for  a  time  to  the  higher  law  of  necessity.  If  this  be  a  safe  principle  of 
action  it  cannot  certainly  apply  till  the  necessity  is  shown  to  exist ;  and  I 
apprehend  it  would  be  a  dangerous  policy  to  adopt  were  we  to  admit  that 
those  who  are  to  exercise  the  power  of  setting  aside  the  Constitution  are  to 
be  the  judges  of  the  necessity  for  so  doing.  But  did  the  necessity  exist  in 
this  case?  The  Conscription  Act  cannot  aid  the  Government  in  increasing 
its  supply  of  arms  or  provisions,  but  can  only  enable  it  to  call  a  larger  number 
of  men  into  the  field.  The  difficulty  has  never  been  to  get  men.  The  States 
have  already  furnished  the  Government  more  than  it  can  arm,  and  have  from 
their  own  means  armed  and  equipped  very  large  numbers  for  it.  Georgia 
has  not  only  furnished  more  than  you  have  asked,  and  armed  and  equipped 
from  her  own  treasury  a  large  proportion  of  those  she  has  sent  to  the  field, 
but  she  stood  ready  to  furnish  promptly  her  quota  (organized  as  the  Consti 
tution  provides)  of  any  additional  number  called  for  by  the  President. 

"  I  beg  leave  again  to  invite  your  attention  to  the  constitutional  question 
involved.  You  say  in  your  letter  that  the  constitutionality  of  the  Act  is 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        361 

clearly  not  derivable  from  the  power  to  call  out  the  militia  but  from  that  to 
raise  armies.  Let  us  examine  this  for  a  moment.  The  8th  section  of  the 
1st  Article  of  the  Constitution  defines  the  powers  of  Congress.  The  12th 
paragraph  of  that  section  declares  that  Congress  *  shall  have  power  to  raise 
and  support  armies.'  Paragraph  fifteen  gives  Congress  power  to  provide  for 
calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Confederate  States,  sup 
press  insurrections,  and  repel  invasions.  Paragraph  sixteen  gives  Congress 
power  to  provide  for  organizing,  arming,  and  disciplining  the  militia  and  for 
governing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  reserving  to  the  States  respectively  the  appointment  of  the  "jficers, 
and  the  authority  of  training  the  militia  according  to  the  discipline  prescribed 
by  Congress. 

"  These  grants  of  power  all  relate  to  the  same  subject  matter  and  are  all 
contained  in  the  same  section  of  the  Constitution,  and,  by  a  well  known  rule 
of  construction,  must  be  taken  as  a  whole  and  construed  together. 

"It  would  seem  quite  clear  that  by  the  grant  of  power  to  Congress  to  raise 
and  support  armies,  without  qualification,  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
intended  the  regular  armies  of  the  Confederacy  and  not  armies  composed 
of  the  whole  militia  of  all  the  States.  If  all  the  power  given  in  the  three 
paragraphs  above  quoted  is  in  fact  embraced  in  the  first  in  the  general 
words  to  raise  armies,  then  the  other  two  paragraphs  are  mere  surplusage  and 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution  were  guilty  of  the  folly  of  incorporating  into 
the  instrument  unmeaning  phrases.  When  the  States,  by  the  16th  para 
graph,  expressly  and  carefully  reserved  to  themselves  the  right  to  appoint 
the  officers  of  the  militia  when  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate 
State*,  it  was  certainly  never  contemplated  that  Congress  had  power,  should 
it  become  necessary,  to  call  the  whole  militia  of  the  State  into  the  service  of 
the  Confederacy,  to  direct  that  the  President  should  appoint  (com mission J 
all  the  officers  of  the  militia  thus  called  into  service,  under  the  general  lan 
guage  contained  in  the  previous  grant  of  power  to  raise  armies.  If  this  can 
be  done,  the  very  object  of  the  State  in  reserving  the  power  of  appointing 
the  officers  is  defeated,  and  that  portion  of  the  Constitution  is  not  only  a 
nullity,  but  the  whole  military  power  of  the  States,  and  the  entire  control  of 
the  militia,  with  the  appointment  of  the  officers,  is  vested  in  the  Confederate 
Government,  whenever  it  chooses  to  call  its  own  action  '  raising  an  army,' 
and  not  'calling  forth  the  militia.'  Is  it  fair  to  conclude  that  the  States 
intended  that  their  reserved  powers  should  be  defeated  in  a  matter  so  vital 
to  constitutional  liberty,  by  a  mere  change  in  the  use  of  terms  to  designate 
the  act?  Congress  shall  have  power  to  raise  armies.  How  shall  it  be  done? 
The  answer  is  clear.  In  conformity  to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
which  expressly  provides  that,  when  the  militia  of  the  States  are  called  forth 
to  repel  invasions,  and  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States, 
(which  is  now  the  case,)  the  States  shall  appoint  the  officers.  If  this  is 
done,  the  army  is  raised  as  directed  by  the  Constitution,  and  the  reserved 


362        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

rights  of  the  States  .are  respected;  but  if  the  officers  of  the  militia,  when 
called  forth,  are  appointed  by  the  President,  the  army  composed  of  the 
militia  is  not  raised  as  directed  by  the  Constitution,  and  the  reserved  rights 
of  the  States  are  disregarded.  The  fathers  of  the  Republic,  in  1787,  showed 
the  utmost  solicitude  on  this  very  point.  In  the  discussions  in  the  convention 
upon  the  adoption  of  this  paragraph  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  we  have  copied  and  adopted  without  alteration,  Mr.  Ellsworth  said : 
'The  whole  authority  over  the  militia  ought  by  no  means  to  be  taken  away 
from  the  States,  whose  consequence  would  pine  away  to  nothing  after  such 
a  sacrifice  of  power.'  In  explanation  of  the  power  which  the  committee, 
who  reported  this  paragraph  to  the  convention,  intended  by  it  to  delegate  to 
the  general  government,  when  the  militia  should  be  employed  in  the  service 
of  that  government,  Mr.  King,  a  member  of  the  committee,  said:  'By 
organizing,  the  committee  meant  proportioning  the  officers  and  men ;  by 
arming,  specifying  the  kind,  size  and  calibre  of  arms;  by  disciplining,  pre 
scribing  the  manual  exercise,  evolutions,  etc. 

"  Mr.  Gerry  objected  to  the  delegation  of  the  power,  even  with  this  ex 
planation,  and  said  :  '  This  power  in  the  United  States,  as  explained,  is  mak 
ing  the  States  drill  sergeants.'  He  had  as  lief  let  the  citizens  of  Massa 
chusetts  be  disarmed,  as  to  take  the  command  from  the  States  and  subject 
them  to  the  General  Legislature. 

"  Mr.  Madison  observed  that  '  arming,  as  explained,  did  not  extend  to 
furnishing  arms,  nor  the  term,  disciplining,  to  penalties  and  courts-martial  for 
enforcing  them. 

"  After  the  adoption  by  the  convention  of  the  first  part  of  the  clause,  Mr. 
Madison  moved  to  amend  the  next  part  of  it,  so  as  to  read  '  reserving  to  the 
States  respectively  the  appointment  of  the  officers  under  the  rank  of  general 
officers.' 

"  Mr.  Sherman  considered  this  as  absolutely  inadmissible.  He  said  that 
'  if  the  people  should  be  so  far  asleep  as  to  allow  the  most  influential  officers 
of  the  militia  to  be  appointed  by  the  general  government,  every  man  of  dis 
cernment  would  rouse  them  by  sounding  the  alarm  to  them.' 

"  Upon  Mr.  Madison's  proposition,  Mr.  Gerry  said  :  *  Let  us  at  once 
destroy  the  State  governments,  have  an  Executive  for  life,  or  hereditary,  and 
a  proper  Senate,  and  then  there  would  be  some  consistency  in  giving  full 
powers  to  the  general  government ;  but  as  the  States  are  not  to  be  abolished, 
he  wondered  at  the  attempts  that  were  made  to  give  powers  inconsistent 
with  their  existence.  He  warned  the  convention  against  pushing  the  experi 
ment  too  far.' 

"  Mr.  Madison's  amendment  to  add  to  the  clause  the  words  '  under  the  rank 
of  general  officers,'  was  voted  down  by  a  majority  of  eight  States  against 
three,  according  to  the  'Madison  Papers,'  from  which  the  above  extracts  are 
taken,  and  by  nine  States  against  two,  according  to  the  printed  journals  of 
the  convention.  The  reservation  in  the  form  in  which  it  now  stands  in  the 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        363 

Constitution,  ' reserving  to  the  States  the  appointment  of  the  officers'  when 
the  militia  are  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederacy,  as  well  the  gen 
eral  officers  as  those  under  that  grade,  was  then  adopted  unanimously  by  the 
convention. 

"  At  the  expense  of  wearying  your  patience,  I  have  been  thus  careful  in 
tracing  the  history  of  this  clause  of  the  Constitution,  to  show  that  it  was  the 
clear  understanding  of  those  who  originated  this  part  of  the  fundamental 
law,  that  the  States  should  retain  their  power  over  their  militia,  even  while  in 
the  service  of  the  Confederacy,  by  retaining  the  appointment  of  all  the  officers. 

"In  practice,  the  government  of  the  United  States,  among  other  numerous 
encroachments  of  power,  had  usurped  to  itself  the  power  which  the  conven 
tion,  after  mature  deliberation,  had  expressly  denied  to  it,  to  wit,  the  power 
of  appointing  the  general  officers  of  the  militia  when  employed  in  the  service 
of  the  general  government. 

*'  But  even  that  government  had  never  attempted  to  go  to  the  extent  of 
usurping  the  power  to  appoint  the  field  and  company  officers.  If  the  framers 
of  the  Constitution  were  startled  at  the  idea  of  giving  the  appointment  of 
the  general  officers  to  the  general  government,  and  promptly  rejected  it,  how 
would  they  have  met  a  proposition  to  give  the  appointment  of  ALL  THE 
OFFICERS,  down  to  the  lowest  lieutenant,  to  it? 

"But  you  say,  'with  regard  to  the  mode  of  officering  the  troops  now  called 
into  the  service  of  the  Confederacy,  the  intention  of  Congress  is  to  be  learned 
from  its  acts,  and  from  the  terms  employed  it  would  seem  that  the  policy  of 
election  by  the  troops  themselves  is  adopted  by  Congress.' 

"I  confess  I  had  not  so  understood  it,  without  very  essential  qualification. 
It  is  true,  the  twelve-months  men  who  re-enlist  have  a  right,  within  forty 
days,  to  re-organize  and  elect  their  officer?. 

"  But  if  I  understood  the  act,  judging  from  the  terms  used,  all  vacancies 
which  occur  in  the  old  regiments  are  to  be  filled,  not  by  election,  but  by  the 
President,  by  promotion,  down  to  the  lowest  commissioned  officer,  whose 
vacancy  alone  is  filled  by  election,  and  even  this  rule  of  promotion  may  be  set 
aside  by  the  President  at  any  time,  under  circumstances  mentioned  in  the 
act,  and  he  may  appoint  any  one  he  pleases  to  fill  the  vacancy,  if,  in  his 
opinion,  the  person  selected  is  distinguished  for  skill  or  valor;  and  the  com 
mission  in  either  and  all  the  cases  mentioned  must  be  issued  by  the 
President. 

"Quite  a  number  of  Georgia  regiments  are  in  for  the  war  whose  officers 
hold  commissions  from  the  Executive  of  the  State ;  but  even  in  these  regi 
ments,  under  the  act,  every  person  appointed  to  fill  any  vacancy  which  may 
hereafter  occur,  must,  it  would  seem,  hold  his  commission,  not  from  the 
State,  but  from  the  President. 

"  But  admit  that  Congress,  by  its  acts,  intended  to  give  the  troops  in  every 
case  the  right  to  elect  their  officers  (which  has  not  been  the  established 
practice,  as  you  have  commissioned  many  persons  to  command  as  field  of- 


364        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

ficers  without  election,)  this  does  not  relieve  the  acts  of  Congress  from  the 
charge  of  violation  of  the  Constitution.  The  question  is  not  as  to  the  mode 
of  selecting  the  person  who  is  to  have  the  commission,  but  as  to  the  govern 
ment  which  has,  under  the  Constitution,  the  right  to  issue  the  commission. 
The  States,  in  the  exercise  of  their  reserved  power  to  appoint  the  officers, 
may  select  them  by  election,  or  may  permit  the  Executive  to  select  them  ; 
but  the  appointment  rests  upon  the  commission,  as  there  is  no  complete  ap 
pointment  till  the  commission  is  issued,  arid,  therefore,  the  government  that 
issues  the  commission  exercises  the  appointing  power  and  controls  the 
appointment. 

"  I  am  not,  however,  discussing  the  intention  of  Congress  in  the  assump 
tion  of  this  power,  but  only  the  question  of  its  powers ;  and  whatever  may 
have  been  its  intention,  I  maintain  that  it  has  transcended  its  constitutional 
powers,  and  has  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive  of  the  Confederacy  that 
which  the  States  have  expressly  and  carefully  denied  to  Congress  and  re 
served  to  themselves. 

"  But  you  may  ask,  why  hold  the  Executive  responsible  for  the  unconsti 
tutional  action  of  Congress  ?  I  would  not,  of  course,  insist  on  this  any 
further  than  the  action  of  Congress  has  been  sanctioned  by  the  Executive, 
and  acted  upon  by  him. 

'•  Feeling  satisfied  that  the  Conscription  Act,  and  such  other  acts  of  Con 
gress  as  authorize  the  President  to  appoint  or  commission  the  officers  of  the 
militia  of  the  State,  when  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States 
to  *  repel  invasion,'  are  in  palpable  violation  of  the  Constitution,  I  can  con 
sent  to  do  no  act  which  commits  Georgia  to  willing  acquiescence  in  their 
binding  force  upon  her  people.  I  cannot,  therefore,  consent  to  have  any 
thing  to  do  with  the  enrolment  of  the  conscripts  in  this  State,  nor  can  I  per 
mit  any  commissioned  officer  of  the  militia  to  be  enrolled  who  is  necessary 
to  enable  the  State  to  exercise  her  reserved  right  of  training  her  militia,  ac 
cording  to  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Congress,  at  a  time  when  to  prevent 
troubles  with  her  slaves,  a  strict  military  police  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
safety  of  her  people.  Nor  can  I  permit  any  other  officer,  civil  or  military, 
who  is  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  the  State  government,  to  be  carried 
out  of  the  State  as  a  conscript. 

"  Should  you  at  any  time  need  additional  troops  from  Georgia  to  fill  up 
her  just  quota,  in  proportion  to  the  number  furnished  by  the  other  States, 
you  have  only  to  call  on  the  Executive  for  the  number  required,  to  be  or 
ganized  and  officered  as  the  Constitution  directs,  and  your  call  will,  as  it 
ever  has  done,  meet  a  prompt  response  from  her  noble  and  patriotic  people, 
who,  while  they  will  watch  with  a  jealous  eye,  even  in  the  midst  of  revo 
lution,  every  attempt  to  undermine  their  constitutional  rights,  will  never  be 
content  to  be  behind  the  foremost  in  the  discharge  of  their  whole  duty. 
"  I  am,  with  great  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        365 

"EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

RICHMOND,  May  29,  1862. 

"Dear  Sir : — I  received  your  letter  of  the  8th  inst.  in  due  course,  but  the 
importance  of  the  subject  embraced  in  it  required  careful  consideration ; 
and  this,  together  with  other  pressing  duties,  has  caused  delay  in  my  reply. 

"The  constitutional  question  discussed  by  you  in  relation  to  the  Con 
scription  Law  had  been  duly  weighed  before  I  recommended  to  Congress 
the  passage  of  such  a  law  ;  it  was  fully  debated  in  both  houses  ;  and  your 
letter  has  not  only  been  submitted  to  my  Cabinet,  but  a  written  opinion  has 
been  required  from  the  Attorney-General.  The  constitutionality  of  the  law 
was  sustained  by  very  large  majorities  in  both  houses.  This  decision  of  the 
Congress  meets  the  concurrence,  not  only  of  my  own  judgment,  but  of  every 
member  of  the  Cabinet ;  and  a  copy  of  the  opinion  of  the  Attorney-General, 
herewith  enclosed,  develops  the  reasons  on  which  his  conclusions  are  based. 

"I  propose,  however,  from  my  high  respect  for  yourself,  and  for  other 
eminent  citizens  who  entertain  opinions  similar  to  yours,  to  set  forth,  some 
what  at  length,  my  own  views  on  the  power  of  the  Confederate  Government 
over  its  own  armies  and  the  militia,  and  will  endeavor  not  to  leave  without 
answer  any  of  the  positions  maintained  in  your  letter. 

"  The  main  if  not  the  only  purpose  for  which  independent  States  form 
unions  or  confederations  is  to  combine  the  power  of  the  several  members  in 
such  manner  as  to  form  one  united  force  in  all  relations  with  foreign  powers, 
whether  in  peace  or  in  war.tEach  State,  amply  competent  to  administer  and 
control  its  own  domestic  government,  yet  too  feeble  successfully  to  resist 
powerful  nations,  seeks  safety  by  uniting  with  other  States  in  like  condition, 
and  by  delegating  to  some  common  agent  the  combined  strength  of  all,  in 
order  to  secure  advantageous  commercial  relations  in  peace,  and  to  carry 
on  hostilities  with  effect  in  war. 

"Now,  the  powers  delegated  by  the  several  States  to  the  Confederate 
Government,  which  is  their  common  agent,  are  enumerated  in  the  8th  section 
of  the  Constitution,  each  power  being  distinct,  specific,  and  enumerated  in 
paragraphs  separately  numbered.  The  only  exception  is  the  18th  paragraph, 
which,  by  its  own  terms,  is  made  dependent  on  those  previously  enumerated, 
as  follows : 

"  « 18.  To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying 
into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,'  etc. 

"  Now  the  war  powers  granted  to  the  Congress  are  conferred  in  the  follow 
ing  paragraphs : 

"  No.  1  gives  authority  to  raise  *  revenue  necessary  to  pay  the  debts,  pro 
vide  for  the  common  defence,  and  carry  on  the  government,'  &c. 

"No.  11,  'to  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  and  make 
rules  concerning  captures  on  land  and  water ; ' 

"No.  12,  '  to  raise  and  support  armies;  but  no  appropriation  of  money  to 
that  use  shall  be  for  a  longer  term  than  two  years.' 


366        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

"  No.  13,  '  to  provide  and  maintain  a  navy  ;  ' 

"No.  14,  'to  make  rules  for  the  government  and  regulation  of  the  land 
and  naval  forces.' 

"  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  more  broad,  ample,  and  unqualified  dele 
gation  of  the  whole  war  power  of  each  State  than  is  here  contained,  with  the 
solitary  limitation  of  the  appropiiations  to  two  years.  The  States  not  only 
gave  power  to  raise  money  for  the  common  defence;  to  declare  war;  to 
raise  and  support  armies  (in  the  plural)  ;  to  provide  and  maintain  a  navy  ; 
to  govern  and  regulate  both  land  and  naval  forces ;  but  they  went  further, 
and  covenanted,  by  the  3d  paragraph  of  the  10th  section,  not  '  to  engage  in 
war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such  imminent  danger  as  will  not  admit 
of  delay.' 

"  I  know  of  but  two  modes  of  raising  armies  within  the  Confederate  States, 
viz. :  voluntary  enlistment,  and  draft  or  conscription.  I  perceive,  in  the 
delegation  of  power  to  raise  armies,  no  restriction  as  to  the  mode  of  procur 
ing  troops.  I  see  nothing  which  confines  Congress  to  one  class  of  men,  nor 
any  greater  power  to  receive  volunteers  than  conscripts  into  its  service.  I 
see  no  limitation  by  which  enlistments  are  to  be  received  of  individuals 
only,  but  not  of  companies,  or  battalions,  or  squadrons,  or  regiments.  I 
find  no  limitation  of  time  of  service  but  only  of  duration  of  appropriation. 
I  discover  nothing  to  confine  Congress  to  waging  war  within  the  limits  of 
the  Confederacy,  nor  to  prohibit  offensive  war.  In  a  word,  when  Congress 
desires  to  raise  an  army,  and  passes  a  law  for  that  purpose,  the  solitary,  ques 
tion  is  under  the  18th  paragraph,  viz. :  *  Is  the  law  one  that  is  necessary  and 
proper  to  execute  the  power  to  raise  armies,'  etc.? 

"  On  this  point  you  say :  *  But  did  the  necessity  exist  in  this  case  ? '  The 
Conscription  Act  cannot  aid  the  Government  in  increasing  the  supply  of 
arms  or  provisions,  but  can  only  enable  it  to  call  a  larger  number  of  men  into 
the  field.  The  difficulty  has  never  been  to  get  men.  The  States  have 
already  furnished  the  Government  more  than  it  can  arm,'  etc. 

"  I  would  have  .very  little  difficulty  in  establishing  to  your  entire  satisfac 
tion  that  the  passage  of  the  law  was  not  only  necessary,  but  that  it  was  abso 
lutely  indispensable  ;  that  numerous  regiments  of  twelve-months  men  were 
on  the  eve  of  being  disbanded,  whose  places  could  not  be  supplied  by  new 
levies  in  the  face  or  superior  numbers  of  the  foe,  without  entailing  the  most 
disastrous  results  ;  that  the  position  of  our  armies  was  so  critical  as  to  fill 
the  bosom  of  every  patriot  with  the  liveliest  apprehension ;  and  that  the  pro 
visions  of  this  law  were  effective  in  warding  off  a  pressing  danger.  But  I 
prefer  to  answer  your  objection  on  <jther  and  broader  grounds. 

"I  hold,  that  when  a  specific  power  is  granted  by  the  Constitution  like 
th-it  now  in  question,  '  to  raise  armies,'  Congress  is  the  judge  whether  the 
law  passed  for  the  purpose  of  executing  that  power  is  '  necessary  and 
proper.'  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  armies  might  be  raised  in  other  ways, 
and  that,  therefore,  this  particular  way  is  not  '  necessary.'  The  same  argu- 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        367 

ment  might  be  used  against  every  mode  of  raising  armies.  To  each  succes 
sive  mode  suggested,  the  objection  would  be  that  other  modes  were  practica 
ble,  and  that,  therefore,  the  particular  mode  used  was  not  *  necessary.'  The 
true  and  only  test  is  to  enquire  whether  the  law  is  intended  and  calculated  to 
carry  out  the  object;  whether  it  devises  and  creates  an  instrumentality  for 
executing  the  specific  power  granted ;  and  if  the  answer  be  in  the  affirmative, 
the  law  is  constitutional.  None  can  doubt  that  the  Conscription  Law  is 
calculated  and  intended  to  '  raise  armies.'  It  is,  therefore,  '  necessary  and 
proper 'for  the  execution  of  that  power,  and  is  constitutional,  unless  it 
comes  into  conflict  with  some  other  provision  of  our  Confederate  compact. 

"  You  express  the  opinion  that  this  conflict  exists,  and  support  your  argu 
ment  by  the  citation  of  those  clauses  which  refer  to  the  militia.  There 
are  certain  provisions  not  cited  by  you,  which  are  not  without  influence  on 
my  judgment,  and  to  which  I  call  your  attention.  They  will  aid  in  defining 
what  is  meant  by  '  militia,'  and  in  determining  the  respective  powers  of  the 
States  and  the  Confederacy  over  them. 

"The  several  States  agree  '  not  to  keep  troops  or  ships  of  war  in  time  of 
peace.'  Art.  1,  sec.  10,  par.  3. 

"They  further  stipulate,  that  *  a  well  regulated  militia  being  necessary 
to  the  security  of  a  free  State,  the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear  arms 
shall  not  be  infringed.'  Sec.  9,  par.  13. 

"  That  *  no  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital  or  otherwise  infa 
mous  crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury,  except  in 
cases  arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces  or  in  the  militia  when  in  actual 
service  in  time  of  war  or  public  danger,'  etc.  Sec.  9,  par.  16. 

"  What  then  are  militia?  They  can  only  be  created  by  law. — The  arms- 
bearing  inhabitants  of  a  State  are  liable  to  become  its  militia,  if  the  law  so 
order ;  but  in  the  absence  of  a  law  to  that  effect,  the  men  of  a  State  capable 
of  bearing  arms  are  no  more  militia  than  they  are  seamen. 

"  The  Constitution  also  tells  us  that  militia  are  not  troops  nor  are  they  any 
part  of  the  land  or  naval  forces;  for  militia  exist  in  time  of  peace,  and  the 
Constitution  forbids  the  States  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  peace,  and  they  are 
expressly  distinguished  and  placed  in  a  separate  category  from  land  or  naval 
forces,  in  the  16th  paragraph,  above  quoted  ;  and  the  words  land  or  naval  forces 
are  shown,  by  paragraphs  12,  13  and  14,  to  mean  the  army  and  navy  of  the 
Confederate  States. 

"Now,  if  militia  are  not  the  citizens  taken  singly,  but  a  body  cre 
ated  by  law,  if  they  are  not  troops,  if  they  are  no  part  of  the  army  and 
navy  of  the  Confederacy — we  are  led  directly  to  the  definition  quoted  by 
the  Attorney-General,  that  militia  are  a  '  body  of  soldiers  in  a  State  enrolled 
for  discipline.'  In  other  words,  the  term  '  militia '  is  a  collective  term, 
meaning  a  body  of  men  organized,  and  cannot  be  applied  to  the  separate  in 
dividuals  who  compose  the  organization. 

"  The  Constitution  divides  the  whole  military  strength  of  the  States  into 


368        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

only  two  classes  of  organized  bodies — one,  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  ;  the 
other,  the  militia  of  the  States. 

"  In  the  delegation  of  power  to  the  Confederacy,  after  exhausting  the  sub 
ject  of  declaring  war,  raising  and  supporting  armies,  and  providing  a 
navy,  in  relation  to  all  which  the  grant  of  authority  to  Congress  is  exclusive, 
the  Constitution  proceeds  to  deal  with  the  other  organized  body,  the  militia, 
and,  instead  of  delegating  power  to  Congress  alone,  or  reserving  it  to  the 
States  alone,  the  power  is  divided  as  follows,  viz. :  Congress  is  to  have 
power — 

"  *  To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  suppress  insurrections,  and  repel  invasion*.'  Sec.  8,  par.  15. 

"'To  provide  for  organizing,  arming,  and  disciplining  the  militia,  and  for 
governing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  reserving  to  the  States  respectively  the  appointment  of  officers 
and  the  authority  of  training  the  militia  according  to  the  discipline  prescribed 
by  Congress.'  Par.  16. 

"  Congress,  then,  has  the  power  to  provide  for  organizing  the  arms-bearing 
people  of  the  States  into  militia.  Each  State  has  the  power  to  officer  and 
train  them  when  organized. 

"  Congress  may  call  forth  the  militia  to  execute  Confederate  laws.  The 
State  has  not  surrendered  the  power  to  call  them  forth  to  execute  State  laws. 

"  Congress  may  call  them  forth  to  repel  invasion ;  so  may  the  State,  for  it 
has  expressly  reserved  this  right. 

"  Congress  may  call  them  forth  to  suppress  insurrection,  and  so  may  the 
State,  for  the  power  is  impliedly  reserved  of  governing  all  the  militia  except 
the  part  in  actual  service  of  the  Confederacy. 

.  "I  confess  myself  at  a  loss  to  perceive  in  what  manner  these  careful  and 
well-defined  provisions  of  the  Constitution  regulating  the  organization  and 
government  of  the  militia  can  be  understood  as  applying  in  the  remotest 
degree  to  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy;  nor  can  I  conceive  how  the  grant 
of  exclusive  power  to  declare  and  carry  on  war  by  armies  raised  and  sup 
ported  by  the  Confederacy,  is  to  be  restricted  or  diminished  by  the  clauses 
which  grant  a  divided  power  over  the  rnilitia.  On  the  contrary,  the  delega 
tion  of  authority  over  the  militia,  so  far  as  granted,  appears  to  me  to  be 
plainly  an  additional  enumerated  power,  intended  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
the  Confederate  Government  in  the  discharge  of  its  paramount  duty,  the 
common  defence  of  the  States. 

"You  state,  after  quoting  the  12th,  loth,  and  16th  grants  of  power  to 
Congress,  that,  *  These  grants  of  power  all  relate  to  the  same  subject  matter, 
and  are  all  contained  in  the  same  section  of  the  Constitution,  and  by  a  well 
known  rule  of  construction  must  be  taken  as  a  whole,  and  construed  together.' 

"This  argument  appears  to  me  unsound.  All  the  powers  of  Congress  are 
enumerated  in  one  section  ;  and  the  three  paragraphs  quoted  can  no  more 
control  each  other  by  reason  of  their  location  in  the  same  section,  than  they 


AND  GOV.  BKOWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        369 

can  control  any  of  the  other  paragraphs  preceding,  intervening,  or  succeed 
ing.  So  far  as  the  subject  matter  is  concerned,  I  have  already  endeavored  to 
show  that  the  armies  mentioned  in  the  12th  paragraph  are  a  subject  matter 
as  distinct  from  the  militia  mentioned  in  the  15t!i  and  16th  as  they  are  from 
the  navy  mentioned  in  the  13th.  Nothing  can  so  mislead  as  to  construe  to 
gether,  and  as  a  whole,  the  carefully  separated  clauses  which  define  the 
different  powers  to  be  exercised  over  distinct  subjects  by  the  Congress.  But 
you  add  that,  '  by  the  grant  of  power  to  Congress  to  raise  and  support 
armies  without  qualification,  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  intended  the 
regular  armies  of  the  Confederacy,-  and  not  armies  composed  of  the  whole 
militia  of  all  the  States.' 

"I  must  confess  myself  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  understand  this  position. 
If  I  am  right,  that  the  militia  is  a  body  of  enrolled  State  soldiers,  it  is  not 
possible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  armies  raised  by  the  Confederacy  can 
'be  composed  of  the  whole  militia  of  all  the  States.'  The  militia  may  be 
called  forth,  in  whole  or  in  part,  into  the  Confederate  service,  but  do  not 
thereby  become  part  of  the  '  armies  raised '  by  Congress.  They  remain 
militia,  and  go  home  when  the  emergency  which  provoked  their  call  has 
ceased.  Armies  raised  by  Congress  are  of  course  raised  out  of  the  same 
population  as  the  militia  organized  by  the  States ;  and  to  deny  to  Congress 
the  power  to  draft  a  citizen  into  the  army,  or  to  receive  his  voluntary  offer 
of  services  because  he  is  a  member  of  the  State  militia,  is  to  deny  the  power 
to  raise  an  army  at  all ;  for,  practically,  all  men  fit  for  service  in  the  army 
may  be  embraced  in  the  militia  organizations  of  the  several  States.  You 
seem,  however,  to  suggest,  rather  than  directly  to  assert,  that  the  conscript 
law  may  be  unconstitutional,  because  it  comprehends  all  arms-bearing  men 
between  eighteen  and  thirty-five  years:  at  least  this  is  an  inference  which  I 
draw  from  your  expression,  'armies  composed  of  the  whole  militia  of  all  the 
States.'  But  it  is  obvious  that,  if  Congress  have  power  to  draft  into  the 
armies  raised  by  it  any  citizens  at  all  (without  regard  to  the  fact  whether 
they  are  or  not  members  of  militia  organizations),  the  power  must  be  co 
extensive  with  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion,  or  it  becomes  illusory ;  and 
the  extent  of  the  exigency  must  be  determined  by  Congress;  for  the  Consti 
tution  has  left  the  power  without  any  other  check  or  restriction  than  the 
Executive  veto.  Under  ordinary  circumstances,,  the  power  thus  delegated 
to  Congress  is  scarcely  felt  by  the  States.  At  the  present  moment,  when 
our  very  existence  is  threatened  by  armies  vastly  superior  in  numbers  to 
ours,  the  necessity  for  defence  has  induced  a  call,  not  '  for  the  whole  militia 
of  all  the  States,'  not  for  any  militia,  but  for  men  to  compose  armies  for  the 
Confederate  States. 

"  Surely,  there  is  no  mystery  on  this  subject.  During  our  whole  past 
history,  as  well  as  during  our  recent  one  year's  experience  as  a  new  confed 
eracy,  the  militia  'have  been  called  forth  to  repel  invasion '  in  numerous 
instances ;  and  they  never  came  otherwise  than  as  bodies  organized  by  the 
24 


370        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

States,  with  their  company,  field,  and  general  officers',  and  when  the  emer 
gency  had  passed,  they  went  home  again. 

"I  cannot  perceive  how  any  one  can  interpret  the  conscription  law  as 
taking  away  from  the  States  the  power  to  appoint  officers  to  their  militia. 
You  observe  on  this  point  in  your  letter,  that  unless  your  construction  is 
adopted  « the  very  object  of  the  States  in  reserving  the  power  of  appointing 
the  officers  is  defeated,  and  that  portion  of  the  Constitution  is  not  only  a 
nullity,  but  the  whole  military  power  of  the  States,  and  the  entire  control  of 
the  militia,  with  the  appointment  of  the  officers,  is  vested  in  the  Confederate 
Government,  whenever  it  chooses  to  call  its  own  action  "  raising  an  army," 
and  not  calling  forth  the  militia.' 

"  I  can  only  say,  in  reply  to  this,  that  the  power  of  Congress  depends  on 
the  real  nature  of  the  act  it  proposes  to  perform,  not  on  the  name  given  to 
it ;  and  I  have  endeavored  to  show  that  its  action  is  merely  that  of  '  raising 
an  army,'  and  bears  no  semblance  to  «  calling  forth  the  militia.'  I  think  I 
may  safely  venture  the  assertion,  that  there  is  not  one  man  out  of  a  thou 
sand  of  those  who  will  do  service  under  the  Conscription  Act  that  would 
describe  himself,  while  in  the  Confederate  service,  as  being  a  militia  man  ; 
and  if  I  am  right  in  this  assumption,  the  popular  understanding  concurs 
entirely  with  my  own  deductions  from  the  Constitution  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  word  '  militia.' 

"  My  answer  has  grown  to  such  a  length  that  I  must  confine  myself  to  one 
more  quotation  from  your  letter.  You  proceed  :  '  Congress  shall  have  power 
to  raise  armies.  How  shall  it  be  done  ?  The  answer  is  clear.  In  conformity 
to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  which  expressly  provides  that  when 
the  militia  of  the  States  are  called  forth  to  repel  invasion,  and  employed  in 
the  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  which  is  now  the  case,  the  State  shall 
appoint  the  officers.' 

"  I  beg  you  to  observe  that  the  answer,  which  you  say  is  clear,  is  not  an 
answer  to  the  question  put.  The  question  is  :  How  are  armies  to  be  raised? 
The  answer  given  is,  that  when  militia  are  called  forth  to  repel  invasion  the 
State  shall  appoint  the  officers. 

"  There  seems  to  me  to  be  a  conclusive  test  on  this  whole  subject.  By 
our  Constitution  Congress  may  declare  war,  offensive  as  well  as  defensive. 
It  may  acquire  territory. —7  Now,  suppose  that  for  good  cause,  and  to  right 
unprovoked  injuries,  Congress  should  declare  war  against  Mexico,  and 
invade  Sonora.  The  militia  could  not  be  called  forth  in  such  a  case,  the 
right  to  call  it  being  limited  *  to  repel  invasions.'  Is  it  not  plain  that  the 
law  now  under  discussion,  if  passed  under  such  circumstances,  could  by  no 
possibility  be  aught  else  than  a  law  to  '  raise  an  army  '?  Can  one  and  the 
same  law  be  construed  into  a  'calling  forth  the  militia,'  if  the  war  be  defen 
sive,  and  a  '  raising  of  armies,'  if  the  war  be  offensive  ? 

"At  some  future  day,  after  our  independence  shall  have  been  established, 
it  is  no  improbable  supposition  that  our  present  enemy  may  be  tempted  to 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        371 

abuse  his  naval  power,  by  depredation  on  our  commerce,  and  that  we  may 
be  compelled  to  assert  our  rights  by  offensive  war.  How  is  it  to  be  carried 
on  ?  Of  what  is  the  army  to  be  composed?  If  this  Government  cannot  call 
on  its  arms-bearing  population  otherwise  than  as  militia,  and  if  the  militia 
can  only  be  called  forth  to  repel  invasion,  we  should  be  utterly  helpless  to 
vindicate  our  honor  or  protect  our  rights.  War  has  been  well  styled  *  the 
terrible  litigation  of  nation?.'  Have  we  so  formed  our  Government  that  in 
this  litigation  we  must  never  be  plaintiff?  Surely  this  cannot  have  been  the 
intention  of  the  framers  of  our  compact. 

"In  no  aspect  in  which  I  can  view  this  law,  can  I  find  just  reason  to  dis 
trust  the  propriety  of  my  action  in  approving  and  signing  it ;  and  the  ques 
tion  presented  involves  consequences,  both  immediate  and  remote,  too 
momentous  to  permit  me  to  leave  your  objections  unanswered. 

"In  conclusion,  I  take  great  pleasure  in  recognizing  that  the  history  of 
the  past  year  affords  the  amplest  justification  for  your  assertion,  that  if  the 
question  had  been  whether  the  conscription  law  was  necessary  in  order  to 
raise  men  in  Georgia,  the  answer  must  have  been  in  the  negative.  Your 
noble  State  has  promptly  responded  to  every  call  that  it  has  been  my  duty 
to  make  on  her;  and  to  you,  personally,  as  her  Executive,  I  acknowledge 
my  indebtedness  for  the  prompt,  cordial,  and  effective  co-operation  you 
have  afforded  me  in  the  effort  to  defend  our  common  country  against  the 
common  enemy. 

"  I  am,  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 

''His  Excellency  Jos.  E.  BROWN, 

"  Governor  of  Georgia, 

"  Milledgeville." 


"  ATLANTA,  June  21,  1862. 
"HIS  EXCELLENCY  JEFFERSON  DAVIS,  PRESIDENT,  &c. 

"  D>ar  Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter 
of  the  29th  ult.,  in  reply  to  mine  of  the  8th  of  the  same  month,  which 
reached  my  office,  at  Milledgeville,  on  the  8th  inst ,  together  with  a  copy  of 
the  written  opinion  of  the  Attorney- General,  and  has  since  been  forwarded 
to  me  at  Canton,  where  I  was  detained  by  family  affliction. 

"Your  reply,  prepared  after  mature  deliberation  and  consultation  with  a 
Cabinet  of  distinguished  ability,  who  concur  in  your  view  of  the  constitu 
tionality  of  the  Conscription  Act,  doubtless  presents  the  very  strongest 
argument  in  defence  of  the  Act,  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible. 

"  Entertaining,  as  I  do,  the  highest  respect  for  your  opinions  and  those  of 
each  individual  member  of  your  Cabinet,  it  is  with  great  diffidence  that  I 
express  the  conviction,  which  I  still  entertain,  after  a  careful  perusal  of  vour 


372        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

letter,  that  your  argument  fails  to  sustain  the  constitutionality  of  the  Act; 
and  that  the  conclusion  at  which  you  have  arrived  is  maintained  by  neither 
the  contemporaneous  construction  put  upon  the  Constitution  by  those  who 
made  it,  nor  by  the  practice  of  the  United  States  Government  under  it 
during  the  earlier  and  better  days  of  the  Republic,  nor  by  the  language  of 
the  instrument  itself,  taking  the  whole  context  and  applying  to  it  the  well 
established  rules  by  which  all  constitutions  and  laws  are  to  be  construed. 

"  Looking  to  the  magnitude  of  the  rights  involved,  and  the  disastrous 
consequences  which,  I  fear,  must  follow  what  I  consider  a  bold  and  danger 
ous  usurpation  by  Congress  of  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States,  and  a  rapid 
stride  towards  military  despotism,  I  very  much  regret  that  I  have  not,  in  the 
preparation  of  this  reply,  the  advice  and  assistance  of  a  number  equal  to 
your  Cabinet,  of  the  many  'eminent  citizens'  who,  you  admit,  entertain 
with  me,  the  opinion  that  the  Conscription  Act  is  a  palpable  violation  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  Confederacy.  Without  this  assistance,  however,  I  must 
proceed  individually  to  express  to  you  some  views,  in  addition  to  those  con 
tained  in  my  former  letters,  and  to  reply  to  such  points  made  by  you  in  the 
argument,  as  seem  to  my  mind  to  have  the  most  plausibility  in  sustaining 
your  conclusion. 

"  The  sovereignty  and  independence  of  each  one  of  the  thirteen  States  at 
the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  will  not,  I 
presume,  be  denied  by  any,  nor  will  it  be  denied  that  each  of  these  States 
acted  in  its  separate  capacity,  as  an  independent  sovereign,  in  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution.  The  Constitution  is,  therefore,  a  league  between  sov 
ereigns.  In  order  to  place  upon  it  a  just  construction,  we  must  apply  to  it 
the  rules,  which,  by  common  consent,  govern  in  the  construction  of  all  writ 
ten  constitutions  and  laws.  One  of  the  first  of  these  rules  is,  to  inquire  what 
was  the  intention  of  those  who  made  the  Constitution. 

"  To  enable  us  to  learn  this  intention,  it  is  important  to  inquire  what  they 
did,  and  what  they  said  they  meant,  when  they  were  making  it.  In  other 
words,  t6  inquire  for  the  contemporaneous  construction  put  upon  the  instru 
ment  bv  those  who  made  it,  and  the  explanations  of  its  meaning  by  those 
who  proposed  each  part  in  the  convention,  which  induced  the  convention  to 
adopt  each  part. 

"  I  incorporated  into  my  last  letter  a  number  of  quotations  from  the  de 
bates  of  prominent  members  of  the  convention  upon  the  very  point  in  ques 
tion,  showing  that  it  was  not  the  intention  of  the  convention  to  give  to  Con 
gress  the  unlimited  control  of  all  the  men  able  to  bear  arms  in  the  States, 
but  that  it  was  their  intention  to  reserve  to  the  States  the  control  over  those 
who  composed  their  militia,  by  retaining  to  the  States  the  appointment  of  the 
officers  to  command  them,  even  while  'employed  in  the  service  of  the  Con 
federate  States.'  I  might  add  many  other  quotations  containing  strong  proofs 
of  this  position,  from  the  debates  of  the  Federal  convention,  and  the  action 
of  the  State  conventions  which  adopted  the  Constitution;  but  I  deem  it 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        373 

unnecessary,  as  you  made  no  allusion  to  the  contemporaneous  construction 
in  your  reply,  and  I  presume  you  do  not  insist  that  the  explanations  of  its 
meaning  given  by  those  who  made  it  sustain  your  conclusion. 

"I  feel  that  I  am  fully  justified  by  the  debates  and  the  action  of  the  Fed 
eral  and  State  conventions,  in  saying  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  thirteen 
sovereigns,  to  constitute  a  common  agent  with  certain  specific  and  limited 
powers,  to  be  exercised  for  the  good  of  all  the  principals,  but  that  it  was  not 
the  intention  to  give  the  agent  the  power  to  destroy  the.  principals.  The  agent 
was  expected  to  be  rather  the  servant  of  several  masters,  than  the  master  of 
several  servants.  I  apprehend  it  was  never  imagined  that  the  time  would 
come  when  the  agent  of  the  sovereigns  would  claim  the  power  to  take  from 
each  sovereign  every  man  belonging  to  each,  able  to  bear  arms,  and  leave 
them  with  no  power  to  execute  their  own  laws,  suppress  insurrections  in  their 
midst,  or  repel  invasions. 

'•In  reference  to  the  practice  of  the  United  States  Government  under  the 
Constitution,  I  need  only  remark,  that  I  do  not  presume  it  will  be  contended 
that  Congress  claimed  or  exercised  the  right  to  compel  persons  constituting 
the  militia  of  the  States,  by  conscription  or  compulsion,  to  enter  the  service  of 
the  General  Government,  without  the  consent  of  their  State  Government,  at 
any  time  while  the  Government  was  administered,  or  its  councils  controlled, 
by  any  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic  who  aided  in  the  formation  of  the  Con 
stitution. 

"If,  then,  the  constitutionality  of  the  Conscription  Act  cannot  be  estab 
lished  by  the  contemporaneous  construction  of  the  Constitution,  nor  by  the 
earlier  practice  of  the  Government  while  administered  by  those  who  made 
the  Constitution,  the  remaining  inquiry  is,  can  it  be  established  by  the  lan 
guage  of  the  instrument  itself,  taking  the  whole  context,  and  applying  to  it 
the  usual  rules  of  construction,  which  were  generally  received  and  admitted 
to  be  authoritative  at  the  time  it  was  made. 

"  The  Constitution,  in  express  language, gives  Congress  the  power  to  'raise 
and  support  armies.'  You  rest  the  case  here,  and  say  you  know  of  but  two 
modes  of  '  raising  armies,'  to  wit :  •  by  voluntary  enlistment,  and  by  draft  or 
conscription,'  and  you  conclude  that  the  Constitution  authorizes  Congress  to 
raise  them  by  either  or  both  these  modes. 

"  To  enable  us  to  arrive  at  an  intelligent  conclusion  as  to  the  meaning  in 
tended  to  be  conveyed  by  those  who  used  this  language,  it  is  necessary  to 
inquire  what  signification  was  attached  to  the  terms  used,  at  the  time  they 
were  used ;  and  it  is  fair  to  infer  that  those  who  used  them  intended  to  con 
vey  to  the  minds  of  others  the  idea  which  was  at  that  time  usually  conveyed 
by  the  language  adopted  by  them.  Apply  this  rule,  and  what  did  the  con 
vention  mean  by  the  term  'to  raise  armies?'  I  prefer  that  the  Attorney- 
General  should  answer.  He  says  in  his  written  opinion  : 

"  '  Inasmuch  as  the  words  "  militia,"  "  armies,"  "  regular  troops,"  and  "  vol 
unteers,"  had  acquired  a  definite  meaning  in  Great  Britain  before  the  Revolu- 


374        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

tionary  war,  and  as  we  have  derived  most  of  our  ideas  on  this  subject  from 
that  source,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  the  term  "  militia,"  in  our  Constitu 
tion,  was  used  in  the  sense  attached  to  it  in  that  country.' 

"  Upon  this  statement  of  the  Attorney-General  rests  his  definition  of  the 
term  'militia,'  which  is  an  English  definition;  and  upon  that  definition 
rests  all  that  part  of  your  argument,  which  draws  a  distinction,  however  un 
substantial,  between  calling  forth  the  militia  by  the  authority  of  Congress, 
and  calling  forth  all  men  in  the  State  who  compose  the  militia  by  the  same 
authority.  In  the  one  case,  you  term  it  calling  forth  the  militia,  and  admit 
that  the  State  has  the  right  to  appoint  the  officers :  in  the  other  case,  while 
every  man  called  forth  may  be  the  same,  you  term  it  raising  an  army,  and 
deny  to  the  State  the  appointment  of  the  officers.  As  this  is  necessary  to 
sustain  the  constitutionality  of  the  Conscription  Act,  you  cannot  disapprove 
the  statement  of  the  Attorney-General  above  quoted.  If,  then,  the  Attorney- 
General  is  right,  that  the  terms  'militia,'  'armies,  'regular  troops,'  and  'vol 
unteers  '  had  acquired  a  definite  meaning  in  Great  Britain  before  the  Rev 
olutionary  war,  and  we  have  derived  most  of  our  ideas  on  this  subject  from 
that  source,  and  if  we  may  safely  conclude  that  the  term  '  militia  '  in  our 
Constitution  was  used  in  the  sense  attached  to  it  in  that  country,  is  it  not 
equally  safe  to  conclude  that  the  terms  '  armies,'  and  to  '  raise  armies,'  hav 
ing  acquired  a  definite  meaning  in  Great  Britain  before  the  Revolutionary 
war,  were  used  in  our  Constitution  in  the  same  sense  attached  to  them  in 
that  country? 

"  At  that  period,  the  government  of  Great  Britain  had  no  Conscription 
Act,  and  did  not  '  raise  armies  '  by  conscription ;  therefore  the  convention 
which  made  our  Constitution,  'having  derived  most  of  their  ideas  on  this 
subject  from  that  source,'  it  is  '  safe  to  conclude  '  that  they  used  the  term  to 
'  raise  armies'  in  the  sense  attached  to  it  in  that  country.  It  necessarily  fol 
lows,  the  Attorney-General  being  the  judge,  that  your  conclusion  is  erro 
neous,  and  that  Congress  has  no  power  to  '  raise  armies,'  not  even  her  reg 
ular  armies,'  by  conscription. 

"  But,  as  those  who  framed  the  Constitution  foresaw  that  Congress  might 
not  be  able,  by  voluntary  enlistment,  to  raise  regular  or  standing  armies  suf 
ficiently  large  to  meet  all  emergencies,  or  that  the  people  might  refuse  to 
vote  supplies  to  maintain  in  the  field  armies  so  large  and  dangerous,  they 
wisely  provided,  in  connection  with  this  grant  of  power,  another  relating  to 
the  same  subject-matter,  and  gave  Congress  the  additional  power  to  call 
forth  the  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Confederate  States,  suppress  in 
surrections,  and  repel  invasions. 

"  In  this  connection,!  am  reminded  by  your  letter,  that  Congress  has  power 
'to  declare  war,'  which  you  say  embraces  the  right  to  declare  offensive  as 
well  as  defensive  war;  and  you  argue,  as  I  understand,  that  the  militia  can 
only  be  called  forth  to  repel  invasions,  and  not  to  invade  a  foreign  power, 
and  that  Congress  would  be  powerless  to  redress  our  wrongs,  or  vindicate 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        375 

our  honor,  if  it  could  not  *  raise  armies  '  by  conscription,  to  invade  foreign 
powers.  If  this  were  even  so,  it  might  be  an  objection  to  the  constitutional 
government,  for  want  of  sufficient  strength,  which  is  an  objection  often 
made  by  those  who  favor  more  absolute  power  in  the  general  government, 
and  who  attempt,  by  a  latitudinarian  construction  of  the  Constitution,  to 
supply  powers  which  were  never  intended  to  be  given  to  it.  But  does  the 
practical  difficulty  which  you  suggest  in  fact  exist?  I  maintain  that  it 
does  not.  And  I  may  here  remark,  that  those  who  established  the  govern 
ment  of  our  fathers  did  not  look  to  it  as  a  great  military  power,  whose 
people  were  to  live  by  plundering  other  nations  in  foreign  aggressive  war, 
but  as  .a  peaceful  government,  advised  by  the  Father  of  his  Country  to  avoid 
*  entangling  alliances  '  with  foreign  powers. 

"  But  you  suppose,  after  our  independence  is  established,  that  our  present 
enemy  may  be  tempted  to  abuse  his  naval  power,  by  depredation  on  our 
commerce,  and  that  we  may  be  compelled  to  assert  our  rights  by  offensive 
war,  and  you  ask,  '  How  is  it  to  be  carried  on  ? '  *  Of  what  is  the  army  to  be 
composed?  '  The  answer  is  a  very  simple  one.  If  the  aggression  is  such  as 
to  justify  us  in  the  declaration  of  offensive  war,  our  people  will  have  the  in 
telligence  to  know  it,  and  the  patriotism  and  valor  to  prompt  them  to  re 
spond  by  voluntary  enlistment,  and  to  offer  themselves  under  officers  of 
their  own  choice,  through  their  State  authorities,  to  the  Confederacy,  just  as 
they  did  in  the  offensive  war  against  Mexico,  when  many  more  were  offered 
than  were  needed,  without  conscription  or  coercion  ;  and  just  as  they  have 
done  in  our  present  defensive  war,  when  ahnost  every  State  has  responded 
to  every  call,  by  sending  larger  numbers  than  were  called  for,  and  larger 
than  the  government  can  arm  and  make  effective.  There  is  no  danger  that 
the  honor  of  the  intelligent  free-born  citizens  of  this  Confederacy  will  ever 
suffer  because  the  government  has  not  the  power  to  compel  them  to  vindicate 
it.  They  will  hold  the  government  responsible  if  it  refuses  to  permit  them  to 
do  it.  To  doubt  this,  would  geem  to  be  to  doubt  the  intelligence  and  pa 
triotism  of  the  people,  and  their  competency  for  self-government. 

"  It  would  be  very  dangerous,  indeed,  to  give  the  general  government  the 
power  to  engage  in  an  offensive  foreign  war,  the  justice  of  which  was  con 
demned  by  the  governments  of  the  States,  and  the  intelligence  of  the  people, 
and  to  compel  them  to  prosecute  it  for  two  years,  the  term  for  which  appro 
priations  can  be  made  and  continued  by  the  Congress  declaring  it.  Hence 
the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  in  limiting  the  power  of  Congress  over  the 
militia,  or  great  body  of  our  people,  so  as  to  prohibit  the  prosecution,  by 
conscription  or  coerc'wn,vi  an  offensive  foreign  war,  which  may  be  condemned 
by  an  intelligent  public  opinion. 

"  France  has  a  conscription  act,  which  Great  Britain  has  not.  Both  .are 
warlike  powers  often  engaged  in  foreign  offensive  wars.  What  advantage 
has  the  conscription  law  given  to  France  over  Great  Britain?  Has  not  the 
latter  been  as  able  as  the  former  to  '  raise  armies'  sufficient  to  vindicate  her 


376        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

honor  and  maintain  her  rights?  When  France  had  no  conscription  law  at 
one  period  of  her  history,  she  was  a  republic.  Soon  after  she  had  a  con 
scription  law  she  became  an  empire  and  her  ruler  an  emperor,  leaving  her 
people  without  the  constitutional  safeguards  which  protect  the  people  of 
Great  Britain. 

"  But  you  ask,  *  Shall  we  never  be  plaintiff  in  this  "  terrible  litigation  of 
nations?"1  If  the  litigation  commends  itself  to  the  intelligence  of  the 
people  as  just,  they  will  not  hesitate  to  put  themselves  at  the  command  of 
the  Government  to  assume  the  plaintiff's  position.  The  eagerness  with 
which  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  now  desire  that  we  assume  the  plaintiffs 
position,  and  become  the  attacking  and  invading  party,  instead  of  acting  con 
stantly  upon  the  defensive,  is  evidence  to  sustain  my  conclusion  on  this  point. 

"  That  those  who  framed  the  Constitution  looked  to  a  state  of  war  as 
tending  to  concentrate  the  power  in  the  Executive,  and  as  unfavorable  to 
constitutional  liberty,  and  did  not  intend  to  encourage  it,  unless  in  cases  of 
absolute  necessity,  and  did  not,  therefore,  form  the  government  with  a  view 
to  its  becoming  a  power  often  engaged  in  offensive  war,  may  be  inferred 
from  the  language  of  Mr.  Madison.  He  says  : 

"  '  War  is,  in  fact,  the  true  nurse  of  Executive  aggrandizement.  In  war  a 
physical  force  is  to  be  created,  and  it  is  the  Executive  will  which  is  to  direct 
it.  In  war  the  public  treasures  are  to  be  unlocked,  and  it  is  the  Executive 
hand  which  is  to  dispense  them.  In  war,  the  honors  and  emoluments  of 
office  are  to  be  multiplied,  and  it  is  the  Executive  patronage  under  which 
they  are  to  be  enjoyed.  It  is  in  war,  finally,  that  laurels  are  to  be  gathered, 
and  it  is  the  Executive  brow  they  are  to  encircle.  The  strongest  passions 
and  most  dangerous  weaknesses  of  the  human  breast — ambition,  avarice, 
vanity,  the  honorable  or  venial  love  of  fame — are  all  in  conspiracy  against 
the  desire  and  duty  of  peace.'  See  Federalist,  page  452. 

"  In  connection  with  this  remark  of  Mr.  Madison,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
add  one  from  Mr.  Calhoun.  That  great  and  good  man,  who  may  justly  be 
styled  the  champion  of  State  Rights  and  Constitutional  Liberty,  in  the  first 
volume  of  his  works,  page  361,  while  speaking  of  the  war  which  was  forced 
upon  Mr.  Madison  while  President,  by  Great  Britain,  says  : 

"  *  It  did  more;  for  the  war,  however  just  and  necessary,  gave  a  strong 
impulse  adverse  to  the  Federal  and  favorable  to  the  national  line  of  policy. 
This  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  war  and  can  be 
counteracted  only  by  bringing  into  full  action  the  negatives  necessary  to  the 
protection  of  the  reserved  powers.  These  would  of  themselves  have  the 
effect  of  preventing  wars,  so  long  as  they  could  be  honorably  and  safely 
avoided  ;  and,  when  necessary,  of  arresting  to  a  great  extent  the  tendency  of 
the  Government  to  transcend  the  limit*  of  the  Constitution  during  its  prosecution, 
and  of  ^correcting  all  departures  after  its  termination.  It  was  by  force  of 
the  tribunitial  power  that  the  plebeians  retained  for  so  long  a  period  their 
liberty  in  the  midst  of  so  many  wars.' 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        377 

"  I  beg  to  call  special  attention  to  the  portions  of  the  above  quotation 
which  I  have  italicised. 

"Having  rested  the  constitutionality  of  the  Conscription  Act  upon  the 
power  given  to  Congress  to  *  raise  armies,'  you  enunciate  a  doctrine  which,  I 
must  be  pardoned  for  saying,  struck  me  with  surprise ;  not  that  the  doctrine 
was  new,  for  it  was  first  proclaimed,  I  believe,  almost  as  strongly  by  Mr. 
Hamilton  in  the  Federalist,  but  because  it  found  an  advocate  in  you,  whom 
I  had  for  many  years  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  and  boldest  defenders  of 
the  doctrines  of  tlje  State  Rights  school,  in  the  old  government.  Your  lan 
guage  is  : 

"  *  I  hold  that  when  a  specific  power  is  granted  by  the  Constitution,  like 
that  now  in  question,  to  "raise  armies,"  Congress  is  the  judge  whether 
the  law  passed  for  the  purpose  of  executing  that  power,  is  necessary  and 
proper.' 

'•  Again  you  say  : 

" «  The  true  and  only  test  is,  to  enquire  whether  the  law  is  intended  and 
calculated  to  carry  out  the  object,  whether  it  devises  and  creates  an  instru 
mentality  for  executing  the  specific  power  granted,  and  if  the  answer  be 
in  the  affirmative  the  law  is  constitutional.' 

"  From  this  you  argue  that  the  Conscription  Act  is  calculated  and  in 
tended  to  *  raise  armies,'  and,  therefore,  constitutional. 

"  I  am  not  aware  that  the  proposition  was  ever  stated  more  broadly  in 
favor  of  unrestrained  Congressional  power,  by  Webster,  Story,  or  any  other 
statesman  or  jurist  of  the  Federal  school. 

"  This  is  certainly  not  the  doctrine  of  the  Republican  party  of  1798,  as 
set  forth  in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions.  The  Virginia  Resolu 
tions  use  the  following  language,  that  *  It  (the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia) 
views  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government  as  resulting  from  the  compact 
to  which  the  States  are  parties,  as  limited  by  the  plain  sense  and  intention 
of  the  instrument  constituting  that  compact,  as  no  further  valid  than  they 
are  authorized  by  the  grant*  enumerated  in  that  compact;  and  that  incase  of 
a  deliberate,  palpable,  and  dangerous  exercise  of  other  powers  not  granted  by  said 
compact,  the  States  who  are  parties  thereto  have  the  right  and  are  in  duty 
bound  to  interpose  for  arresting  the  progress  of  the  evd,  and  for  maintaining  with 
in  their  respective  limits  the  authorities,  rights,  and  liberties  appertaining  to 
them.  That  the  General  Assembly  doth  also  express  its  deep  regret  that  a 
spirit  has  in  sundry  instances  been  manifested  by  the  Federal  Government 
to  enlarge  its  powers  by  a  forced  construction  of  the  constitutional  charter  which 
defines  them ;  and  that  indications  have  appeared  of  a  design  to  expound  cer 
tain  general  phrases — which  having  been  copied  from  the  very  limited 
grant  of  powers  in  the  former  articles  of  confederation  were  the  less  liable  to 
be  misconstrued — so  as  to  destroy  the  meaning  and  effect  of  the  particular 
enumeration  which  necessarily  explains  and  limits  the  general  phrases,  so  as  to 
consolidate  the  States  by  degrees  into  one  sovereignty,  the  obvious  tendency  and 


378        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

inevitable  result  of  which  would  be  to  transform  the  present  republican  sys 
tem  of  the  United  States  into  an  absolute  or  at  feast  a  mixed  monarchy.' 

"The  following  quotations  are  from  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  drawn  up 
by  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  (the  italics,  as  in  the  last  quotation,  are  my  own), 
4  That  the  several  States  composing  the  United  States  of  America  are  not 
united  on  the  principle  of  unlimited  nuhmifxion  to  the  general  Government, 
but  that,  by  a  compact  under  the  style  and  title  of  a  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  amendments  thereto,  they  constituted  a  general  Gov 
ernment  for  special  purposes — delegated  to  that  Government  certain  definite 
powers  ;  reserving  each  State  to  itst-lf,  thi  residuary  mass  of  right  to  their  own  self- 
government ;  that  whensoever  the  general  Government  assumes  undelegated pow 
ers  ifs  acts  are  unauthoritative,  void  and  of  no  force. ;  that  to  this  compact  each 
State  acceded  as  a  State,  and  is  an  integral  party — its  co-States  forming  as  to  it 
self  the  other  party  ;  that  the  government  created  by  this  compact  was  not  made  the 
exclusive  or  final  JUDGE  of  the  extent  of  the  powers  delega'ed  to  it — since  that 
would  have  made  ITS  DISCRETION  and  not  the  Constitution  the  m^aaure  of  its 
powers  ;  but  that,  as  in  all  other  cases  of  compact  among  parties  having  no 
common  JUDGE,  each  has  an  equal  right  to  JUDGE  for  itself  as  ictll  of  infrac 
tions  a*  of  the  mode  ami  measure  of  redress.' 

"  And  again : 

"'  T"hat  the  construction  applied  by  the  general  Government  (as  evinced  by  sun 
dry  of  their  proceedings)  to  those  parts  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  which  delegate  to  Congress  a  power  to  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties, 
imposts  and  excises;  to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for  the  common  defence  and 
general  welfare  of  the  United  States;  and  to  make  all  laws  necessary  and 
proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the  powers  vested  by  the  Constitution  in 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  any  department  thereof,  goes  to  the 
destruction  of  all  the  limits  prescribed  to  their  power  by  the  Constitution.  That 
words  meant  by  that  instrument  to  be  subsidiary  only  to  the  execution  of  the 
limited  powers  f>ught  not  to  be  so  construed  as  themselves  to  give  unlimited 
powers,  nor  a  part  so  to  be  taken  as  to  destroy  the  whole  residue  of  the  instrument.' 

"  But  let  us  ex  imine  your  doctrine  a  little  further  and  see  whether  it  can 
be  reconciled  to  the  construction  lately  put  upon  the  Constitution  by  the 
States  composing  the  Confederacy  over  which  you  preside,  and  the  action 
lately  taken  by  them. 

"The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  gives  Congress  the  power  to  pro 
vide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  '  suppress  insurrections.'  Carry  out  your 
doctrine,  and  Congress  must  of  course  be  the  judge  of  what  constitutes  an 
insurrection,  as  well  as  of  the  means  *  necessary  and  proper '  to  be  used  in 
executing  the  specific  powers  given  to  Congress  to  suppress  it.  Georgia, 
claiming  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  had  abused  the  specific 
in  powers  granted  to  it,  and  passed  laws  which  were  not «  necessary  and  proper' 
in  executing  these  specific  powers  which  were  injurious  to  her  people,  and  claim 
ing  to  be  herself  the  judge,  seceded  from  the  Union.  Congress  denied  her 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        379 

power  or  right  to  do  so,  and  acting  upon  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  you, 
Congress,  claiming  to  be  the  judge,  proceeded  to  adjudicate  the  case,  and  de 
termined  that  the  action  of  Georgia  amounted  to  an  insurrection,  and  passed 
laws  for  its  suppression.  Among  other.*,  they  have  passed  a  law,  if  we  may 
credit  the  newspapers,  which  authorizes  the  President  to  arm  our  negroes 
against  us.  Congress  will,  no  doubt,  justify  this  act,  under  the  specific  power 
given  to  it  by  the  Constitution,  to  'raise  armies,'  as  the  armies  as  well  as  the 
militia  may  be  used  to  suppress  insurrection,  and  execute  the  laws.  Apply 
the  test  laid  down  by  you,  and  inquire,  is  this  law  '  calculated  and  intended  ' 
to  carry  out  the  object  (the  suppression  of  the  insurrection,  and  the  execution 
of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  in  Georgia)  ?  and  does  it  *  devise  and  create 
an  instrumentality  for  executing  the  specific  power  granted?'  Congress,  the 
jitdye,  answers  the  question  in  the  affirmative.  Therefore  the  law  is  consti 
tutional. 

"  Again,  suppose  you  are  right,  and  Congress  has  the  constitutional  power 
to  'raise  armies'  by  conscription,  and,  without  the  consent  of  the  States,  to 
compel  every  man  in  the  Confederacy  between  18  and  35  years  old,  able  to 
bear  arms,  to  enter  these  armies,  you  mu^t  admit  that  Congress  has  the  same 
power  to  extend  the  law,  and  compel  every  man  between  16  and  60  to  enter. 
And  you  must  admit  that  the  grant  of  power  is  as  broad  in  times  of  peace 
as  in  times  of  war,  as  there  is  in  the  grant  no  language  to  limit  it  to  times  of 
war.  It  follows  that  Congress  has  the  absolute  control  of  every  man  in  the 
State,  whenever  it  chooses  to  execute  to  the  full  extent  the  power  given  it 
by  the  Constitution  to  'raise  armies.'  How  easy  a  matter  it  would  have 
been,  therefore,  had  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  understood  the  full 
extent  of  its  power,  to  have  prevented  in  a  manner  perfectly  constitutional 
the  secession  of  Georgia  and  Mississippi  from  the  Union.  It  was  only  neces 
sary  to  pass  a  conscription  law  declaring  every  man  in  both  States  able  to 
bear  arms,  to  be  in  the  military  service  of  the  United  States,  and  that  each 
should  be  treated  as  a  deserter  if  he  refused  to  serve ;  and  that  Congress, 
the  judge,  then  decide  this  law  was  '  necessary  and  proper,'  and  that  it  cre 
ated  an  instrumentality  for  the  execution  of  one  of  the  specific  powers 
granted  to  Congress  to  provide  for  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  Union  in 
the  two  States,  or  to  provide  for « raising  armies.'  This  would  have  left 
the  States  without  a  single  man  at  their  command,  without  the  power  to 
organize  or  use  military  force,  and  without  free  men  to  constitute  even  a 
convention  to  pass  an  ordinance  of  secession. 

"  If  it  is  said  the  people  of  the  States  would  have  refused  to  obey  this  law 
of  Congress,  and  would  have  gone  out  in  defiance  of  it;  it  may  be  replied 
that  this  would  have  been  revolution  and  not  peaceful  secession,  the  right  for 
which  we  have  all  contended — though  our  enemies  have  not  permitted  us  to 
part  with  them  in  peace — the  right  for  which  we  are  now  fighting. 

"  Your  doctrine  carried  out  not  only  makes  Congress  supreme  over  the 
States,  at  any  time  when  it  chooses  to  exercise  the  full  measure  of  its  power 


380        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

to  '  raise  armies,'  but  it  places  the  very  existence  of  the  State  governments 
subject  to  the  will  of  Congress-.  The  Conscription  Act  makes  no  exception 
in  favor  of  the  officers  necessary  to  the  existence  of  the  State  government, 
but  in  substance  declares  that  they  shall  all  enter  the  service  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  at  the  call  of  the  President,  under  officers  which  are  in  future  to  be  ap 
pointed  by  the  President. 

"As  already  remarked,  Congress  has  as  much  power  to  extend  the  act  to 
embrace  all  between  16  and  60,  as  it  had  to  take  all  between  18  and  35.  If 
the  act  is  constitutional,  it  follows  that  Congress  has  the  power  to  compel  the 
Governor  of  every  State  in  the  Confederacy,  every  member  of  every  Legisla 
ture  of  every  State,  every  judge  of  every  court  in  every  State,  every  officer 
of  the  militia  of  every  State,  and  all  other  State  officers  to  enter  the  military 
service  as  privates  in  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  under  officers  appointed 
by  the  President,  at  any  time  when  it  so  decides.  In  other  words,  Congress 
may  disband  the  State  governments  any  day  when  it,  as  the  fudge,  decides 
that  by  so  doing  it  *  creates  an  instrumentality  for  executing  the  specific 
power  '  to  '  raise  armies.' 

"If  Congress  has  the  right  to  discriminate,  and  take  only  those  between 
18  and  35,  it  has  the  right  to  make  any  other  discrimination  it  may  judge 
'necessary  and  proper'  in  the  'execution  of  the  power,'  and  it  may  pass  a 
law  in  time  of  peace  or  war,  if  it  should  conclude  the  State  governments  are 
an  evil,  that  all  State  officers,  executive,  legislative,  judicial,  and  military, 
shall  enter  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  as  privates  under  officers  appointed 
by  the  President,  and  that  the  army  shall  from  time  to  time  be  recruited 
from  other  State  officers  as  they  may  be  appointed  by  the  States. 

"To  state  the  case  in  different  form,  Congress  has  the  power  under  the 
12th  paragraph  of  the  8th  section  of  the  1st  article  of  the  Constitution  to 
disband  the  State  governments,  and  leave  the  people  of  the  States  with  no 
other  government  than  such  military  despotism  as  Congress  in  the  exercise 
of  the  specific  power  to  '  raise  armies '  (which  I  understand  you  to  hold  is  a 
distinct  power  to  be  construed  separately)  may,  after  an  application  of  your 
test,  judge  to  be  best  for  the  people. 

"  For,  as  all  the  State  officers  which  I  mention  might  make  effective  pri 
vates  in  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  and  as  the  law  passed  to  compel  them 
to  enter  the  service  might  'create  an  instrumentality  for  executing  the  spe 
cific  power'  to  'raise  armies,'  Congress,  the  judge,  need  only  so  decide  and 
the  act  would  be  constitutional. 

"  I  may  be  reminded,  however,  that  Congress  passed  an  Exemption  Act  af 
ter  the  passage  of  the  Conscription  Act,  which  exempts  the  Governors  of  the 
States,  the  members  of  the  State  Legislatures,  the  judges  of  the  State  courts, 
etc.,  from  the  obligation  to  enter  the  military  service  of  the  Confederacy  as 
privates  under  Confederate  officers.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however, 
that  this  very  act  of  exemption  by  Congress  is  an  assertion  of  the  right  vested 
in  Congress  to  compel  them  to  go,  when  Congress  shall  so  direct,  as  Congress 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        381 

has  the  same  power  to  repeal  which  it  had  to  pass  the  Exemption  Act.  All 
the  State  officers,  therefore,  are  exempt  from  conscription  by  the  grace  and 
f pedal  favor  of  Congress  and  not  by  right,  as  the  governments  of  the  independ 
ent  States  whose  agent,  and  not  master,  Congress  had  been  erroneously  sup 
posed  to  be.  If  this  doctrine  be  correct,  of  what  value  are  State  rights  and 
State  sovereignty  f 

44  In  my  former  letter  I  insisted,  under  the  general  rule,  that  the  12th,  15th 
and  16th  paragraphs  of  the  section  under  consideration,  all  relating  to  the 
same  subject  matter,  should  be  construed  together.  While  your  language  on 
this  point  is  not  so  clear  as  in  other  parts  of  your  letter,  I  understand  you  to 
take  issue  with  me  here.  You  say  : 

"'Nothing  can  so  mislead  as  to  construe  together  and  as  one  whole  the 
carefully  separated  clauses  which  define  the  different  powers  to  be  exercised 
over  distinct  subjects  by  Congress.' 

"  These  are  not  carefully  separated  clauses  which  relate  to  different  powers 
to  be  exercised  over  distinct  subjects.  They  all  relate  to  the  same  subject  matter, 
the  authority  given  to  Congress  over  the  question  of  war  arid  peace.  They 
all  relate  to  the  use  of  armed  force  by  authority  of  Congress.  If,  therefore, 
Coke,  Blackstone  and  Mansfield  of  England,  and  Marshall,  Kent  and  Story 
of  this  country,  with  all  other  intelligent  writers  on  the  rules  of  construction, 
are  to  be  respected  as  authority,  there  can,  it  would  seem,  be  no  doubt  of  the 
correctness  of  the  position  that  these  three  paragraphs,  together  with  all 
others  in  the  Constitution  which  relate  to  the  same  subject  matter,  are  to  be 
construed  together  '  as  one  whole.' 

"  Construe  them  together,  and  the  general  language  in  one  paragraph  is  so 
qualified  by  another  paragraph  upon  the  same  subject  matter,  that  all  can  stand 
together,  and  the  whole,  when  taken  together,  establishes  to  my  mind  the 
unsoundness  of  your  argument  and  the  fallacy  of  your  conclusion. 

"  But  1  must  not  ornit  to  notice  your  definition  of  the  term  *  militia,'  and 
the  deductions  which  you  draw  from  it. 

"You  adopt  the  definition  of  the  Attorney-General  that  'the  militia  are  a 
body  of  soldiers  in  a  State  enrolled  for  discipline.'  Admit,  for  the  purposes 
of  the  argument,  the  correctness  of  the  definition.  All  persons,  therefore, 
•who  are  enrolled  for  discipline  under  the  laws  of  Georgia  constitute  her 
militia.  When  the  persons  thus  enrolled  (the  militia)  are  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  Confederate  States,  the  Constitution  expressly  reserves  to 
Georgia  the  appointment  of  the  officers.  The  Conscription  Act  gives  the  Presi 
dent  the  power  by  compulsion  to  employ  every  one  of  those  persons,  between 
18  and  35,  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States;  and  denies  to  the  State 
the  appointment  of  a  single  officer  to  command  them  while  thus  'employed.' 
Suppose  Congress,  at  its  next  session  should  extend  the  Act  so  as  to  embrace 
all  between  18  and  45,  what  is  the  result  ?  '  The  body  of  soldiers  in  the 
State  enrolled  for  discipline  '  are  every  man  'employed  in  the  service  of  the 
Confederacy,'  and  the  right  is  denied  to  the  State  to  appoint  a  single  officer 


382        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PKESIDENT  DAVIS 

when  the  Constitution  says  she  shall  appoint  them  all.  Is  it  fair  to  conclude 
when  the  States  expressly  and  carefully  reserved  the  control  of  their  own 
militia,  by  reserving  the  appointment  of  the  officers  to  command  them,  that 
they  intended  under  the  general  grant  of  power  to  '  raise  armies  '  to  authorize 
Congress  to  defeat  the  reservation  and  control  the  militia  with  their  officers 
by  calling  the  very  same  men  into  the  field,  individually  and  not  collectively, 
organizing  them  according  to  its  own  will,  anjj  terming  its  action  4  raising 
an  army  '  and  not  calling  forth  the  militia  f  Surely  the  great  men  of  the  revo 
lution,  when  they  denied  to  the  general  government  the  appointment  even  of 
the  general  officers  to  command  the  militia  when  employed  in  the  service  of 
the  Confederacy,  did  not  imagine  that  the  time  would  comesosoon  when  that 
government,  under  the  power  to  '  raise  armies,'  would  claim  and  exercise  the 
authority  to  call  into  the  field  the  whole  militia  of  the  States  individually, 
and  deny  to  the  States  the  appointment  of  the  lowest  lieutenant,  and  justify 
the  act  on  the  ground  that  Congress  did  not  choose  to  call  them  into  service 
in  their  collective  capacity,  and  deny  that  they  were  militia  if  called  into  ser 
vice  in  any  other  way. 

"  If  Congress  has  the  power  to  call  forth  the  whole  enrolled  force  or 
militia  of  the  States  in  the  manner  provided  by  the  Conscription  Act,  there 
is  certainly  no  obligation  upon  Congress  ever  to  cull  them  forth  in  any  other 
manner,  and  it  rests  in  the  discretion  of  Congress  whether  or  not  the  States 
shall  ever  be  permitted  to  exercise  their  reserved  right,  as  Congress  has  the 
power  in  every  ca?e  to  defeat  the  exercise  of  the  right  by  calling  forth  the 
militia  under  a  Conscription  Act,  and  not  by  requisitions  made  upon  the 
States.  It  cannot  be  just  to  charge  the  States  with  the  folly  of  making  this 
important  reservation,  subject  to  any  such  power  in  Congress  to  render  it 
nugatory  at  its  pleasure. 

"Again,  you  say  'Congress  may  call  forth  the  militia  to  execute  Confed 
erate  laws;  the  State  has  not  surrendered  the  power  to  call  them  forth  to 
execute  State  laws.' 

"'  Congress  may  call  them  forth  to  repel  invasion;  so  may  the  State,  for  it 
has  expressly  reserved  this  right.' 

" '  Congress  may  call  them  forth  to  suppress  insurrection,  and  so  may  the 
State.' 

"If  the  conscription  law  is  to  control,  and  Congress  may,  without  the  con 
sent  of  the  State  Government,  order  every  man  composing  the  militia  of  the 
State,  out  of  the  State,  into  the  Confederate  service,  how  is  the  State  to  call 
forth  her  own  militia,  as  you  admit  she  has  reserved  the  right  to  do,  to  exe 
cute  her  own  laws,  suppress  an  insurrection  in  her  midst,  or  repel  an  inva 
sion  of  her  own  territory  1 

"  Could  it  have  been  the  intention  of  the  States  to  delegate  to  Congress 
the  power  to  take  from  them  without  their  consent  the  means  of  self-preser 
vation,  by  depriving  them  of  all  the  strength  upon  which  their  very  existence 
depends  V 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        383 

"After  laying  down  the  position  that  the  citizens  of  a  State  are  not  her 
militia,  and  affirming  that  the  militia  are  'a  body  organized  bylaw,'  you 
deny  that  the  militia  constitute  any  part  of  the  land  or  naval  forces,  and  say 
they  are  distinguished  from  the  land  and  naval  forces :  and  you  further  say 
they  have  always  been  called  forth  as  'bodies  organized  by  the  States,'  with 
their  officers;  that  they  'do  not  become  part  of  the  armies  rained  by  Con 
gress/  but  remain  militia;  and  that  when  they  had  been  called  forth,  and 
the  exigencies  which  provoked  the  call  had  passed,  'they  went  home  again.' 
The  militia  when  called  forth  are  taken  from  the  body  of  the  people,  to  meet 
an  emergency,  or  to  repel  invasion.  If  they  go  in  as  'bodies  organized  by 
the  States,'  you  hold  that  they  go  in  militia,  remain  militia,  and  when  the 
exigency  is  passed  they  go  home  militia  ;  but  if  you  call  forth  the  same  men 
by  the  Conscription  Act  for  the  same  purpose,  and  they  remain  for  the  same 
length  of  time,  and  do  the  same  service,  they  are  not  militia,  but  the  armies 
of  the  Confederacy,  part  of  the  land  or  naval  force.  In  connection  with  this 
part  of  the  subject  you  use  the  following  language  : 

"  *  At  the  present  moment,  when  our  very  existence  is  threatened  by  armies 
vastly  superior  in  numbers  to  ours,  the  necessity  for  defence  has  induced  a 
call,  not  for  the  whole  militia  of  all  the  States,  not  for  any  militia,  but  for 
men  to  compose  armies  for  the  Confederate  3tates.' 

"In  the  midst  of  such  pressing  danger,  why  was  it  that  there  was  no 
necessity  for  any  militia;  in  other  words,  no  necessity  for  any  'bodies  of 
men  organized  by  the  States,'  as  were  many  of  the  most  gallant  regiments 
now  in  the  Confederate  service,  who  have  won  on  the  battle-field  a  name  in 
history,  and  laurels  that  can  never  fade? 

"  Were  no  more  such  bodies  '  organized  by  the  States '  needed,  because 
the  material  remaining  within  the  States  of  which  they  must  be  composed 
was  not  reliable?  The  Conscription  Act  gives  you  the  very  same  material. 
Was  it  because  the  officers  appointed  by  the  States  to  command  the  gallant 
State  regiments  and  other  'organized  bodies'  sent  by  the  States  were  less 
brave  or  less  skilful  than  the  officers  appointed  by  the  President  to  command 
similar  'organized  bodies  '?  The  officers  appointed  by  the  States  who  now 
command  regiments  in  the  service,  will  not  fear  to  have  impartial  history 
answer  this  question.  Was  it  because  you  wished  select  men  for  the  armies 
of  the  Confederacy  ?  The  Conscription  Act  embraces  all,  without  distinc 
tion,  between  eighteen  and  thirty-five  able  to  do  military  duty  and  not  legally 
exempt.  You  do  not  take  the  militia.  What  do  you  take?  You  take  every 
man  between  certain  ages,  of  whom  the  militia  is  composed.  What  is  the 
difference  between  taking  the  militia  and  taking  all  the  men  who  compose 
the  militia?  Simply  this  :  In  the  one  case  you  take  them  with  their  officers 
appointed  by  the  States,  as  the  Constitution  requires,  and  call  them  by  their 
proper  name,  'militia,'  'employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States.' 
In  the  other  case  you  take  them  all  as  individuals  —  get  rid  of  the  State 
officers  —  appoint  officers  of  your  own  choice,  and  call  them  the  '  armies  of 


384        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

the  Confederacy.'  And  yet  these  armies,  like  you  say  the  militia  do,  will 
'go  home'  when  the  exigency  has  passed,  as  it  is  hoped  they  are  not  ex 
pected  to  be  permanent  like  the  regular  armies  of  the  Confederacy ;  or,  in 
other  words,  like  the  land  and  naval  forces  provided  for  in  the  Constitution, 
from  which  you  distinguish  the  militia.  Indeed,  the  similarity  between 
these  'armies  of  the  Confederacy,'  called  forth  in  an  emergency,  to  repel  an 
invasion,  to  be  disbanded  when  the  emergency  is  passed;  and  the  militia  or 
bodies  of  troops  organized  and  officered  by  the  States,  called  forth  for  the 
same  purpose,  to  be  composed  of  the  same  material  and  disbanded  at  the 
same  time,  is  most  remarkable  in  everything,  except  the  name  and  the  ap 
pointment  of  the  officers. 

"Excuse  me  for  calling  your  attention  to  another  point  in  this  connection. 

"As  you  admit  that  the  militia  have  always  been  called  forth  as  '  bodies 
organized  by  the  States,'  and  when  thus  called  forth  that  the  States  have 
always  appointed  the  officers,  I  presume  you  will  not  deny  that  when  the 
President,  by  authority  of  Congress,  has  made  a  call  upon  a  State  for  ' organ 
ized  bodies  of  soldiers,'  and  they  have  been  furnished  by  the  State  from  the 
body  of  her  people,  they  have  entered  the  service  as  part  of  the  militia  of 
the  State  'employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States  '  under  the  15th 
and  16th  paragraphs  of  the  8th  section  of  the  1st  article  of  the  Constitution. 

"  Your  message  to  Congress  recommending  its  passage  shows  that  there 
was  no  necessity  for  the  act,  to  enable  you  to  get  troops,  as  you  admit  that 
the  Executives  of  the  States  had  enabled  you  to  keep  in  the  field  adequate 
forces,  and  also  that  the  spirit  of  resistance  among  the  people  was  such  that 
it  needed  to  be  regulated  and  not  stimulated.  You  say: 

"  '  I  am  happy  to  assure  you  of  the  entire  harmony  of  purpose  and  cordial 
ity  of  feeling  which  have  continued  to  exist  between  myself  and  the  Execu 
tives  of  the  several  States,  and  it  is  to  this  cause  that  our  success  in  keeping 
adequate  forces  in  the  field  is  to  be  attributed.'  Again  you  say : 

"  '  The  vast  preparations  made  by  the  enemy  for  a  combined  assault  at 
numerous  points  on  our  frontier  and  sea-coast  have  produced  the  result  that 
might  have  been  expected.  They  have  animated  the  people  with  a  spirit  of 
resistance  so  general,  so  resolute,  and  so  self-sacrificing,  that  it  requires 
rather  to  be  regulated  than  to  be  stimulated.' 

"  If  then  the  Executives  of  the  States  by  their  cordial  co-operation  had 
enabled  you  to  keep  in  the  field  '  adequate  forces,'  and  the  spirit  of  resistance 
was  as  high  as  you  state,  there  was  no  need  of  a  conscription  act  to  enable 
you  to  '  raise  armies.' 

"  Since  the  invasion  of  the  Confederacy  by  our  present  enemy,  you  have 
made  frequent  calls  upon  me,  as  Governor  of  this  State,  for  '  organized 
bodies  '  of  troops.  I  have  responded  to  every  call  and  sent  them  as  required, 
'  organized '  according  to  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  commanded  by  officers 
appointed  by  the  State,  and  in  most  instances  fully  armed,  accoutred,  and 
equipped.  These  bodies  were  called  forth  to  meet  an  emergency,  and  assist 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        385 

in  repelling  an  invasion.  The  emergency  is  not  yet  passed,  the  invasion  is 
not  yet  repelled,  and  they  have  not  yet  returned  home.  If  your  position  be 
correct,  they  constitute  no  part  of  the  land  or  naval  force*,  as  they  were  not 
organized  nor  their  officers  appointed  by  the  President,  as  is  tie  case  with 
the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  but  they  were  called  forth  as  bodies  'organized 
and  their  officers  appointed  by  the  States.'  Hence  they  are  part  of  the 
militia  of  Georgia  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States  as  pro 
vided  by  the  two  paragraphs  of  the  Constitution  above  quoted,  and  by  para 
graph  16  of  section  9  of  the  1st  article,  which  terms  them  'militia  in  actual 
service  in  time  of  war  or  public  danger.'  They  entered  the  service  with 
only  the  training  common  to  the  citizens  of  the  State.  They  are  now  well 
trained  troops.  But  having  gone  in  as  '  bodies  organized  by  the  State,'  or  as 
militia,  you  say  they  remain  militia,  and  go  home  militia.  In  this  case  we 
seem  to  agree  that  the  State,  under  the  express  reservation  in  the  Constitu 
tion,  has  the  right  to  appoint  the  officers.  I  have  the  written  opinion  of  Mr. 
Benjamin,  then  Secretary  of  War,  about  the  time  of  the  last  call  for  twelve 
regiments,  concurring  in  this  view,  and  recognizing  this  right  of  the  State. 
And  it  is  proper  that  I  should  remark  that  the  State  has,  in  each  case,  been 
permitted  to  exercise  this  right,  when  the  troops  entered  the  service  in  com 
pliance  with  a  requisition  upon  the  State  for  '  organized  bodies  of  troops.' 
The  right  does  not  stop  here,  however.  The  Constitution  does  not  say  the 
State  shall  appoint  the  officers  while  the  organizations  may  be  forming  to 
enter  the  service  of  the  Confederacy,  but  while  they  'may  be  employed  in 
the  service  of  the  Confederate  States.'  Many  thousands  are  now  so  employed. 
Vacancies  in  the  different  offices  are  frequently  occurring  by  death,  resigna 
tion,  etc.  The  laws  of  this  State  provide  how  these  vacancies  are  to  be  filled, 
and  it  is  not  to  be  done  by  promotion  of  the  officer  next  in  rank,  except  in  a 
single  instance,  but  by  election  of  the  regiment,  and  commission  by  the 
Governor.  The  right  of  the  State  to  appoint  these  officers  seems  to  be 
admitted,  and  is  indeed  too  clear  to  be  questioned. 

"The  Conscription  Act,  if  it  is  to  be  construed  according  to  its  language, 
and  the  practice  which  your  generals  are  establishing  under  it,  denies  to  the 
State  the  exercise  of  this  right,  and  prescribes  a  rule  for  selecting  all  officers 
in  future,  unknown  to  the  laws  of  Georgia,  and  confers  upon  the  President 
the  power  to  commission  them.  Can  this  usurpation  (I  think  no  milder  term 
expresses  it  faithfully)  be  justified  under  the  clause  in  the  Constitution  which 
gives  Congress  power  to  '  raise  armies  *?  and  is  this  part  of  the  Act  constitu 
tional?  If  not,  you  have  failed  to  establish  the  constitutionality  of  the  Con 
scription  Act. 

"The  14th  paragraph  of  the  9th  section  of  the  1st  article  of  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  Confederate  States  declares  that — 

"  'A  well  regulated  militia  being  necessary  to  the  security  of  a  free  State,  the 
right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear  arms  shall  not  be  infringed.'  This  was 
no  part  of  the  original  Constitution  as  reported  by  the  convention  and 
25 


386        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

adopted  by  the  States.  But  'the  convention  of  a  number  of  the  States  hav 
ing  at  the  time  of  their  adopting  the  Constitution  expressed  a  desire,  in  order 
to  prevent  misconstruction  or  abuse  of  its  powers,  that  further  declaratory 
and  restrictive  clauses  should  be  added,  Congress  at  the  session  begun  and 
held  at  the  city  of  New  York  on  Wednesday  the  4th  of  March,  1789,  pro 
posed  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States  twelve  amendments,  ten  of 
which  only  were  adopted.' 

"  The  second  amendment  was  the  one  above  quoted,  which  shows  very 
clearly  that  the  States  were  jealous  of  the  control  which  Congress  might  claim 
over  their  militia,  and  required  on  this  point  a  further  'restrictive  clause' 
than  was  contained  in  the  original  Constitution. 

"  The  16th  paragraph  of  the  preceding  section  expressly  reserves  to  the 
States  'the  authority  of  training  the  militia  according  to  the  discipline  pre 
scribed  by  Congress.'  In  connection  with  this,  you  admit  that  the  States  re 
served  the  right  to  call  forth  their  own  militia  to  execute  their  own  laws,  sup 
press  insurrections  or  repel  invasions.  This  authority  to  call  them  forth  would 
have  been  of  no  value  without  the  authority  to  appoint  officers  to  command 
them ;  and  the  further  authority  to  train  them  ;  as  they  cannot  without  officers 
and  training  be  the  well  regulated  militia  which  the  Constitution  says  is  'neces 
sary  to  the  security  of  a  free  State.' 

"  The  conclusion  would  seem  naturally  to  follow,  that  the  States  did  not 
intend,  by  any  general  words  used  in  the  grant  of  power,  to  give  Congress  the 
right  to  take  from  them,  as  often  as  appointed,  the  officers  selected  by  them 
to  train  and  regulate  their  militia  and  prepare  them  for  efficiency,  when  they 
may  be  called  forth  to  support  the  very  existence  of  tl.e  State. 

"  The  Conscription  Act  embraces  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  militia  officers 
of  this  State,  as  to  disband  the  militia  in  the  event  they  should  be  compelled 
to  leave  their  commands.  This  would  leave  me  without  the  powrer  to  reor 
ganize  them,  as  a  vacancy  can  only  be  created  in  one  of  these  offices  by  resig 
nation  of  the  incumbent,  or  by  the  voluntary  performance  of  some  act  which 
amounts  to  an  abandonment  of  his  command,  or  by  a  sentence  of  a  court 
martial  dismissing  him  from  office.  The  officer  who  is  dragged  from  his  com 
mand  by  conscription,  or  compulsion,  and  placed  in  the  ranks,  is  in  neither 
category ;  and  his  office  is  no  more  vacated  than  the  office  of  a  judge  would 
be,  if  he  were  ordered  into  military  service  without  his  consent.  And  unless 
there  be  a  vacancy  I  have  no  right  to  fill  the  place,  either  by  ordering  an 
election,  or  by  a  brevet  appointment.  I  have  no  right  in  either  case  to  com 
mission  a  successor  so  long  as  there  is  a  legal  incumbent. 

"Viewing  the  Conscription  Act  in  this  particular  as  not  only  unconstitu 
tional,  but  as  striking  a  blow  at  the  very  existence  of  the  State,  by  disband 
ing  the  portion  of  her  militia  left  within  her  limits,  when  much  the  larger 
part  of  her  '  arms-bearing  people  '  are  absent  in  other  States  in  the  military 
service  of  the  Confederacy,  leaving  their  families  and  other  helpless  women 
and  children,  subject  to  massacre  by  negro  insurrection  for  want  of  an  organ- 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.         387 

ized  force  to  suppress  it,  I  felt  it  an  imperative  duty  which  I  owed  the  peo 
ple  of  this  State,  to  inform  you  in  a  former  letter  that  I  could  not  permit  the 
disorganization  to  take  place,  nor  the  State  officers  to  be  compelled  to  leave 
their  respective  commands  and  enter  the  Confederate  service  as  conscripts. 
— AVere  it  not  a  fact  well  known  to  the  country  that  you  now  have  in  service 
tens  of  thousands  of  men  without  arms  and  with  no  immediate  prospect  of 
getting  arms,  who  must  remain  for  months  consumers  of  our  scanty  supplies 
of  provisions,  without  ability  to  render  service,  while  their  labor  would  be 
most  valuable  in  their  farms  and  workshops,  there  might  be  the  semblance 
of  a  plea  of  necessity  for  forcing  the  Stale  officers  to  leave  their  commands, 
with  the  homes  of  their  people  unprotected,  and  go  into  camps  of  instruction, 
under  Confederate  officers,  often  much  more  ignorant  than  themselves  of 
military  science  or  training.  I  must,  therefore,  adhere  to  my  position  and 
maintain  the  integrity  of  the  State  Government  in  its  executive,  legislative, 
judicial  and  military  departments,  as  long  as  I  can  command  sufficient  force 
to  prevent  it  from  being  disbanded,  and  its  people  reduced  to  a  state  of  pro 
vincial  dependence  upon  the  central  power. 

"  If  I  have  used  strong  language  in  any  part  of  this  letter,  I  beg  you  to  at 
tribute  it  only  to  my  zeal  in  the  advocacy  of  principles  and  a'  cause  which  I 
consider,  no  less  than  the  cause  of  constitutional  liberty,  imperilled  by  the 
erroneous  views  and  practice  of  those  placed  upon  the  watch-tower  as  its  con 
stant  guardians. 

"  In  conclusion,  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  fully  appreciate  your  expressions 
of  personal  kindness,  and  reciprocate  them  in  my  feelings  towards  you  to  the 
fullest  extent. 

"  I  know  the  vast  responsibilities  resting  upon  you,  and  would  never  will 
ingly  add  unnecessarily  to  their  weight,  or  in  any  way  embarrass  you  in  the 
di&charge  of  your  important  duties. — While  I  cannot  agree  with  you  in  opin 
ion  upon  the  grave  question  under  discussion,  I  beg  you  to  command  me  at 
all  times  when  I  can  do  you  a  personal  service,  or  when  I  can,  without  a  vio 
lation  of  the  constitutional  obligations  resting  upon  me,  do  any  service  to  the 
great  cause  in  which  we  are  all  so  vitally  interested. 

"  Hoping  that  a  kind  Providence  may  give  you  wisdom  so  to  conduct  the 
affairs  of  our  young  Confederacy  as  may  result  in  the  early  achievement  of 
our  independence,  and  redound  to  the  ultimate  prosperity  and  happiness  of 
our  whole  people, 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN. 

"  P.  S. — Since  the  above  letter  was  written  I  see,  somewhat  to  my  surprise, 
that  you  have  thought  proper  to  publish  part  of  our  unfinished  correspond 
ence. 

"  In  reply  to  my  first  letter  you  simply  stated  on  the  point  in  question  that 


388        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

the  constitutionality  of  the  Act  was  derivable  from  that  paragraph  in  the 
Constitution  which  gives  Congress  the  power  to  raise  and  support  armies.  I 
replied  to  that  letter  with  no  portion  of  your  argument  but  the  simple  state 
ment  of  your  position  before  me.  You  then  with  the  aid  of  your  Cabinet 
replied  to  my  second  letter,  giving  the  argument  by  which  you  attempt  to  sus 
tain  your  position,  and  without  allowing  time  for  your  letter  to  reach  me, 
and  a  reply  to  be  sent,  you  publish  my  second  letter  and  your  reply,  which  is 
your  first  argument  of  the  question.  I  find  these  two  letters  not  only  in  the 
newspapers  but  also  in  pamphlet  form,  I  presume  by  your  order,  for  general 
circulation. 

"  While  I  cannot  suppose  that  your  sense  of  duty  and  propriety  would  per 
mit  you  to  publish  part  of  an  unfinished  correspondence  for  the  purpose  of 
forestalling  public  opinion,  I  must  conclude  that  your  course  is  not  the  usual 
one  in  such  cases.  As  the  correspondence  was  an  official  one  upon  a  grave 
constitutional  question,  I  had  supposed  it  would  be  given  to  the  country 
through  Congress  and  the  Legislature  of  the  State. 

"  But  as  you  have  commenced  the  publication  in  this  hasty  and  as  I  think 
informal  manner,  you  will  admit  that  I  have  no  other  alternative  but  to  con 
tinue  it.  I  must,  therefore,  request  as  an  act  of  justice  that  all  newspapers 
which  have  published  part  of  the  correspondence,  insert  this  reply. 

«J.  E.  B." 


«  EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  7 
RICHMOND,  July  10,  1862.       I 

"Dear  Sir: — I  have  received  your  letter  of  21st  ult,  and  would  have  con 
tented  myself  with  the  simple  acknowledgment  of  its  receipt  but  for  one  or 
two  matters  contained  in  it,  which  seem  to  require  distinct  reply. 

"I  deemed  it  my  duty  to  state  my  views  in  relation  to  the  constitutionality 
of  the  conscript  law  for  the  reasons  mentioned  in  my  letter  to  you,  but  it 
was  no  part  of  my  intention  to  enter  into  a  protracted  discussion.  It  was 
convenient  to  send  my  views  to  others  than  yourself,  and  for  this  purpose  I 
caused  my  letter,  together  with  yours,  to  be  printed  in  pamphlet  form.  I  am 
not  aware  of  having  omitted  any  part  of  your  observations,  nor  did  I  antici 
pate  any  further  correspondence  on  the  subject.  I  supposed  you  had  fully 
stated  your  views  as  I  had  stated  mine,  and  no  practical  benefit  could  be 
attained  by  further  discussion. 

"  Jt  is  due  however  to  myself  to  disclaim  in  the  most  pointed  manner  a 
doctrine  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  attribute  to  me,  and  against  which 
you  indulge  in  lengthened  argument.  Neither  in  my  letter  to  you,  nor  in 
any  sentiment  ever  expressed  by  me,  can  there  be  found  just  cause  to  impute 
to  me  the  belief  that  Congress  is  the  final  judge  of  the  constitutionality  of  a 
contested  power. 

"  I  said  in  my  letter,  that  <  when  a  specific  power  is  granted,  Congress  is 


AND  GOV.  BKOWN  UPON  CONSCEIPTION.        389 

the  judge  whether  the  law  passed  for  the  purpose  of  executing  that  power 
is  necessary  and  proper.' 

"I  never  asserted,  nor  intended  to  assert,  that  after  the  passage  of  such 
law  it  might  not  be  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  courts  on  complaint 
made  by  an  individual;  nor  that  the  judgment  of  Congress  was  conclusive 
against  a  State,  as  supposed  by  you ;  nor  that  all  the  co-ordinate  branches 
of  the  general  Government  could  together  finally  decide  a  question  of  the 
reserved  rights  of  a  State.  The  right  of  each  State  to  judge  in  the  last 
resort  whether  its  reserved  powers  had  been  usurped  by  the  general  Govern 
ment,  is  too  familiar  and  well  settled  a  principle  to  admit  of  discussion. 

"  As  I  cannot  see,  however,  after  the  most  respectful  consideration  of  all 
that  you  have  said,  anything  to  change  my  conviction  that  Congress  has 
exercised  only  a  plainly  granted  specific  power  in  raising  its  armies  by  con 
scription,  I  cannot  share  the  alarm  and  concern  about  State  rights  which 
you  so  evidently  feel,  but  which  to  me  seem  quite  unfounded. 

"  I  am  very  respectfully  yours, 

"JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 
"  Gov.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN, 

"Atlanta,  Ga." 

"  ATLANTA,  July  22,  1862. 
"PUS  EXCELLENCY  JEFFERSON  DAVIS: 

"  Dear  Sir : — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter 
of  the  10th  inst.,  and  am  very  happy  to  know  that  you  disclaim  the  doctrine 
which  I  think  every  fair-minded  man  has  attributed  to  you  who  has  read 
your  letter  of  the  29th  May  last,  and  has  construed  plain  English  words 
according  to  their  established  meaning. 

"  When  a  writer  speaks  of  a  tribunal  that  is  to  be  '  the  judge '  of  a  case, 
without  qualification,  we  certainly  understand  him  to  mean  that  this  judge 
has  the  right  to  decide  the  case.  And  if  the  judge  has  this  right,  the  decision 
must  be  binding  upon  all  the  parties  ;  and  no  distinct  and  separate  tribunal, 
as  a  different  department  of  the  Government,  for  instance,  has  the  right  to 
decide  the  same  case,  after  it  has  been  decided  by  the  judge  having  compe 
tent  jurisdiction.  It  would  seem  to  be  a  contradiction  in  terms  to  say,  that 
when  a  specific  power  is  granted,  Congress  is  the  judge  'whether  the  law 
passed  for  the  purpose  of  executing  that  power  is  necessary  and  proper/ 
and  that  'the  true  and  only  test  is  to  inquire  whether  the  law  is  intended 
and  calculated  to  carry  out  the  object,  whether  it  devises  and  creates  an  in 
strumentality  for  executing  the  specific  power  granted ;  and  if  the  answer 
be  in  the  affirmative,  the  law  is  constitutional ; '  and  then  to  say,  after  this 
test  has  been  applied,  and  Congress  has  passed  judgment,  that  another  de 
partment  of  the  Government,  as  the  President,  or  the  Judiciary,  or  another 
government,  as  a  State,  may  take  up  the  case  thus  decided  by  the  tribunal 
having,  under  the  Constitution,  complete  jurisdiction,  and  make  a  different 


390       CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

decision.  It  is,  I  believe,  an  established  principle  in  all  civilized  nations, 
that  when  a  court  of  competent  jurisdiction — unless  guilty  of  fraud  or  mis 
take —  has  finally  decided  a  case,  the  judgment  is  conclusive  upon  all  the 
parties. 

"  But  you  say  you  never  asserted,  nor  intended  to  assert,  that  the  judg 
ment  of  Congress  was  conclusive  against  a  State.  Pardon  me  for  saying 
that  you  did  assert  that  Congress  w  the  judge,  and  that  you  did  not  qualify 
the  assertion  by  saying  the  judge  in  the  first  instance,  nor  did  you  annex 
any  other  qualification  or  exception  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  a  State  or  any 
other  party.  I  had  no  right  therefore  to  suppose  that  you  intended  to 
ingraft  exceptions  upon  a  rule  which  you  laid  down  in  the  plainest  terms 
without  exception. 

"  I  make  the  above  reference  to  your  former  letter,  to  show  that  I  had  no 
disposition  to  do  you  injustice,  and  that  I  do  not  consider  that  I  misrepre 
sented  your  position,  as  contained  in  your  letter.  The  thousands  of  intelli 
gent  citizens,  in  different  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  who  have  placed  upon 
your  letter  the  same  construction  which  1  had,  will  doubtless  be  gratified 
that  you  now  disclaim  the  dangerous  doctrine  as  to  the  power  of  Congress, 
to  which  your  strong  unqualified  language  seemed  clearly  to  commit  you. 

"  In  reference  to  the  publication  by  you  of  the  two  letters  containing  part 
of  our  correspondence,  I  need  only  say  that  you  had  devoted  a  large  portion 
of  your  letter  to  a  reply  to  my  argument  which  was  before  you,  and  had  in 
the  same  letter,  for  the  first  time,  given  the  arguments  by  which  you  main 
tain  your  own  position.  These  I  had  never  seen;  and  as  you  had  replied  at 
length  to  my  argument,  it  was,  I  think,  but  fair  and  just,  according  to  all 
rules  of  discussion,  that  I  have  an  opportunity  to  reply  to  yours,  and  that 
the  whole  case  be  submitted  to  the  country  together.  Unless  there  were 
important  reasons  of  state  which  in  your  judgment  made  it  necessary  to 
place  the  discussion  before  the  country  incomplete,  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
discontents  which  existed  in  the  public  mind,  on  account  of  what  a  very 
large  proportion  of  our  people  regard  as  a  dangerous  usurpation,  or  unless 
other  good  reasons  existed  for  a  departure  from  the  usual  rule  in  such  cases, 
I  am  unable  to  see  why  the  whole  correspondence,  when  given  to  the  public, 
should  not  have  gone  through  the  usual  official  channels. 

"  I  have  certainly  had  no  wish  to  protract  the  discussion  of  this  question, 
further  than  duty,  and  justice  to  the  people  of  this  State  required.  I  feel 
that  I  cannot  close,  however,  without  again  earnestly  inviting  your  attention 
to  a  question  which  you  must  admit  is  'practical.' 

"I  think  I  have  established  beyond  a  doubt,  in  my  former  letters,  the  con 
stitutional  right  of  the  State  of  Georgia  to  appoint  the  officers  to  command 
the  regiments  and  battalions  which  she  has  sent  into  the  service  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  in  compliance  with  requisitions  made  by  you  upon  her  Ex 
ecutive  for  'organized  bodies'  of  troops.  You  admitted  in  your  letter  that 
these  bodies  *  organized  by  the  States,'  when  called  forth  by  the  Confederacy 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.         391 

to  repel  invasion,  never  came  otherwise  tlian  with  their  company,  field,  and 
general  officers.  Your  former  secretary  of  war,  now  secretary  of  state,  has 
also  admitted  the  right  of  the  State  to  appoint  the  officers  to  command  the 
troops  sent  by  her  into  the  service  of  the  Confederacy,  under  requisition 
from  you. 

"  You  have  not  thought  proper  in  either  of  your  letters  to  give  any  reason 
why  the  State  should  be  denied  the  exercise  of  this  clear  constitutional  right. 
In  this  state  of  the  case  you  still  exercise  the  appointing  power  which 
belongs  to  the  State,  and  commission  the  officers  who  are  to  command  these 
troops.  The  laws  of  this  State  give  to  these  gallant  men  the  right  to  elect 
their  own  officers,  and  have  them  commissioned  by  the  Executive  of  their 
own  State.  This  question  is  of  the  more  practical  importance  at  present,  on 
account  of  a  large  number  of  gallant  officers  belonging  to  these  regiments 
having  lafely  fallen  upon  the  battle-field,  whose  places  are  to  be  filled  by 
others.  The  troops  volunteered  at  the  call  of  the  State,  with  a  knowledge 
of  their  right  to  elect  those  who  are  to  command  them,  and  went  into  the 
field  with  the  assurance  that  they  would  be  permitted  to  exercise  this  right. 
It  is  now  denied  them  under  the  Conscription  Act.  Some  of  them  have 
appealed  to  me  to  see  that  their  rights  are  protected.  As  an  act  of  justice 
to  brave  men,  who  by  their  deeds  of  valor  have  rendered  their  names  im- 
mortal,  and  as  an  act  of  duty,  which  as  her  Executive  I  owe  to  the  people  of 
this  State,  I  must  be  pardoned  for  again  demanding  for  the  Georgia  State 
troops,  now  under  your  command,  permission  in  all  cases  in  which  they 
have  already  been  deprived  of  it,  or  which  may  hereafter  arise,  to  have  the 
company,  field,  and  general  officers,  who  are  to  command  them,  appointed  by 
election,  and  commissioned  from  the  Executive  of  Georgia,  as  guaranteed  to 
them  by  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederacy  and  the  laws  of  this  State. 

"  I  make  this  demand  with  the  greater  confidence  in  view  of  the  past 
history  of  your  life.  I  have  not  the  documents  before  me,  but  if  I  mistake 
not,  President  Polk,  during  the  war  against  Mexico,  in  which  you  were  the 
colonel  of  a  gallant  Mississippi  regiment,  tendered  you  the  appointment  of 
brigadier-general  for  distinguished  services  upon  the  battle-field,  and  you 
declined  the  appointment  upon  the  ground  that  the  President  had  no  light 
under  the  Constitution  to  appoint  a  brigadier-general  to  command  the  State 
volunteers  then  employed  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  but  that  the 
States,  and  not  the  General  Government,  had  the  right,  under  the  Con 
stitution,  to  make  such  appointments.  If  Congress  could  not  at  that  time 
confer  upon  the  President  the  right  under  the  Constitution  to  appoint  a 
brigadier-general  to  command  State  troops  in  the  service  of  the  Confederacy, 
Congress  certainly  cannot  now,  under  the  same  constitutional  provisions, 
confer  upon  the  President  the  right  to  appoint,  not  only  the  brigadier-gen 
eral*,  but  also  all  the  field  and  company  officers  of  State  troops  employed 
in  the  service  of  the  Confederacy.  May  I  not  reasonably  hope  that  the 
right  for  which  I  contend  will  be  speedily  recognized,  and  that  you  will  give 


392      CORRESPONDENCE   OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

notice  to  the  Georgia  State  troops,  now  under  your  control,  who  went  into 
service  under  requisitions  made  upon  the  State  by  you,  that  they  will  no 
longer  be  denied  the  practical  benefit  resulting  from  the  recognition. 

"You  conclude  your  letter  by  saying,  'you.  cannot  share  the  alarm  and 
concern  about  State  rights  which  I  so  evidently  feel.'  I  regret  that  you  can 
not.  The  views  and  opinions  of  the  best  of  men,  are,  however,  influenced 
more  or  less  by  the  positions  in  which  they  are  placed,  and  the  circumstances 
by  which  they  are  surrounded.  It  is  probably  not  unnatural  that  those  who 
administer  the  affairs  and  dispense  the  patronage  of  a  confederation  of 
States  should  become,  to  some  extent,  biased  in  favor  of  the  claims  of  the 
Confederacy  when  its  powers  are  questioned;  while  it  is  equally  natural  that 
those  who  administer  the  affairs  of  the  States,  and  are  responsible  for  the 
protection  of  their  rights,  should  be  the  first  to  sound  the  alarm,  in  case  of 
encroachments  by  the  Confederacy,  which  tend  to  the  subversion  of  the 
rights  of  the  States.  This  principle  of  human  nature  may  be  clearly  traced 
in  the  history  of  the  government  of  the  United  States.  While  that  govern 
ment  encroached  upon  the  rights  of  the  States  from  time  to  time,  and  was 
fast  concentrating  the  whole  power  in  its  own  hands,  it  is  worthy  of  remark, 
that  the  Federal  Executive,  exercising  the  vast  powers  and  dispensing  the 
immense  patronage  of  his  position,  has  seldom,  if  ever,  been  able  to  '  share 
in  the  alarm  and  concern  about  State  rights,'  which  have  on  so  many  oc 
casions  been  felt  by  the  authorities  and  people  of  the  respective  States. 

"  With  renewed  assurances  of  my  high  consideration  and  esteem, 
"  I  am,  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


COPY  OF  A  LETTER  TO  PRESIDENT  DAVIS,  TO  WHICH  NO 
REPLY  HAS  BEEN  RECEIVED. 

"  CANTON,  GA.,  Oct.  18,  1862. 
"HIS  EXCELLENCY,  JEFFERSON  DAVIS: 

Dear  Sir : — The  Act  of  Congress  passed  at  its  late  session  extending  the 
Conscription  Act,  unlike  its  predecessor,  of  which  it  is  amendatory,  gives  you 
power,  in  certain  contingencies,  of  the  happening  of  which  you  must  be  the 
judge,  to  suspend  its  operation,  and  accept  troops  from  the  States  under  any 
of  the  former  acts  upon  that  subject.  By  former  acts  you  were  authorized  to 
accept  troops  from  the  States  organized  into  companies,  battalions  and  regi 
ments.  The  Conscription  Act  of  16th  of  April  last  repealed  these  acts,  but 
the  late  act  revives  them  when  you  suspend  it. 

"  For  the  reasons  then  given,  I  entered  my  protest  against  the  first  Con 
scription  Act  on  account  of  its  unconstitutionality,  and  refused  to  permit  the 
enrolment  of  any  State  officer,  civil  or  military,  who  was  necessary  to  the»in- 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        393 

tegrity  of  the  State  government.  But  on  account  of  the  emergencies  of  the 
country,  growing  out  of  the  neglect  of  the  Confederate  authorities  to  call 
upon  the  States  for  a  sufficient  amount  of  additional  force  to  supply  the 
places  of  the  twelve-months  troops,  and  on  account  of  the  repeal  of  the  former 
laws  upon  that  subject,  having,  for  the  time,  placed  it  out  of  your  power  to 
accept  troops  organized  by  the  States  in  the  constitutional  mode,  I  inter 
posed  no  active  resistance  to  the  enrolment  of  persons  in  this  State  between 
eighteen  and  thirty-five,  who  were  not  officers  necessary  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  government  of  the  State. 

"  The  first  Conscription  Act  took  from  the  State  only  part  of  her  military 
force.  She  retained  her  officers  and  all  her  militia  between  thirty-five  and 
forty-five.  Her  military  organization  was  neither  disbanded  nor  destroyed. 
She  had  permitted  a  heavy  draft  to  be  made  upon  it,  without  constitutional 
authority,  rather  than  her  fidelity  to  our  cause  should  be  questioned,  or 
the  enemy  should  gain  any  advantage  growing  out  of  what  her  authorities 
might  consider  unwise  councils.  But  she  still  retained  an  organization,  sub 
ject  to  the  command  of  her  constituted  authorities,  which  she  could  use  for 
the  protection  of  her  public  property,  the  execution  of  her  laws,  the  repul 
sion  of  invasion,  or  the  suppression  of  servile  insurrection  which  our  insid 
ious  foe  now  proclaims  to  the  world  that  it  is  his  intention  to  incite,  which 
if  done  may  result  in  an  indiscriminate  massacre  of  helpless  women  and 
children. 

"At  this  critical  period  in  our  public  affairs,  when  it  is  absolutely  neces 
sary  that  each  State  keep  an  organization  for  home  protection,  Congress,  with 
your  sanction,  has  extended  the  Conscription  Act  to  embrace  all  between 
thirty-five  and  forty-five  subject  to  military  duty,  giving  you  the  power  to 
suspend  the  act  as  above  stated.  If  you  refuse  to  exercise  this  power  and 
are  permitted  to  take  all  between  thirty-five  and  forty-five  as  conscripts, 
you  disband  and  destroy  all  military  organization  in  this  State,  and  leave  her 
people  utterly  powerless  to  protect  their  own  families,  even  against  their  own 
slaves.  Not  only  so,  but  you  deny  to  those  between  thirty-five  and  forty-five 
a  privilege  of  electing  the  officers  to  command  them,  to  which,  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  Confederacy  and  the  laws  of  this  State,  they  are  clearly 
entitled,  which  has  been  allowed  to  other  troops  from  the  State,  and  was,  to 
a  limited  extent,  allowed  even  to  those  between  eighteen  and  thirty-five 
under  the  act  of  16th  April,  as  that  act  did  allow  them  thirty  days  within 
which  to  volunteer,  under  such  officers  as  they  might  select,  who  chanced  at 
the  time  to  have  commissions  from  the  War  Department  to  raise  regiments. 

"  If  you  deny  this  rightful  privilege  to  those  between  thirty-five  and  forty- 
five,  and  refuse  to  accept  them  as  volunteers  with  officers  selected  by  them  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  their  State,  and  attempt  to  compel  them  to  enter 
the  service  as  conscripts,  my  opinion  is,  your  orders  will  only  be  obeyed  by 
many  of  them  when  backed  by  an  armed  force  which  they  have  no  power  to 
resist. 


394        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

"  The  late  act,  if  I  construe  it  correctly,  does  not  give  those  between  thirty- 
five  and  forty-five  the  privilege  under  any  circumstances  of  volunteering  and 
forming  themselves  into  regimental  organizations,  but  compels  them  to  enter 
the  present  organizations  as  privates  under  officers  heretofore  selected  by 
others,  until  all  the  present  organizations  are  filled  to  their  maximum 
number. 

"  This  injustice  can  only  be  avoided  by  the  exercise  of  the  power  given  you 
to  suspend  the  act,  and  call  upon  the  States  for  organized  companies,  battal 
ions  and  regiments.  I  think  the  history  of  the  past  justifies  me  in  saying 
that  the  public  interest  cannot  suffer  by  the  adoption  of  this  course.  When 
you  made  a  requisition  upon  me  in  the  early  part  of  February  last,  for  twelve 
regiments,  I  had  them  all,  with  a  large  additional  number  in  the  field,  subject 
to  your  command  and  ready  for  service,  in  about  one  month.  It  has  now 
been  over  six  months  since  the  passage  of  the  first  Conscription  Act,  and 
your  officers  during  that  time  have  not  probably  enrolled  and  carried  into 
service  from  this  State  conscripts  exceeding  one-fourth  of  the  number 
furnished  by  me  as  volunteers  in  one  month,  while  the  expense  of  getting 
the  conscripts  into  service  has  probably  been  four  times  as  much  as  it  cost 
to  get  four  times  the  number  of  volunteers  into  the  field. 
'  "  In  consideration  of  these  facts  I  trust  you  will  not  hesitate  to  exercise 
the  power  given  you  by  the  Act  of  Congress  and  make  an  early  requisition 
(which  I  earnestly  invite)  upon  the  Executive  of  this  State  for  her  just  quota 
of  the  additional  number  of  troops  necessary  to  be  called  out  to  meet  the 
hosts  of  the  invader — the  troops  to  be  organized  into  companies,  battalions, 
and  regiments,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  this  State. 

".The  prompt  and  patriotic  response  made  by  the  people  of  Georgia  to 
every  call  for  volunteers  justifies  the  reasonable  expectation  that  I  shall  be 
able  to  fill  your  requisition  in  a  short  time  after  it  is  made  and  authorizes 
me  in  advance  to  pledge  prompt  compliance.  This  can  be  done,  too,  when 
left  to  the  State  authorities,  in  such  way  as  not  to  disband  nor  destroy  her 
military  organization  at  home,  which  must  be  kept  in  existence  to  be  used 
in  case  of  servile  insurrection  or  other  pressing  necessity. 

"If  you  should  object  to  other  new  organizations  on  the  ground  that  they 
are  not  efficient,  I  beg  to  invite  your  attention  to  the  conduct  of  the  newly 
organized  regiments  of  Georgians,  and  indeed  of  troops  from  all  the  States, 
upon  the  plains  of  Manassas,  in  the  battles  before  Richmond,  upon  James 
Island  near  Charleston,  at  Shiloh,  at  Richmond,  Kentucky,  and  upon  every 
battle-field  whenever  and  wherever  they  have  met  the  invading  forces.  If  it 
is  said  that  some  of  our  old  regiments  are  almost  decimated,  not  having  more 
than  enough  men  in  a  regiment  to  form  a  single  company,  that  it  is  too  ex 
pensive  to  keep  these  small  bands  in  the  field  as  regiments,  and  that  justice 
to  the  officers  requires  that  they  be  filled  up  by  conscripts,  I  reply,  that  in 
justice  should  never  be  done  to  the  troops  for  the  purpose  of  saving  a  few 
dollars  of  expense;  and  that  justice  to  the  men  now  called  into  the  field  as 


AND  GOV.. BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        395 

imperatively  requires  that  they  shall  have  the  privilege  allowed  to  other 
troops  to  exercise  the  constitutional  right  of  entering  the  service  under  offi 
cers  selected  and  appointed  as  directed  by  the  laws  of  their  own  State  as  it 
does  that  officers  in  service  shall  not  be  deprived  of  their  commands  when 
their  regiments  are  worn  out  or  destroyed. 

*•  Our  officers  have  usually  exposed  themselves  in  the  van  of  the  fight  and 
shared  the  fate  of  their  men.  Hence  but  few  of  the  original  experienced 
officers  who  went  to  the  field  with  our  old  regiments,  which  have  won  so  bright 
a  name  in  history,  now  survive,  but  their  places  have  been  filled  by  others 
appointed  in  most  cases  by  the  President.  They  have,  therefore,  no  just 
cause  to  claim  that  the  right  of  election  which  belongs  to  every  Georgian 
shall  be  denied  to  all  who  are  hereafter  to  enter  the  service  for  the  purpose 
of  sustaining  them  in  the  offices  which  they  now  fill. 

"  If  it  becomes  necessary  to  disband  any  regiment  on  account  of  its  small 
numbers,  let  every  officer  and  private  be  left  perfectly  free  to  unite  with  such 
new  volunteer  association  as  he  thinks  proper,  and  in  the  organization  and 
selection  of  officers  it  is  but  reasonable  to  suppos^  that  modest  merit  and 
experience  will  not  be  overlooked. 

"  The  late  Act  of  Congress,  if  executed  in  this  State,  not  only  does  gross 
injustice  to  a  large  class  of  her  citizens,  utterly  destroys  all  State  military 
organizations,  and  encroaches  upon  the  reserved  rights  of  the  State,  but 
strikes  down  her  sovereignty  at  a  single  blow  and  tears  from  her  the  right 
arm  of  strength  by  which  she  alone  can  maintain  her  existence  and  protect 
those  most  dear  to  her  and  most  dependent  upon  her.  The  representatives 
of  the  people  will  meet  in  General  Assembly  on  the  6th  day  of  next  month, 
and  I  feel  that  I  should  be  recreant  to  the  high  trust  reposed  in  me  were  I  to 
permit  the  virtual  destruction  of  the  Government  of  the  State  before  they 
shall  have  had  time  to  convene,  deliberate,  and  act. 

**  Referring,  in  connection  with  the  considerations  above  mentioned,  to 
our  former  correspondence,  for  the  reasons  which  satisfy  my  mind  beyond 
doubt  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  Conscription  Acts,  and  to  the  fact 
that  a  judge  in  this  State,  of  great  ability,  in  a  case  regularly  brought  before 
him  in  his  judicial  capacity,  has  pronounced  the  law  unconstitutional;  and 
to  the  further  fact  that  Congress  has  lately  passed  an  additional  Act  author 
izing  you  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  doubtless 
with  a  view  of  denying  to  the  judiciary  in  this  very  case  the  exercise  of  its 
constitutional  functions  for  the  protection  of  personal  liberty,  I  can  no  longer 
avoid  the  responsibility  of  discharging  a  duty  which  I  owe  to  the  people  of 
this  State  by  informing  you  that  I  cannot  permit  the  enrolment  of  conscripts 
under  the  late  Act  of  Congress  entitled  '  An  Act  to  amend  the  Act  further  to 
provide  for  the  common  defence,'  until  the  General  Assembly  of  this  State 
shall  have  convened  and  taken  action  in  the  premises. 

"  The  plea  of  necessity  set  up  for  conscription  last  spring,  when  I  withheld 
active  resistance  to  a  very  heavy  draft  upon  the  military  organization  of  the 


396        CORRESPONDENCE  OF  PRESIDENT  DAVIS 

State  under  the  first  Conscription  Act,  cannot  be  pleaded  after  the  brilliant 
successes  of  our  gallant  armies  during  the  summer  and  fall  campaign  which 
have  been  achieved  by  troops  who  entered  the  service,  not  as  conscripts,  but 
as  volunteers.  If  more  troops  are  needed  to  meet  coming  emergencies,  call 
upon  the  State  and  you  shall  have  them  as  volunteers  much  more  rapidly  than 
your  enrolling  officers  can  drag  conscripts,  like  slaves  'in  chains,'  to  camps  of 
instruction.  And  who  that  is  not  blinded  by  prejudice  or  ambition  can 
doubt  that  they  will  be  much  more  effective  as  volunteers  than  as  conscripts? 
The  volunteer  enters  the  service  of  his  own  free  will.  He  regards  the  war 
as  much  his  own  as  the  Government's  war ;  and  is  ready,  if  need  be,  to  offer 
his  life  a  willing  sacrifice  upon  his  country's  altar.  Hence  it  is  that  our  vol 
unteer  armies  have  been  invincible  when  contending  against  vastly  superior 
numbers  with  every  advantage  which  the  best  equipments  and  supplies  can 
afford.  Not  so  with  the  conscript.  He  may  be  as  ready  as  any  citizen  of  the 
State  to  volunteer  if  permitted  to  enjoy  the  constitutional  rights  which  have 
been  allowed  to  others  in  the  choice  of  his  officers  and  associates.  But  if 
these  are  denied  him  and  he  is  seized  like  a  serf  and  hurried  into  an  associa 
tion  repulsive  to  his  feelings  and  placed  under  officers  in  whom  he  has  no 
confidence,  he  then  feels  that  this  is  the  Government's  war,  not  his  ;  that  he 
is  the  mere  instrument  of  arbitrary  power,  and  that  he  is  no  longer  laboring 
to  establish  constitutional  liberty,  but  to  build  up  a  military  despotism  for  its 
ultimate  but  certain  overthrow.  Georgians  will  never  refuse  to  volunteer  as 
long  as  there  is  an  enemy  upon  our  soil  and  a  call  for  their  services.  But  if 
I  mistake  not  the  signs  of  the  times  they  will  require  the  Government  to 
respect  their  plain  constitutional  rights. 

"Surely  no  just  reason  exists  why  you  should  refuse  to  accept  volunteers 
when  tendered,  and  insist  on  replenishing  your  armies  by  conscription  and 
coercion  of  freemen. 

"The  question  then  is  not  whether  you  shall  have  Georgia's  quota  of 
troops,  for  they  are  freely  offered — tendered  in  advance — but  it  is  whether  you 
shall  accept  them  when  tendered  as  volunteers,  organized  as  the  Constitution 
and  laws  direct,  or  shall,  when  the  decision  is  left  with  you,  insist  on  reject 
ing  volunteers  and  dragging  the  free  citizens  of  this  State  into  your  armies 
as  conscripts.  No  Act  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  prior  to  the 
secession  of  Georgia  struck  a  blow  at  constitutional  liberty  so  fell  as  has 
been  stricken  by  the  Conscription  Acts.  The  people  of  this  State  had  ample 
cause,  however,  to  justify  their  separation  from  the  old  Government.  They 
acted  coolly  and  deliberately  in  view  of  all  the  responsibilities ;  and  they 
stand  ready  to-day  to  sustain  their  action  at  all  hazards  and  to  resist  sub 
mission  to  the  Lincoln  Government  and  the  reconstruction  of  the  old  Union 
to  the  expenditure  of  their  last  dollar  and  the  sacrifice  of  their  last  life. 
Having  entered  into  the  revolution  freemen,  they  intend  to  emerge  from  it 
freemen.  And  if  I  mistake  not  the  character  of  the  sons,  judged  by  the 
action  of  their  fathers  against  Federal  encroachments  under  Jackson,  Troup, 


AND  GOV.  BROWN  UPON  CONSCRIPTION.        397 

and  Gilmer,  respectively,  as  executive  officers,  they  will  refuse  to  yield  their 
sovereignty  to  usurpation  and  will  require  the  Government,  which  is  the 
common  agent  of  all  the  States,  to  move  within  the  sphere  assigned  it  by  the 
Constitution. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


CHAPTER 'XII. 

CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOVERNOR  BROWN  AND  A.  FULLAR- 
TON,  BRITISH  CONSUL  AT  SAVANNAH. 

In  July,  1863,  Governor  Brown,  desiring  to  raise  for 
home  defence  a  force  of  eight  thousand  men  not  in  the 
Confederate  army,  issued  a  call  for  volunteers  accom 
panied  by  an  order  for  a  draft,  in  the  event  a  sufficient 
number  of  men  did  not  respond.  This  order  included  all 
persons  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five  years, 
of  citizens  as  well  as  foreign  subjects  residing  within  the 
State.  It  drew  out  from  the  Hon.  A.  Fullarton,  British 
consul  at  Savannah,  a  strong  protest  in  behalf  of  those 
subjects  of  his  government  who  asked  his  protection, 
which  led  to  an  able,  sharp,  and  interesting  correspond 
ence  upon  the  subject  of  the  liability  of  foreign  subjects 
to  compulsory  service,  which  we  present  entire. 

"  BRITISH  CONSULATE, ) 
SAVANNAH,  July  22,  1863. '  ) 
"  TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  GOV.  BROWN,  MARIETTA  : 

"  Sir: — My  attention  has  been  called  to  your  proclamation,  and  to  General 
Wayne's  general  order  No.  16  attached  thereto,  ordering  a  draft  on  the  4th 
of  August  from  persons  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five  years,  in 
cluding  British  subjects,  in  each  county  which  does  not  furnish  its  quota  of 
volunteers  to  complete  the  number  of  8,000  men  required  for  home  defence. 

"  I  am  informed  that  this  force  when  organized  is  to  be  turned  over  to  the 
Confederate  government.  British  subjects,  if  drafted,  will  then  be  forced  to 
become  Confederate  soldiers,  a  position  in  which  Her  Majesty's  government 
have,  since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  contended  they  ought  not  to  be 
placed,  and  from  which  Her  Majesty's  consuls  have  been  instructed  to  use 
every  means  at  their  command  to  preserve  them. 

"  Her  Majesty's  government  acknowledges  the  right  of  a  foreign  State  to 


CORRESPONDENCE.  399 

claim  the  services  of  British  subjects  resident  within  its  limits,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  maintaining  internal  order  (in  other  words,  to  act  as  a  local  police 
force),  and  even,  to  a  limited  extent,  to  defend  against  local  invasion  by  a  for 
eign  power  the  places  of  their  residence ;  but  they  deny  the  claim  to  services 
beyond  this,  and  accordingly  I  have  given  advice  in  the  following  sense  to 
British  subjects  who  have  applied  to  me  on  the  subject  of  this  draft :  that 
militia  duty  is  in  general  an  obligation  incident  to  foreign  residence,  and 
that  therefore  they  must  not  object  to  render  the  service  required  so  long  as 
the  law  requires  a  militia  organization  for  the  maintenance  of  internal  peace 
and  order.  But  if  it  shall  so  happen  that  the  militia,  after  being  so  organ 
ized,  shall  be  brought  into  conflict  with  the  forces  of  the  United  States  with 
out  being  turned  over  to  the  Confederate  States  so  as  to  form  a  component 
part  of  its  armies,  or  if  it  should  be  so  turned  over,  in  either  event,  the  serv 
ice  required  would  be  such  as  British  subjects  cannot  be  expected  to  per 
form  ;  in  the  first  case,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  accidents  of  war,  they 
would  be  liable  to  be  treated  as  rebels  and  traitors,  and  not  as  prisoners  of 
war;  and  in  the  second  case, they  would  be  under  the  operation  of  a  law  (re 
quiring  them  to  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States  government),  which 
had  no  existence  when  for  commercial  purposes  they  first  took  up  their 
residence  in  this  country,  and  would,  moreover,  be  disobeying  the  order  of 
their  legitimate  sovereign,  which  exhorts  them  to  an  observance  of  the  strict 
est  neutrality,  and  subjects  them  to  severe  penalties.  For  all  local  service, 
however,  short  of  the  service  I  have  endeavored  to  describe,  I  have  advised 
them  that  the  militia  organization  is  lawful  and  should  be  acquiesced  in  by 
resident  British  subjects. 

"  Nearly  all  British  subjects  have  besides  taken  an  oath  that  they  will  not, 
under  any  circumstances,  take  part  in  the  contest  now  raging  in  this  coun 
try  by  taking  up  arms  on  either  side. 

"  I  hope,  sir,  you  will  therefore  so  modify  the  general  order  in  respect  of 
British  subjects  who  have  certificates  from  me,  as  to  release  them  from  a  posi 
tion  which,  in  the  event  of  a  draft,  will  certainly  render  them  liable  to  all 
the  penalties  denounced  by  their  owu  sovereign  against  a  violation  of  their 
neutrality,  calling  upon  them  at  the  same  time  to  render  service  as  local 
police  for  the  maintenance  of  internal  peace  and  order. 

"On  a  former  occasion,  Mr.  Molyneux  advised  you  that  the  consulate  was 
placed  under  my  charge  during  his  absence.  I  recently  submitted  my  au 
thority  to  act  as  Her  Majesty's  consul  to  Mr.  Benjamin,  who  duly  ac 
corded  to  me  his  approval  and  recognition. 

<k  I  am,  sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"  A.  FULLARTOX,  Acting  Consul." 


400  COEEESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BEOWN 

"MARIETTA,  August  8,  1863. 
"MR.  A.  FULLARTOX,  ACTING  CONSUL  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN: 

"Dear  Sir: — Your  letter  of  22d  July  reached  these  headquarters  during 
my  absence,  which  has  caused  delay  in  my  reply. 

''Judging  from  your  communication,  I  am  obliged  to  conclude  that  you 
have  not  correctly  understood  the  objects  of  the  government  in  organizing 
the  8,000  men  for  home  defence. 

"You  admit  the  right  of  the  State  to  claim  the  services  of  British  subjects 
resident  within  its  limits  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  *  internal  order,' 
and  even  to  a  limited  extent  to  defend  the  places  of  their  residence  against 
local  invasion  by  a  foreign  power.  In  view  of  this  correct  admission  on  your 
part,  I  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to  quote  authority  to  show  the  obligation  of 
Her  Majesty's  subjects  to  render  the  service  now  called  for.  To  maintain 
'  internal  order,'  and  to  defend  to  a,  limited  extent  *  against  local  invasion  by  a 
foreign  power,'  are  the  sole  objects  of  the  proposed  military  organization. 

"  While  the  men  are  to  be  mustered  into  service  for  the  purpose  of  afford 
ing  them  the  rights  and  privileges  of  prisoners  of  war,  in  case  of  capture  by 
the  enemy,  and  to  enable  the  government  to  command  them  without  delay 
in  case  of  sudden  emergency,  it  is  not  proposed  to  take  them  from  their 
homes,  or  to  interrupt  their  ordinary  avocations,  unless  it  be  a  case  of  sudden 
emergency  or  pressing  necessity,  for  the  defence  of  their  homes,  or  such  local 
ities  as  command  their  homes,  when  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

"  The  government  of  the  United  States,  in  violation  of  the  usages  of  civil 
ized  warfare,  is  now  resorting  to  every  means  within  its  power  to  incite  servile 
insurrection  in  our  midst.  It  is  not  only  stealing  our  slaves,  which  are  private 
property,  or  taking  them  by  open  robbery,  mustering  them  into  its  service, 
and  arming  them  against  us,  but  it  is  doing  all  it  can  by  secret  agencies,  to 
stir  up  and  excite  the  angry  passion  of  the  mass  of  ignorant  slaves  in  the  in 
terior,  whom  it  can  neither  reach  by  theft  nor  robbery,  to  cause  them  to  rise 
in  rebellion  against  their  masters,  with  whom  they  are  now  comfortable  and 
happy,  and  to  set  fire  to  our  cities,  towns,  villages,  and  other  property.  It  is 
needless  for  me  to  add  that  in  case  they  should  be  successful  in  inciting  in 
surrection  to  this  point,  the  butchery  of  helpless  women  and  children  will 
doubtless  be  the  result. 

"  As  a  means  of  accomplishing  this  object,  as  well  as  of  destroying  public 
and  private  property,  the  enemy  is  now  preparing  to  send  cavalry  raids  as 
far  as  possible  into  this  and  other  States  of  the  Confederacy.  These  robber 
bands  will,  no  doubt,  burn  and  destroy  property  where  they  go,  carry  off  as 
many  slaves  as  they  can,  and  attempt  to  stir  up  others  with  whom  they  come 
in  contact,  to  insurrection,  robbery,  and  murder. 

"  It  is  not  expected  that  the  8,000  men  called  for  by  my  proclamation,  and 
the  general  order  to  which  you  refer,  will  be  used  against  the  regular  armies 
of  the  United  States.  The  provisional  armies  of  the  Confederate  States  have 
shown  themselves  fully  able  to  meet  the  enemy  upon  an  hundred  battle-fields, 


AND  THE  BRITISH  CONSUL.  401 

and  to  drive  them  back  with  severe  chastisement,  wherever  they  have  not 
had  the  advantage  of  their  navy  as  a  support.  But  it  is  expected  that  this 
home  organization,  while  it  may  be  but  little  of  its  time  in  actual  service, 
will,  in  case  of  sudden  emergency,  assist  in  repelling  the  plundering  bands  of 
the  enemy,  which  evade  contact  with  our  armies,  and  make  predatory  incur 
sions  to  our  very  homes  for  the  purposes  already  mentioned,  and  that  they 
will  assist  in  suppressing  any  servile  insurrections  which  these  plundering 
parties  may  be  able  to  incite. 

"  Many  who  claim  to  be  Her  Majesty's  subjects  in  this  State  are  large  slave 
holders,  whose  danger  of  loss  of  property  and  of  insult  and  cruel  injury  to 
their  wives  and  children,  in  case  of  insurrection,  is  as  great  as  the  danger  to 
the  citizens  of  this  State,  and  their  obligation  to  protect  their  property  and 
their  families  against  the  local  aggressions  of  the  United  States  forces  is.no 
less. 

"  While  Her  Majesty's  government  has  constantly  refused  to  recognize  the 
existence  of  the  government  of  the  Confederate  States,  her  subjects  have  en 
joyed  its  protection.  And  while  she  refuses  to  hold  any  diplomatic  relations 
with  us,  you,  as  her  representative,  are  permitted  to  represent  her  interests 
here,  and  to  be  heard  for  the  protection  of  her  subjects  and  their  property.. 
In  this  state  of  things,  British  subjects  who  still  elect  to  remain  in  the  Con 
federacy  should  not  expect  to  do  less  than  the  service  now  required  of  them ; 
and  while  free  egress  will  in  no  case  be  denied  them,  should  they  desire  to 
depart  from  this  State,  less  than  the  service  now  required  will  not  in  future 
be  demanded,  in  case  they  choose  to  remain  in  the  State  and  enjoy  its  pro 
tection. 

"Experience  has  convinced  the  government  at  Washington  of  its  inability, 
by  armed  force  in  the  battle-field,  to  combat  Southern  valor  and  compel  us  to 
submit  to  its  despotic  tyranny.  It  has,  therefore,  in  connection  with  that 
above  mentioned,  adopted  the  further  policy  of  destroying  agricultural  imple 
ments,  mills,  and  provisions,  wherever  its  armies  penetrate  into  our  country, 
with  a  view  of  effecting  by  starvation  that  which  it  cannot  accomplish  by  the 
skill  and  courage  of  its  troops. 

"  As  a  further  auxiliary  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  object,  it  drives  from 
the  territory  overrun  by  its  armies,  the  men,  women  and  children  who  are 
true  to  the  government  of  their  choice,  and  compels  them  to  seek  safety  and 
support  in  this  and  other  interior  States.  It  thus  taxes  the  productions  of 
the  interior  States  with  the  support,  not  only  of  their  own  population  and  the 
armies  of  the  Confederacy,  but  of  a  large  number  of  refugees.  With  the 
blessings  of  Divine  Providence,  which,  thanks  to  His  name,  have  been  so 
abundantly  showered  upon  us,  we  are,  by  abandoning  the  culture  of  cotton, 
making  ample  supplies  for  another  year.  While  we  are  surrounded  by  such 
an  enemy,  the  British  government  cannot  fail  to  see  and  appreciate  the  rea 
son  why  we  cannot  afford  to  retain  and  protect  among  us  a  class  of  con 
sumers  who  produce  none  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  who  refuse  to  take 
26 


402  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

up  arms  for  interior  or  local  defence,  but  claim  the  privilege  of  remaining  as 
subjects  of  foreign  powers,  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits,  in  ports  with 
which  their  government  recognizes  no  legal  commerce. 

"  But  you  insist  that  there  was  no  law  in  existence  requiring  British  sub 
jects  to  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States  government,  when  for  com 
mercial  purposes  they  first  took  up  their  residence  in  the  country.  You 
must  not  forget,  however,  in  this  connection,  that  at  that  time  the  State  of 
Georgia  was  by  her  own  sovereign  consent,  a  component  part  of  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  and  that  since  that  time  she  has,  for  just  cause, 
withdrawn  her  consent  to  further  connection  with  the  aggressive  States  of 
the  North,  and  now  with  her  Southern  sisters  forms  the  government  of 
the  Confederate  States,  against  which  the  States  which  remain  united  under 
the  name  of  United  States,  are  waging  a  cruel  and  unjust  war.  With  this 
change  in  the  political  relations  of  the  country,  new  obligations  are  imposed 
upon  the  subjects  of  foreign  powers  resident  within  this  and  other  Southern 
States,  which  make  it  their  duty  to  aid  in  the  maintenance  of  internal  order 
and  in  the  protection  of  their  domiciles  and  the  localities  where  they  are 
situated,  when  assailed  by  the  troops  of  the  United  States  government,  or  to 
depart  from  the  States  and  seek  protection  elsewhere.  Again,  the  com 
mercial  reasons-  which  you  say  caused  Her  Majesty's  subjects  to  take  up 
their  residence  here,  ceased  to  exist  when  Her  Majesty's  government  refused 
longer  to  recognize  the  existence  of  legal  commerce  between  her  subjects 
and  the  citizens  of  this  State  and  warned  them  of  the  loss  of  her  protection 
if  they  attempted  to  carry  on  commercial  relations  with  us  through  our  ports. 

"  At  the  time  English  subjects  took  up  their  residence  among  our  people 
for  commercial  purposes,  our  ports  were  open  to  the  commerce  of  the  world, 
and  foreign  governments  which  had  commercial  treaties  with  us  had  a  right 
to  claim  for  their  subjects  engaged  in  commerce  the  usual  commercial 
privileges  and  protection  while  domiciled  here. 

"  Now  the  government  of  the  United  States  claims  that  it  has  our  ports 
blockaded ;  and  while  the  whole  civilized  world  knows  that  the  blockade  is 
not  effective,  and  that  vessels  enter  and  clear  almost  daily  at  our  ports, 
the  government  of  Her  Majesty  chooses  to  recognize  it  as  a  legal  blockade, 
and  to  acquiesce  in  the  paper  prohibition  which  excludes  English  subjects 
with  their  commerce  from  our  ports.  If  the  British  government  adopts  the 
pretensions  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  holds  that  Charleston 
and  Savannah  are  still  ports  belonging  to  the  United  States,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  blockade  of  these  ports  by  the  United  States  government 
is  a  palpable  violation  of  the  commercial  treaty  stipulations  between  the 
two  governments,  as  the  United  States  government  has  no  right,  under 
these  treaties,  to  blockade  her  own  ports  against  English  commerce.  If 
tested  by  the  laws  of  nations,  to  which  the  British  government  is  a  party,  it 
is  no  blockade  because  not  effective.  Under  these  circumstances  if  the  gov 
ernment  of  Her  Majesty  consents  to  respect  the  orders  of  the  United  States 


AND  THE  BRITISH  CONSUL.  403 

government,  which  forbid  British  subjects  to  enter  our  ports  for  commercial 
purposes,  that  government  has  no  right,  while  this  state  of  things  continues, 
to  claim  commercial  privileges  for  its  subjects  within,  the  ports  where  it 
admits  the  existence  of  a  legal  blockade  ;  but  it  must  expect  those  subjects 
to  depart  from  these  ports,  and  if  they  refuse  to  do  so,  it  has  no  just  cause 
of  complaint  when  the  government  having  possession  of  these  ports  compels 
them  to  take  up  arms  to  defend  their  domiciles  against  servile  insurrection  or 
the  attacks  of  the  troops  of  a  hostile  power. 

"  I  learn  from  your  letter  that » nearly  all  British  subjects  have  taken  an 
oath  that  they  will  not,  under  any  circumstances,  take  part  in  the  contest 
now  raging  in  this  country,  by  taking  up  arms  on  either  side.'  In  reply  to 
this,  permit  me  to  remind  you  that  no  such  self-imposed  obligation  can  free 
the  subjects  of  Her  Majesty  who  choose  to  remain  «in  this  State,  from  the 
higher  obligation,  which,  by  the  laws  of  nations,  they  are  under  to  the 
State  for  protection  while  they  remain  within  its  limits. 

"  While  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  it  is  the  sincere  desire  of  the  government 
and  people  of  this  State,  to  cultivate  the  most  friendly  relations  with  her 
Majesty's  government  and  people,  I  feel  it  my  duty,  for  the  reasons  already 
given,  to  decline  any  modification  of  the  order  to  which  you  refer  in  your 
communication. 

"  With  high  consideration  and  esteem,  I  am, 
"  Very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


"BRITISH  CONSULATE,      ) 
SAVANNAH,  AUG.  17,  1863.   } 

"  TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  GOVERNOR  BROWN,  MARIETTA  : 

"  Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  Excellency's 
letter  of  the  8th  inst. 

"  I  perfectly  understood  the  intentions  of  the  government  in  organizing 
the  force  of  8,000  men  for  home  defence,  but  I  am  obliged  to  conclude  that 
jou  have  misunderstood  me  when  I  admitted  the  right  of  a  State  to  claim 
the  services  of  British  subjects  resident  within  its  limits  for  the  purpose  of 
maintaining  internal  order,  and  even  to  a  limited  extent,  to  defend  the 
places  of  their  residence  against  local  invasion  by  a  foreign  power.  Such 
service  might  be  rendered  by  them  in  the  event  of  a  war  by  a  foreign  power, 
but  not  in  a  civil  war  like  that  which  now  rages  on  this  continent. 

"  Her  Majesty's  government  consider  that  the  plainest  notions  of  reason 
and  justice  forbid  that  a  foreigner  admitted  to  reside  for  peaceful  purposes 
in  a  State  forming  part  of  a  Federal  Union  should  be  compelled  by  that  State 
to  take  an  active  part  in  hostilities  against  other  States  which  when  he  be 
came  a  resident  were  members  of  one  and  the  same  Confederacy.  While 


404  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

acknowledging  the  right  of  the.  State,  under  present  circumstances,  to  the 
services  of  British  subjects  for  patrol  or  police  duty,  Her  Majesty's  govern 
ment  object  to  any  further  extension  of  such  service.  I  have  consequently, 
under  instructions,  felt  myself  compelled  to  advise  those  drafted  to  acquiesce 
in  the  duty  until  they  are  required  to  leave  their  immediate  homes  or  to 
meet  the  United  States  forces  in  actual  conflict ;  in  that  event  to  throw  down 
their  arms  and  refuse  to  render  a  service  the  performance  of  which  would 
run  directly  in  the  teeth  of  Her  Majesty's  proclamation  and  render  them 
liable  to  the  severe  penalties  denounced  against  a  violation  of  the  strict  neu 
trality  so  strongly  insisted  on  in  that  document,  trusting  to  my  interference 
in  their  behalf  with  the  Government  at  Richmond  under  whose'  command 
they  will  be.  In  other  States,  British  subjects  imprisoned  for  following  this 
advice,  have  already  been  discharged  from  custody  and  service  by  order  of 
the  AVar  Department. 

"Your  Excellency  is  pleased  to  inform  me  that  with  the  change  in  the 
political  relations  of  the  country  new  obligations  are  imposed  on  the  subjects 
of  Her  Majesty  resident  in  the  South.  I  do  not  see  why  this  should  be  so 
seeing  that  they,  by  reason  of  their  being  aliens,  had  no  voice  whatever  in 
the  councils  which  brought  about  the  present  state  of  affairs.  With  regard 
to  the  protection  afforded  by  the  State  to  an  alien,  it  appears  to  me  to  extend 
little  beyond  the  safety  of  life,  a  guaranty  which  every  civilized  community 
for  its  own  sake  extends  to  every  sojourner  in  its  midst.  You  need  not  be 
told  that  the  law  of  Georgia  forbids  an  alien  to  hold  certain  kinds  of  prop 
erty  ;  and  I  cannot  see  how  a  thing  can  be  protected  which  is  not  suffered  to 
exist.  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  British  subjects  who  hold  such  property  in 
violation  of  law,  but  I  do  protest  against  the  compulsory  service  in  a  civil 
war  of  those  who  have  never  contravened  the  law  in  this  respect. 

"  It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  the  option  of  leaving  the  country  is  al 
lowed  to  British  subjects  and  that  no  obstacle  will  be  thrown  in  the  way  of 
those  who  prefer  to  do  so  rather  than  violate  the  Queen's  imperative  orders 
by  meeting  in  warfare  the  United  States  forces.  If  compelled  to  take  this 
course,  however,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  the  comity  usually  observed 
between  foreign  States  is  not  very  scrupulously  observed. 

"  I  have  reason  to  know  that  many  who  have  not  hitherto  been  molested, 
are,  in  consequence  of  your  Excellency's  proclamation,  preparing  to  leave,  not 
a  few  among  them  being  mechanics  worth  little  or  no  property,  of  whose  inesti 
mable  services,  at  this  crisis,  the  Confederacy  will  be  deprived.  Am  I  to  un 
derstand  that  those  already  drafted  may  avail  themselves  of  this  alternative? 

"  The  dispatches  which  I  have  received  from  the  British  government  rela 
tive  to  compulsory  service  are  strong.  I  am  instructed  to  remonstrate  in  the 
strongest  terms  against  all  attempts  to  force  British  subjects  to  take  up  arms. 
Should  these  remonstrances  fail,  'the  governments  in  Europe  interested  in 
this  question  will  unite  in  making  such  representations  as  will  secure  to  aliens 
this  desired  exemption.' 


AND  THE  BRITISH  CONSUL.  405 

"It  lias  hitherto  been  in  my  power  to  report  to  Her  Majesty's  government 
that  her  subjects  have  not  been  called  upon  to  take  up  arms  in  this  war.  I 
regret  that  your  Excellency's  decision  makes  it  impossible  to  do  so  hereafter ; 
the  more  so  as  the  course  pursued  contrasts  so  strongly  with  the  conduct  of 
the  United  States  government,  who  have  conceded  the  claim  of  bona  fide 
British  subjects  to  exemption  from  any  military  service  whatever,  and  also 
with  that  of  the  Governors  of  other  Southern  States  who,  upon  representa 
tion,  ordered  the  discharge  of  British  subjects  forcibly  detained  in  service. 
"  I  am,  sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"  A.  FULLARTON,  Acting  Consul." 


"  MARIETTA,  August  26,  1863. 
"  MR.  A.  FULLARTON,  ACTING  CONSUL  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN  : 

*'  Dear  Sir: — In  your  letter  of  the  17th  inst.  now  before  me  you  conclude 
that  I  misunderstood  you  when  you  admitted  the  right  of  the  State  to  claim 
the  services  of  British  subjects  resident  within  its  limits  to  defend,  to  a 
limited  extent,  the  places  of  their  residence  against  local  invasion  by  a  for 
eign  power.  You  are  pleased  to  say  that  such  service  might  be  rendered  by 
them  in  the  event  of  a  war  by  a  'foreign  power,'  but  not  in  a  ciril  war  like 
that  which  now  rages  on  this  continent.  Then  you  still  admit  that,  by  the 
laws  of  nations,  Her  Majesty's  subjects  resident  in  this  State  may  be  com 
pelled  to  render  the  service  now  required;  in  other  words,  to  dt-feud  the 
places  of  their  residence  against  local  invasion  by  a  foreign  power.  And  it 
follows,  you  being  the  judge,  that  the  claim  now  made  upon  Her  Majesty's 
subjects  for  service  is  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  nations,  if  the  Confed 
erate  States,  of  which  Georgia  is  one,  are  at  war  with  a  foreign  power.  But 
in  your  attempt  to  escape  the  just  conclusion  which  results  from  your  ad 
missions  you  virtually  deny  that  the  United  States  is  a  foreign  power  and 
claim  that  Qeorgia  is  still  a  component  part  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States.  You  have  probably  been  influenced  in  your  persistence  in  this  error 
by  the  forbearance  of  the  Government  and  people  of  the  Confederate  States 
in  permitting  Her  Majesty's  consuls  to  remain  among  us  in  the  exercise  of 
the  functions  of  a  position  to  which  they  were  originally  accredited  by  the 
Government'  of  the  United  States.  As  it  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  enter 
into  an  argument  to  convince  you  that  the  United  States  is  a  hostile  power 
foreign  to  Georgia,  I  will  dismiss  this  part  of  the  controversy  with  the  single 
remark,  that  if  your  pretensions  be  correct,  your  appeal  for  the  protection  of 
British  subjects  resident  within  this  State  should  have  been  made  to  the 
Government  at  Washington  and  not  to  me. 

"You  are  pleased  to  inform  me  that  you  have  felt  compelled  to  advise 
those  drafted  to  acquiesce  in  the  duty  until  they  are  required  to  leave  their 
immediate  homes,  or  to  meet  the  United  States  forces  in  actual  conflict— in 
that  event  to  throw  down  their  arms  and  refuse  to  render  a  service,  the  per- 


406  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

formance  of  which  would  run  directly  in  the  teeth  of  Her  Majesty's  procla 
mation,  etc.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  language  you  employ  is  '  to 
leave  their  immediate  homes,  or  to  meet  the  United  St  ites  forces  in  actual 
conflict.'  Your  advice  then  to  British  subjects,  if  I  correctly  understand  it, 
is  that  when  the  United  States  forces  "attack  the  immediate  locality  of  their 
homes  or  their  own  houses,  they  are  not  to  defend  them  as  required  by  the 
laws  of  nations  against  such  local  invasion,  but  they  are  to  throw  down  their 
arms  and  refuse  to  fight  for  the  protection  of  their  domiciles.  In  reply  to 
this,  it  is  my  duty  to  inform  you  that  I  can  neither  be  bound  by  your  pre 
tensions  that  the  United  States  is  not  a  power  foreign  to  Georgia,  nor  can  I 
admit  the  right  of  Her  Majesty  by  proclamation  to  change  the  laws  of 
nations,  and  insist  upon  maintaining  her  subjects  here  and  exempting  them 
from  the  performance  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  them  by  the  laws  of 
nations.  When  the  troops  now  drafted  have  been  turned  over  to  the  govern 
ment  of  the  Confederate  States  to  be  held  in  readiness  to  repel  local  inva 
sion,  if  they  should,  upon  the  approach  of  an  hostile,  force,  follow  your 
advice  and  throw  down  their  arms,  that  government  will  huve  the  power  to 
pardon  for  such  conduct,  or  to  strike  their  names  from  its  muster  rolls  if  it 
chooses  to  do  so  ;  but  if  an  attempt  should  be  made  by  the  enemy  upon  the 
immediate  locality  of  their  homes,  while  I  control  and  command  the  forces 
to  wlrch  they  are  attached,  and  they  should  be  guilty  of  conduct  so  un 
natural  and  unmanly  as  to  throw  down  their  arms  and  refuse  to  defend 
their  domiciles,  they  will  be  promptly  dealt  with  as  citizens  of  this  State  would 
be,  should  they  be  guilty  of  such  dishonorable  delinquency. 

"  In  another  part  of  your  letter  you  take  occasion  to  say  that  you  do  not 
see  why  the  change  in  the  political  relations  of  this  country  has  imposed  new 
obligations  upon  the  subjects  of  Her  Majesty,  as  they  had  no  voice  in  the 
councils  which  brought  about  the  present  state  of  affairs.  With  the  same 
reason  you  might  say  that  you  cannot  see  why  the  laws  of  nations  require 
British  subjects  in  any  case  to  defend  their  domiciles  when  located  in  a  foreign 
country  against  the  local  invasion  of  another  foreign  power  when  they  had 
no  voice  in  the  councils  which  formed  the  government  in  which  they  are  per 
mitted  to  reside.  I  insist  that  British  subjects  resident  within  its  limits, 
though  they  had  no  voice  in  the  formation  of  the  new  government,  owe 
the  same  service  to  it  when  established  which  they  owed  before  its  formation 
to  the  government  whose  power  originally  extended  over  its  territory  and 
embraced  their  homes ;  and  that  they  are  bound  to  conform  their  conduct  to 
the  new  order  of  things  or  to  seek  homes  and  protection  elsewhere. 

"  But  I  am  informed  by  your  letter  that,  with  regard  to  the  protection 
afforded  by  the  State  to  an  alien,  it  appears  to  you  to  extend  little  beyond 
the  safety  of  life.  And  as  the  laws  of  Georgia  forbid  an  alien  to  hold  certain 
kinds  of  property  you  cannot  see  how  a  thing  can  be  protected  which  is  not 
suffered  to  exist. 

"  Upon  the  first  point  I  need  only  remind  you  that  our  courts  are  at  all 


AND  THE  BRITISH  CONSUL.  407 

times  open  to  aliens  belonging  to  friendly  powers  for  the  repress  of  their 
wrongs,  and  that  the  same  protection  is  extended  to  their  persons  and  all  the 
property  they  legally  possess  which  is  enjoyed  by  citizens  of  this  State. 

"I  trust  a  re-examination  of  the  laws  of  your  own  country  would  satisfy 
your  mind  upon  the  other  point,  as  you  will  there  find  that  the  laws  of  Great 
Britain  forbid  an  alien  to  hold  'certain  kinds  of  property,'  and  it  is  the  boast 
of  that  Government  that  it  protects  aliens  who  reside  within  its  jurisdiction. 
The  laws  of  Great  Britain  in  reference  to  the  right  of  aliens  to  hold  certain 
kinds  of  property  while  domiciled  in  that  kingdom  are  certainly  not  more 
liberal  to  the  citizens  of  Georgia  than  the  laws  of  Georgia  are  to  the  subjects 
of  Great  Britain. 

"While  I  am  unable  to  perceive  the  justice  of  your  complaint  in  the  par 
ticulars  last  mentioned,  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  there  is  no  law  of 
nations  or  of  this  State  which  throws  any  obstructions  in  the  way  of  the 
removal  of  any  British  subject  from  the  State  who  is  not  satisfied  with  the 
privileges  and  protection  which  he  enjoys,  you  remind  me,  however,  that  not  a 
few  of  them  are  mechanics,  of  whose  inestimable  services  at  this  crisis  the  Con 
federacy  will  be  deprived  in  case  of  their  removals.  These  mechanics  have 
no  doubt  remained  in  this  State  because  they  felt  it  their  interest  to  remain. 
And  in  reference  to  them  this  State  will  very  cheerfully  adopt  the  rule  which 
generally  controls  the  British  government.  She  will  consult  her  own  interest, 
and  will  exempt  from  military  service  for  local  defence,  such  mechanics  who 
are  aliens  as  choose  to  remain  and  will  be  more  serviceable  in  that  capacity. 

"  I  reply  in  the  affirmative  to  your  inquiry  whether  aliens  already  drafted 
may  avail  themselves  of  the  alternative  of  leaving  the  State  in  preference 
to  rendering  the  service.  While  an  alien  will  not  be  permitted  to  evade  the 
service  by  leaving  the  State  temporarily  during  the  emergency,  and  then 
returning,  his  right  to  leave  permanently  when  he  chooses  will  not  be  ques 
tioned.  I  do  not  insist  that  an  alien  shall  remain  here  to  serve  the  State, 
but  I  contend  that  while  he  chooses  to  remain  under  the  protection  of  the 
State  he  is  bound  by  the  laws  of  nations  and  of  this  State  to  obey  her  call 
to  defend  his  domicile  against  insurrection  or  local  invasion. 

"  This,  I  apprehend,  is  all  that  is  intended  to  be  claimed  by  your  govern 
ment  in  the  instructions  which  you  quote.  While  the  British  government 
has  a  right  to  demand  that  its  subjects  shall  not  be  detained  here  against 
their  will,  and  compelled  to  take  up  arms  on  either  side,  it  certainly  would 
not  place  itself  before  the  world  in  the  false  position  of  insisting  on  the  right 
of  its  subjects  to  remain  in  another  State,  contrary  to  the  the  wish  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  such  State  and  to  be  exempt  from  the  service  which,  by  the 
common  consent  of  nations,  such  State  has  a  right  to  demand. 

"  You  conclude  your  letter  by  informing  me  that  my  decision  contrasts 
strongly  with  the  conduct  of  the  United  States  government,  who  have  con 
ceded  the  claim  of  bona  fide  British  subjects  to  exemption  from  any  military 
service  whatever. 


408  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  GOV.  BROWN 

"  As  the  United  States  government  is  the  invading  party  in  this  war,  and 
can  but  seldom  need  the  services  of  British  subjects  to  defend  their  domiciles, 
which  are  scarcely  ever  subject  to  invasion,  as  it  has  no  right  under  the  laws 
of  nations  to  compel  them  to  bear  arms  in  its  invading  armies,  as  it  is  not 
in  a  condition  to  be  compelled  to  economize  its  supply  of  provisions,  and  as 
it  is  reported  that  it  has,  by  the  use  of  money,  drawn  large  numbers  of  recruits 
for  its  armies  from  the  dominions  of  Her  Majesty,  in  violation  of  the  laws  of 
her  realm,  it  may  well  afford  to  affect  a  pretended  liberality,  which  costs  it 
neither  sacrifice  nor  inconvenience.  But  you  say  that  my  decision  also  con 
trasts  strongly  *  with  that  of  the  Governors  of  other  Southern  States,  who, 
upon  representation,  ordered  the  discharge  of  British  subjects  forcibly 
detained  in  service.'  In  a  former  part  of  your  letter  when  speaking  of  the 
advice  given  to  British  subjects  to  throw  down  their  arms,  in  case  they 
should  be  required  to  meet  the  United  States  forces  in  actual  conflict,  you 
use  this  sentence  :  *  In  other  States  British  subjects  imprisoned  for  following 
this  advice  have  already  been  discharged  from  custody  and  service  by  order 
of  the  War  Department.'  Excuse  me  for  remarking  that  these  two  sen 
tences  contrast  so  strongly  with  each  other  that  I  am  unable  to  understand 
why  it  became  necessary  for  the  War  Department  to  interfere  and  discharge 
British  subjects  imprisoned  in  other  States  for  throwing  down  their  arms 
and  refusing  to  fight,  if  the  Governors  of  those  States  had,  upon  representa 
tion,  in  all  cases  ordered  the  discharge  of  British  subjects  forcibly  detained  in 
service. 

"  Trusting  that  my  position  is  fully  understood  by  you,  and  that  it  may 
not  be  necessary  to  protract  this  discussion,  I  am,  with  high  consideration 

and  esteem, 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  ob't  serv't, 

"  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 


"BRITISH  CONSULATE,   > 

SAVANNAH,  Sept.  12,  1863.  } 

«  TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  GOVERNOR  BROWN,  MARIETTA  : 

«  Sir:— In  your  letter  of  the  26  ult.,  your  Excellency  informed  me  that 
aliens  already  drafted  may  avail  themselves  of  the  alternative  of  leaving 
the  State  in  preference  to  rendering  service.  I  have  now  the  honor,  there 
fore,  to  request  your  Excellency  to  issue  orders  to  your  officers  to  grant  J.  D. 
and  F.  M.  Kiely,  two  drafted  subjects,  residents  of  Rome,  Ga.,  leave  to  quit 
the  State,  and  permission  to  remain  unmolested  in  Rome  30  days  to  settle 
their  affairs  in  that  city. 

"  1  am,  sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"  A.  FULLARTON,  Acting  Consul." 


AND  THE  BRITISH  CONSUL.  409 

"  MARIETTA,  September  14,  1863. 
"MR.  A.  FULLARTON,  ACTING  CONSUL  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN: 

"  Dear  Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  commu 
nication  of  the  12th  inst.,  in  which  you  request  me  to  issue  orders  to  the 
commanding  officers  to  grant  J.  D.  and  F.  M.  Kiely,  two  drafted  British  sub 
jects,  residents  of  Rome,  Ga.,  leave  to  quit  the  State  and  to  remain  unmo 
lested  in  Rome  thirty  days  to  settle  their  affairs  in  that  city.  This  permis 
sion  will  be  cheerfully  granted  upon  the  production  to  me  of  sufficient  evidence 
that  the  persons  named  are  British  subjects. 

"  By  an  ordinance  of  the  convention  of  this  State,  representing  her  people 
and  her  sovereignty,  passed  on  the  16th  day  of  March,  1861,  it  is  declared: 

"'  That  all  white  persons  resident  in  this  State  at  the  time  of  the  secession 
of  the  State  from  the  United  States  with  the  bonaf.de  intention  of  making  it 
the  place  of  their  permanent  abode,  shall  be  considered  as  citizens  of  this 
State  without  reference  to  their  place  of  birth ;  provided,  that  any  person  not 
born  in  this  State  can  exempt  him  or  herself  from  the  operation  of  this 
ordinance  by  a  declaration  in  any  court  of  record  in  the  State,  within  three 
months  from  this  date,  that  he  or  she  does  not  wish  to  be  considered  a  citizen 
of  this  State.' 

"  The  ordinance  of  secession  referred  to  in  the  above  quotation  was  passed 
on  the  19th  day  of  January,  1861. 

"If  the  Messrs.  Kiely  were  resident  in  this  State  on  the  19th  day  of  Jan 
uary,  1861,  and  did  not  file  their  declaration  in  a  court  of  record  in  this  State 
within  three  months  from  the  16th  day  of  March,  1861,  that  they  did  not 
wish  to  become  citizens  of  this  State,  they  accepted  the  privileges  and  obli 
gations  of  citizenship  offered  them  by  the  State  and  ceased  to  be  British  sub 
jects,  and  are  consequently  not  entitled  to  the  leave  to  quit  the  State  for 
which  you  ask  under  my  letter  of  26th  ult.  If,  however,  they  became  resi 
dents  of  this  State  at  any  time  since  the  19th  day  of  January,  1861,  or,  if 
they  were  then  residents  and  filed  their  declaration  as  required  by  the  ordi 
nance,  within  three  months  after  the  16th  day  of  March,  1861,  they  will  be 
allowed  the  thirty  days  to  arrange  their  affairs  as  you  request,  and  permitted 
to  depart  from  the  State  at  the  expiration  of  that  term. 

"With  high  consideration,  I  am,  very  respectfully, 
"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWX." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

The  surrender  of  the  Confederate  armies,  and  conse 
quently  the  forces  of  this  State ;  the  arrest  and  imprison 
ment  of  the  Governor,  and  consequent  cessation  of  all 
civil  authority ;  and  the  substitution  of  military  govern 
ment  over  the  State  for  the  time  being, — left  the  people 
without  government  or  legal  protection,  except  the  will 
of  local  military  commanders  and  their  subalterns. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
had  been  assassinated.  The  Vice-President,  Andrew  John 
son  of  Tennessee — a  southern  Democrat,  who  had  joined 
our  enemies  in  the  struggle — was  by  that  sudden,  ill-ad 
vised,  and  unfortunate  murder,  invested  with  the  execu 
tive  power  of  the  Union,  just  as  the  last,  expiring  efforts 
of  the  remnant  of  Confederate  powers  were  being  made, 
and  as  the  banners  that  had  waved  so  often  in  triumph 
were  being  lowered,  never  to  rise  again. 

President  Johnson  had  been  selected  from  the  South, 
while  hostilities  were  progressing,  and  given  the  second 
office  of  honor  in  the  Union,  as  a  reward  of  his  fidelity  to 
the  Union,  and  opposition  to  his  own  State  and  to  the 
South,  and  his  supposed  power  of  disintegration  and  di 
vision  among  our  own  people.  When  the  executive 
power  was  thus  suddenly  devolved  on  him,  he  chose  to 
follow  the  policy  that  gave  him  power,  by  conferring 
power  and  honor  on  men  who  had  stood  opposed  to  our 
cause.  He  selected  and  appointed  as  provisional  governor 
of  Georgia,  Honorable  James  Johnson  of  Columbus,  Geor- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  411 

gia — a  man  of  integrity  and  ability,  thoroughly  identified 
with  the  President  and  Congress  in  the  plans  of  recon 
struction,  acting  under  instructions  from  President  John 
son,  as  proclaimed  by  him. 

He  required  a  convention  of  the  State,  of  delegates 
elected  by  the  people.  Which  body  was  elected,  and  met 
under  his  proclamation  at  Milledgeville,  on  the  28th  Octo 
ber,  1865,  composed  of  two  hundred  and  eighty-five  dele 
gates,  representing  the  integrity,  virtue,  intelligence,  and 
patriotism  of  every  part  of  the  State.  There  were  many 
men  of  prominence  in  the  State,  and  some  who  had  been 
prominent  in  the  Confederate  government,  and  a  large 
number  who  had  held  responsible  and  honorable  places  in 
our  armies.  Many  of  them  have  been  honored  by  high 
civil  commissions  since. 

Honorable  Charles  J.  Jenkins,  a  justice  of  the  State  su 
preme  court  for  several  years  past,  under  the  appoint 
ment  of  Governor  Brown,  a  delegate  from  Richmond 
county,  was  proposed  as  the  president  of  the  convention. 
He  declined  in  favor  of  Ex-Governor  Herschel  V.  Johnson, 
a  delegate  from  Jefferson  county,  who  was  elected,  and 
presided  with  great  dignity,  and  after  a  session  of  fifteen 
days,  on  retiring,  delivered  to  the  convention  an  address 
abounding  in  wisdom,  prudence,  and  patriotism,  which  was 
extensively  published  with  good  effect  upon  the  people. 

Mr.  Jenkins  was  made  chairman  of  a  committee  of  six 
teen,  to  report  business  for  the  convention ;  and  on  the 
succeeding  day  reported — and  which  was  unanimously 
adopted : 

AN  ORDINANCE 

"  To  repeal  certain  ordinances  and  resolutions  therein  mentioned,  hereto 
fore  passed  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  Georgia  in  convention. 

"  We,  the  People  of  the  State  of  Georgia  in  Convention,  at  our  seat  of  Gov 
ernment,  do  declare  and  ordain,  That  an  ordinance  adopted  by  the  same 


412  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

people,  in  convention,  on  the  nineteenth  day  of  January,  A.  D.  eighteen  hun 
dred  and  sixty-one,  entitled  '  An  ordinance  to  dissolve  the  union  between  the 
State  of  Georgia  and  other  States  united  with  her  under  a  compact  of  govern 
ment  entitled  "the  constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America"  ' ;  also  an  or 
dinance,  adopted  by  the  same  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  March  in  the  year  last 
aforesaid,  entitled  '  An  ordinance  to  adopt  and  ratify  the  constitution  of  the 
Confederate  States  of  America';  and  also  all  ordinances  and  resolutions  of 
the  same,  adopted  between  the  sixteenth  day  of  January  and  the  twenty- 
fourth  day  of  March,  in  the  year  aforesaid,  subversive  of,  or  antagonistic  to, 
the  civil  and  military  authority  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  under  the  constitution  thereof,  be,  and  the  same  are  hereby  re 
pealed." 

He  also  reported  from  day  to  day  the  constitution  of 
the  State,  as  its  parts  were  framed  and  agreed  on  by  the 
committee,  made  to  conform  to  the  new  state  of  affairs, 
embodying  in  the  main  the  old  constitution,  which  was 
adopted,  but  which,  as  will  appear,  was  superseded  by 
another  State  constitution  in  1868. 

This  convention  adopted  many  ordinances  suited  to 
the  emergencies. 

There  was  one  which  gave  the  courts  employment  for 
several  years : — 

AN  ORDINANCE 

"  To  make  valid  private  contracts  entered  into  and  executed  during  the 
war  against  the  United  States,  and  to  authorize  the  courts  of  this  State  to  ad 
just  the  equities  between  parties  to  contracts  made  but  not  executed,  and  to 
authorize  settlements  of  such  contracts  by  persons  acting  in  a  fiduciary  char 
acter." 

Another,  which  swept  away  at  a  single  stroke  a  large 
portion  of  the  remnant  of  many  private  fortunes : 

AN  ORDINANCE 

"  To  render  null  and  void  all  debts  of  this  State  created  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  on  the  late  war  against  the  United  States. 

"Be  it  ordained  by  the  people  of  Georgia,  in  convention  assembled,  That 
all  debts  contracted  or  incurred  by  the  State  of  Georgia,  either  as  a  separate 
State,  or  as  a  member  of  the  late  partnership  or  confederacy  of  States,  styled 
the  Confederate  States  of  America,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  late 


KECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  413 

war  of  secession  against  the  United  States  of  America,  or  for  the  purpose  of 
aiding,  abetting,  or  promoting  said  war  in  any  way,  directly  or  indirectly,  be, 
and  the  same  are  hereby  declared  null  and  void;  and  the  Legislature  is 
hereby  prohibited  forever  from,  in  any  way,  acknowledging  or  paying  said 
debts,  or  any  part  thereof,  or  from  passing  any  law  for  that  purpose,  or  to  se 
cure  or  provide  for  the  said  debts,  or  any  part  thereof,  by  any  appropriation 
of  money,  property,  stocks,  funds,  or  assets  of  any  kind  to  that  object." 

The  debt  of  the  State  when  the  war  began  was  $2,667,- 
750.  This  had  been  increased  $18,135,775,  during  the 
existence  of  the  war ;  which  sum  was  rendered  null  and 
void  by  this  ordinance,  consisting  in  the  currency  and 
bonds  of  the  State  issued  by  her  authority,  and  in  which 
a  large  amount  of  anti-war  securities  had  been  invested. 

This  course,  however,  seemed  an  absolute  necessity  on 
the  part  of  the  convention.  Provisional  Governor  John 
son  had  strongly  urged  it  in  his  message ;  and  in  order  to 
put  the  terms  of  reconstruction  beyond  debate  upon  this 
point,  he  communicated  the  telegrams  from  Washington 
as  follows:  — 

"  WASHINGTON,  October  28. 
"TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  JAMES  E.  JOHNSON: 

"  Your  several  telegrams  have  been  received.  The  President  of  the  United 
States  cannot  recognize  the  people  of  any  State  as  having  resumed  the  rela 
tions  of  loyalty  to  the  Union  that  admits,  as  legal  obligations,  contracts  or 
debts  created  on  them  to  promote  the  war  of  the  rebellion. 

(Signed)  "WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD. 

"Received  at  Milledgeville,  October  29,  1865,  by  telegraph  from  Washing 
ton,  28th." 

"TO  GOVERNOR  JOHNSON: 

"  Your  dispatch  has  been  received.  The  people  of  Georgia  should  not 
hesitate  one  single  moment  repudiating  every  single  dollar  of  debt  created 
for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  rebellion  against  the  government  of  the  United 
States.  It  will  not  do  to  levy  and  collect  taxes  from  a  State  and  people  that 
are  loyal  and  in  the  Union,  to  pay  a  debt  that  was  created  to  aid  in  taking 
them  out,  thereby  subverting  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  do 
not  believe  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  when  left 
uninfluenced,  will  ever  submit  to  the  payment  of  a  debt  which  was  the  main 


414  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

cause  of  bringing  on  their  past  and  present  Buffering,  the  result  of  the  rebel 
lion.  They  who  vested  their  capital  in  creation  of  this  debt  must  meet  their 
fate,  and  take  it  as  one  of  the  inevitable  .results  of  the  rebellion,  though  it 
may  seem  hard  to  them.  It  should  at  once  be  made  known  at  home  and 
abroad,  that  no  debt  contracted  for  the  purpose  of  dissolving  the  union  of 
the  States,  can  or  will  be  paid  by  taxes  levied  on  the  people  for  such  pur 
poses." 

(Signed)  "ANDREW  JOHNSON, 

"  President  U.  S." 

By  which  it  appears,  that  whatever  legal  or  moral  ob 
jections  the  representatives  of  the  people  had  to  the  repu 
diation  of  the  State's  war  debt,  in  their  subjugated  condi 
tion,  they  had  no  choice  in  the  matter. 

The  convention  incorporated  in  the  constitution  of 
the  State  the  following  clause,  which  explains  itself,  upon 
the  subject  of 

THE  ABOLITION  OF  SLAVERY. 

"  20.  The  Government  of  the  United  States  having,  as  a  war  measure, 
proclaimed  all  slaves  held  or  owned  in  this  State,  emancipated  from  slavery, 
and  having  carried  that  proclamation  into  full  practical  effect,  there  shall 
henceforth  be,  within  the  State  of  Georgia,  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude,  save  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  after  legal  conviction  thereof; 
Provided,  this  acquiescence  in  the  action  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  not  intended  to  operate  'as  a  relinquishment,  waiver,  or  estoppel 
of  such  claim  for  compensation  of  loss  sustained  by  reason  of  the  emancipa 
tion  of  his  slaves,  as  any  citizen  of  Georgia  may  hereafter  make  upon  the 
justice  and  magnanimity  of  that  Government." 

At  the  time  this  constitution  was  framed,  with  the 
above  clause  in  it,  the  idea  of  African  slavery  in  this 
country  was  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  freedom  of  the 
black  race  had  been  proclaimed  by  the  military  author 
ity  on  the  surrender  of  the  Confederate  armies,  and  the 
occupation  of  the  country  by  Federal  officers,  supported 
by  Federal  troops  and  guards ;  and  for  a  period  of  five 
or  six  months  all  the  slaves  of  the  State  had  been  in  a 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  415 

state  of  actual  freedom.  No  slave-owner  pretended  to 
exercise  or  claim  any  authority  over  his  former  slaves, 
except  such  as  employer  had  over  employee.  It  is  a 
noteworthy  fact  that  in  very  many  cases  the  freed 
negroes  did  not  feel  satisfied  to  remain,  for  wages,  with 
their  former  masters ;  but,  as  an  act  of  freedom,  they 
seemed  to  prefer  to  contract  with  and  hire  themselves  to 
other  persons  than  their  former  owners,  and  to  transfer 
the  lifelong  allegiance,  subservience,  obedience,  and  con 
fidence  to  and  in  their  old  masters,  to  Federal  officers 
and  agents ;  which  allegiance  and  confidence  were  neces 
sarily  of  short  duration. 

At  an  election  under  the  provisions  of  this  constitution 
Hon.  Charles  J.  Jenkins  was  elected  governor  without 
opposition,  and  a  Legislature  chosen,  which  assembled  on 
the  4th  of  December,  at  Milledgeville,  under  the  auspices 
of  Provisional  Governor  Johnson.  This  legislative  body 
was  composed,  like  the  convention  had  been,  of  the  good 
and  true  men  of  the  State,  who  were  the  representatives 
of  the  white  race. 

The  retiring  provisional  Governor  in  his  message  sub 
mitted  the  13th  Constitutional  Amendment  formally  pro 
hibiting  slavery  then  already  abolished  by  military  power, 
and  later  by  the  State  Constitutional  Convention  elected 
by  only  white  voters.  The  General  Assembly  ratified 
the  Amendment. 

The  provisional  Governor  continued  to  exercise  the 
duties  of  governor  for  several  days,  notwithstanding, 
under  his  authority  and  direction,  the  people  had  elected 
a  governor,  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  representa 
tives  in  Congress. 

On  the  12th  of  December  the  provisional  Governor 
made  to  the  Legislature  the  following  communication, 


416  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

which  is  here  recorded,  as  a  relic  of  those  extraordinary 

times : 

"EXECUTIVE  OFFICE,) 
MILLEDGEVILLE,  GA.,  Dec.  12,  1865.      ) 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives : 

"I  received  this  morning  a  telegram  from  His  Excellency,  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith  transmitted. 

"J.  JOHNSON, 

"  Governor." 


[COPY   TELEGRAM.] 

vv 

DECEMBER  11,  1865 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  > 


"J.  JOHNSON,  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNOR: 

"  The  Governor  elect  will  be  inaugurated,  which  will  not  interfere  with  you 
as  Provisional  Governor.  You  will  receive  instructions  in  a  few  days  in 
regard  to  being  relieved  as  Provisional  Governor. 

"  Why  can't  you  be  elected  as  Senator?  1  would  issue  no  commissions  for 
members  of  Congress.  Leave  that  for  the  incoming  Governor. 

"  We  are  under  many  obligations  to  you  for  the  noble,  efficient  and  patriotic 
manner  in  which  you  have  discharged  the  duties  of  Provisional  Governor, 
and  will  be  sustained  by  the  Government. 

(Signed)  "ANDREW  JOHNSON, 

"  President  U.  S." 

On  the  14th  of  December  Mr.  Jenkins  was  inaugu 
rated,  and  entered  on  the  duties  of  his  office  with  the  full 
confidence  of  the  people  of  all  the  former  political  par 
ties,  now  united  in  a  common  purpose  of  political  re 
union  and  restoration,  and  the  recuperation  of  the  State 
and  people  from  the  waste  and  desolation  of  war.  His 
inaugural  address  is  characteristic  of  the  great  good  man, 
who  had  opposed  secession,  and,  in  fidelity  to  his  State 
and  section,  yielded,  like  many  others,  a  hearty  co-opera 
tion  in  the  now  lost  cause  of  Southern  independence.  It 
contained  a  thorough  and  truthful  presentation  of  the 
situation  of  this  State,  and  of  her  relations  to  the  Gov 
ernment  and  her  constitutional  obligations,  exerting 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

everywhere  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  minds  of  the 
Southern  people. 

This  General  Assembly  elected  Hon.  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,  late  vice-president  of  the  Confederate  States, 
and  Hon.  Ilerschel  V.  Johnson,  late  Confederate  States 
senator,  as  United  States  senators  for  Georgia.  But  the 
senators,  like  the  representatives  elected  by  the  people, 
failed  to  obtain  seats  in  Congress. 

In  consequence  of  ill-natured  as  well  as  unfounded 
criticisms  and  rumors  of  speculation,  peculation,  fraud, 
and  mismanagement  of  the  State's  finances  and  the 
public  property  and  assets  during  the  war,  the  Constitu 
tional  Convention  of  the  State,  assembled  under  the 
authority  of  James  Johnson,  provisional  governor  of 
Georgia,  on  the  25th  of  October,  1865,  recommended 
him  to  appoint  a  special  committee  to  make  a  "thorough 
examination  and  investigation  of  the  financial  operations 
of  the  State,  from  1st  January,  1861,  to  that  time,  and  re 
port  the 'result  of  such  investigation  to  the  Legislature." 

That  committee  was  composed  of  Hon.  Thos.  P.  Saffold, 
Hon.  Chas.  S.  Jordan,  Jr.,  and  Hon.  0.  H.  Lochrane,  who 
made  their  report  February  22,  L866,  to  Gov.  Jenkins 
— who  had  been  elected  and  installed — and  to  the  Legis 
lature,  embodying  all  the  evidence  elicited  in  three 
months  of  patient  and  persistent  effort  to  bring  to  light 
everything  that  had  been  pointed  to  or  suggested  as  a 
foundation  for  the  matters  in  hand. 

The  committee  published  notice  of  their  session  in  all 
the  journals  of  the  State,  inviting  all  persons  to  come 
forward  and  give  evidence  who  knew  anything  to  support 
the  charges  or  insinuations,  and  sent  for  and  examined  all 
the  persons  in  reach  who  had  been  referred  to  for  the 
verification  of  the  suspicions.  The  committee  say : — 


418  KECONSTKUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.. 

& 

"We  have  invited  every  one  who  knew  anything 
that  would  throw  light  upon  the  investigation,  to  come 
and  tell  it ;  written  letters  to  individuals  who  were  said 
to  be  in  possession  of  facts  ;  sifted  testimony,  and  exam 
ined  the  books,  accounts,  and  vouchers  of  public  agents 
and  officials,  as  well  as  their  private  affairs, — and  feel 
assured  an  examination  of  evidence  on  file  in  the  execu 
tive  office  and  the  exhibits  hereto  attached  will  fully 
sustain  the  conclusions  at  which  we  have  arrived." 

A  tabular  statement  annexed  accounts  for  every  bale 
of  cotton  purchased,  and  shows  what  went  with  it. 

The  committee  say  : — 

"  Our  conclusion  is,  after  the  most  rigid  scrutiny  into 
the  public  and  private  affairs  of  these  officers,  from  Gov 
ernor  Brown  down,  that  no  one  of  these  rumors  has  been 
sustained  by  the  slightest  proof.  Instead  of  fortunes 
having  been  made  by  them,  we  have  found  them  gener 
ally  poorer  than  when  they  went  into  office. 

"  In  relation  to  the  financial  operations  of  the  commis 
sary-general,  Col.  Jared  I.  Whitaker,  we  report,  after 
examining  his  statements  as  to  his  acts,  official  and  pri 
vate,  we  found  his  report  to  the  Legislature  heretofore 
made  to  be  strictly  accurate.  He  accounts  for  every 
dollar  received  by  him;  and  by  his  final  report  attached, 
marked  A  and  B,  exhibits  a  fidelity  and  accuracy  which 
met  our  commendation.  The  fullest  investigation  ren 
ders  it  just  to  him,  as  he  has  been  assailed,  to  say  that 
we  feel  confident  no  man  could  have  been  selected  who 
would  have  discharged  the  trusts  of  his  office  more  ably 
and  faithfully. 

"  In  the  examination  of  books  and  vouchers  of  the 
quartermaster-general,  Col.  Ira  R.  Foster,  we  found  that 
he  had  fully  accounted  for  the  moneys  received  by  him ; 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  419 

that  his  duties  were  performed  with  great  zeal  and  in 
dustry  ;  and  his  report  up  to  date  hereto  attached, 
marked  C,  exhibits  the  accuracy  with  which  his  accounts 
with  the  State  were  kept." 

Public  criticisms  were  freely  indulged  to  the  effect  that 
the  Governor  had  been  a  partner  with  E.  Waitzfelder  &  Co. 
in  blockade  running,  and  in  the  Milledgeville  Manufact 
uring  Company,  and  had  used  public  funds  in  private 
speculations.  Upon  these  and  similar  groundless  charges 
the  committee  subjected  him  to  a  rigid  examination. 
His  answer  as  then  recorded  and  published,  and  to  which, 
after  a  period  of  fourteen  years  and  through  the  mutations 
of  parties  and  the  heat  of  antagonism,  no  one  has  ever 
published  or  otherwise  uttered  a  contradiction,  states  : — 

That  he  was  never  a  public  or  private  partner  of  the 
firm  of  E.  Waitzfelder  &  Co. ;  that  he  did  not  now  own 
and  never  did  at  any  time  own  a  dollar  of  the  stock  of 
the  Milledgeville  Manufacturing  Co. ;  that  he  had  used  no 
funds  belonging  to  the  State  in  his  private  transactions, 
and  that  he  knew  of  no  such  use  of  the  State  funds  by 
any  officer  of  the  State  ;  that  he  had  purchased  the  two 
plantations  which  he  owned  in  southwest  Georgia  and 
paid  for  them  in  Confederate  money  when  the  deprecia 
tion  was  very  great  upon  it ;  that  the  Confederate  notes 
he  gave  for  them  cost  him  but  a  few  thousand  dollars  in 
gold  assets  ;  that  part  of  these  assets  he  inherited  in  right 
of  his  wife  and  children  from  the  estate  of  his  father-in-law 
of  which  he  was  executor,  and  part  he  had  in  railroad 
bonds  when  the  war  began ;  that  he  invested  in  land  be 
cause  he  thought  it  safest ;  that  a  large  portion  of  what 
he  now  owned  was  in  land  and  his  city  property  in  At 
lanta. 

As  much  had  been  said  about  the  large  fortune  he 


420  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

had  made  during  the  war,  he  would  state  that  he  would 
now  take  in  gold,  first  deducting  his  indebtedness,  ten 
thousand  dollars  less  for  all  he  possessed  when  the 
war  ended  than  his  estate,  including  assets  in  his  hands 
as  executor,  which  belonged  to  him  in  right  of  his  wife 
and  to  his  children,  was  worth  the  first  year  of  the  war. 

In  view  of  the  official  ppsitions  held  by  the  Governor 
and  his  subordinates  representing  the  integrity  of  the 
-State  in  her  public  administration,  these  matters  are  re 
garded  of  sufficient  moment  to  be  thus  published,  not 
only  as  a  vindication  of  the  State  and  these  men  who 
retired  to  pursue  their  avocations,  but  to  give  full  oppor 
tunity  to  all  who  may  cherish  malice  against  any  of  them 
to  make  such  assaults  against  them  while  in  life  as  they 
ever  intend  to  make  as  to  any  such  matters. 

The  period  of  reconstruction  tested  the  firmness  as 
well  as  judgment  of  men  in  position  to  control  public 
opinion  and  give  direction  to  public  action.  Prior  to  the 
war,  in  the  face  of  aggression,  insult,  injury,  and  threatened 
war  and  subjugation,  Joseph  E.  Brown,  Governor  of  this 
State,  favored  most  of  the  means  proposed  to  arrest  aggres 
sion,  and  in  the  last  resort  secession  and  its  terrible  con 
sequences  of  war  as  an  alternative  to  submission  and  the 
overthrow  of  the  constitutional  theory  of  republican 
government.  Governor  Jenkins,  a  man  of  cool  judgment 
and  large  experience,  then  in  private  life,  while  he  depre 
cated  the  injuries  and  loathed  the  spirit  of  Northern  ag 
gressions,  was  steadily  opposed  to  secession,  and  favored 
the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

Now,  occupying  the  office  of  Governor  by  the  unani 
mous  suffrage  of  the  white  people  of  a  great  but  con 
quered  State,  he  was  inflexibly  opposed  to  the  ratification 
by  the  Legislature  of  the  14th  Constitutional  Amendment, 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  421 

making  all  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United 
States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  citizens  of 
the  United  States  and  of  the  State  in  which  they  reside ; 
apportioning  representatives  among  the  States  according 
to  numbers ;  imposing  disabilities  as  to  holding  office  on 
all  who  had  held  office  and  taken  the  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  afterwards  en 
gaged  in  the  rebellion  •  declaring  the  validity  of  the  pub 
lic  debt  of  the  United  States,  and  prohibiting  the  United 
States  or  any  State  from  assuming  or  paying  any 
debt  or  obligation  incurred  in  aid  of  insurrection  or  re 
bellion  against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for  the 
loss  or  emancipation  of  any  slave,  declaring  all  such  debts, 
obligations,  and  claims  illegal  and  void ;  and  authorizing 
Congress  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  amendment  by 
appropriate  legislation. 

Analyzing  this  amendment  in  his  message  in  his  usual 
able  and  elegant  style,  he  concludes  as  follows : — 

"  I  ask  you  to  consider,  however,  why  it  is  that  you  are  called  upon  to 
vote  upon  its  adoption,  whilst  your  State  had  no  voice  in  its  preparation. 
The  Constitution  secures  to  the  States  the  one  right  as  distinctly  and  as 
positively  as  the  other.  Had  your  Representatives,  and  those  of  other  States 
similarly  situated,  been  present,  aiding  in  giving  substance  and  form  to  it, 
possibly  it  might  have  come  before  you  a  less  odious  thing.  The  policy 
seems  to  have  been,  first  to  push  it,  without  their  participation,  beyond  the. 
stage  of  amendment,  and  then  say  to  them,  accept  our  bantling  or  take  the 
consequences.  The  omission  of  any  material  part  of  the  process  of  amend 
ment  makes  the  amendment  itself  unconstitutional,  null,  and  void. 

"  Should  the  States  especially  to  be  affected  by  this  amendment  refuse 
their  assent  to  it,  it  cannot  be  adopted  without  excluding  them  from  the 
count  and  placing  its  ratification  upon  the  votes  of  three-fourths  of  the  now 
dominant  States. 

"  It  is  said,  however,  that  unless  this  concession  be  made,  the  now  ex 
cluded  States  will  be  kept  out  of  the  halls  of  Congress  indefinitely.  Were 
the  amendment  presented  with  such  a  menace  distinctly  expressed,  a  higher 
motive  (if  possible)  than  any  hitherto  suggested  would  prompt  its  rejection. 

"  At  the  termination  of  hostilities  it  was  right  and  proper  that   the  pre- 


422  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

viously  resisting  States  should,  in  the  most  unequivocal  and  formal  manner, 
abandon  such  resistance — should  rescind  all  they  had  done  in  ant.igcnism 
to,  and  do  whatever  was  necessary  and  proper  to  place  themselves  in  consti 
tutional  relation  with,  that  Government.  All  this,  we  believe,  Georgia  has 
done.  Beyond  this,  in  acting  upon  any  proposed  change  in  the  fundamental 
law,  even  in  this  critical  juncture,  my  advice  is  that  her  legislators  act  with 
the  same  intelligent  judgment  and  the  same  unflinching  firmness  that  they 
would  have  exercised  in  the  past,  or  would  exercise  in  the  future,  when  in 
full  connection  and  unambiguous  position.  Any  other  rule  of  action  may 
involve  sacrifices  of  interest  and  of  principle  which  magnanimity  would  not 
exact  and  self-respect  could  not  make. 

"  To  submit  to  injurious  changes  in  the  Constitution,  when  forced  upon  a 
State,  according  to  the  forms  prescribed  for  its  amendment,  would  be  one 
thing;  to  participate  in  making  them,  under  duress,  against  her  sense  of 
right  and  justice,  would  be  a  very  different  thing.  The  difference,  in  prin 
ciple,  is  as  broad  as  that  which  distinguishes  martyrdom  from  suicide.  Far 
better  calmly  await  a  returning  sense  of  justice,  and  a  consequent  reflux  of 
the  tide  now  running  strongly  against  us." 

This  message  was  a  reflex  of  the  judgment  and  feeling 
of  a  very  large  majority  at  that  time  of  the  white  people 
of  this  State. 

The  subject  underwent  a  critical  examination  by  an 
able  joint  committee  of  the  Senate  and  House  on  the 
state  of  the  Republic,  who  made  an  exhaustive  argu 
ment  in  reporting  against  the  amendment,  which  was 
rejected  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote. 

Then  the  difficulties,  complications,  and  delays  of  re 
construction  began  to  be  seen  and  realized  by  the  people, 
who  felt  and  believed  they  had  a  right  to  a  voice  in  the 
establishment  of  the  terms  and  conditions  of  their  resto 
ration  to  the  Union;  and  that  the  United  States,  in  the 
legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  departments,  were 
bound  by  all  constitutional  checks  and  prohibitions;  and 
that  the  people  of  the  conquered  States  were  by  the 
terms  of  the  surrender  reinvested  with  all  the  rights, 
privileges,  and  immunities  to  which,  as  citizens  of  the 
State  and  of  the  United  States,  they  were  entitled  before 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  423 

secession,  war,  and  subjugation  took  place.  This  doctrine 
was  in  accordance  with  the  public  sense  of  justice  and 
right,  in  harmony  with  public  passion  and  pride  in  having 
surrendered  to  the  Government,  and  given  up  slaves, 
repudiated  their  war  debt,  and  unconditionally  acknowl 
edged  allegiance  to  the  Union.  In  their  subjugated 
state,  mortified  by  defeat,  exasperated  by  the  exercise  of 
military  power  in  lieu  of  civil  government,  they  were 
ready  to  heed  the  advice  and  counsel  of  the  statesmen 
and  the  leading  news  and  political  journals,  which  fixed 
limits  and  bounds  to  the  exercise  of  power,  and  which 
sought  to  enforce  the  guaranties  of  civil  organic  law. 
The  intelligent  people  of  the  conquered  South  viewed 
themselves  from  a  different  standpoint  and  measured 
their  rights  by  a  different  standard — from  the  standpoint 
and  standard  of  the  leading  minds  of  the  Government 
whose  dominion  and  power  had  been  re-asserted  over 
them.  The  people  here  regarded  the  restoration  of  Fed 
eral  power,  and  the  submission  and  obedience  and  loyalty 
of  the  States  lately  at  war  with  the  Government,  as  the 
full  and  complete  consummation  of  all  the  objects  and 
aims  of  the  war ;  and  considered  that  the  Government 
should  demand  no  more,  and  that  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  States  and  people  of  the  South  should  be 
regarded  and  protected  as  a  matter  of  right  on  their 
part,  and  of  duty  on  the  part  of  the  Government.  They 
were  not  prepared  in  judgment  or  sentiment  to  realize 
the  wisdom  or  the  policy,  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  in  changing  the  organic  law  of  the  Union  so  as 
to  invest  the  liberated  black  race  with  full  legal,  political, 
and  civil  rights  and  immunities  as  a  sequence  of  emanci 
pation,  and  in  the  enactment  of  laws  to  enforce  those 
alleged  rights.  And  whosoever  advised  in  accordance 


424  KECONSTKUCTION  OF  GEOKGIA. 

with  the  well-defined  public  opinion  and  sentiment  had 
the  ear  and  the  approval  of  the  people  ;  and,  as  a  natural 
sequence,  whosoever  advised  the  contrary  had  the  dis 
favor  and  negative  of  the  great  majority  of  people,  and 
if  he  were  a  Southern  man  he  incurred  more  or  less  of 
public  odium  and  denunciation. 

Most  of  the  old  leaders  of  parties  in  this  State,  whether 
they  had  originally  favored  secession  or  opposed  it  as  a 
remedy  for  acknowledged  wrongs,  and  the  men  of  the 
State  who  had  become  prominent  in  the  civil  department, 
and  those  whom  military  career  had  made  prominent  and 
influential,  were  open  in  opposition  to  the  proposed 
organic  changes  in  the  government,  and  to  accepting 
voluntarily  the  new  order  of  things  so  far  as  were  neces 
sarily  the  results  of  these  changes. 

Some  who  had  opposed  secession,  such  as  Governor 
Jenkins,  Herschel  V.  Johnson,  Mr.  Benj.  H.  Hill,  and  Mr. 
Stephens,  sympathized  in  this  prevailing  sentiment  and 
openly  avowed  their  opposition,  and  cordially  co-operated 
in  this  opposition  with  General  Toombs,  General  Cobb, 
and  most  of  the  old  and  new  leaders  of  the  State. 

On  the  contrary,  a  few  who  had  opposed  secession 
favored  accepting  the  terms  of  reunion  and  reconstruction 
offered  by  the  General  Government.  And  a  few  who  had 
favored  the  policy,  and  advocated  the  principles  and 
opinions  that  led  to  secession,  advocated  prompt  separa 
tion  and  the  united  effort  to  establish  Southern  independ 
ence,  and  used  all  their  powers  and  energies  to  maintain 
the  military  and  civil  authority  of  the  Confederate  Gov 
ernment,  now  that  the  cause  had  finally  and  hopelessly 
failed, — the  new  Confederacy  being  effectually  over 
thrown,  its  forces  disarmed  and  scattered,  and  the  power 
and  authority  of  the  United  States  fully  established  over 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  425 

and  recognized  and  obeyed  by  the  whole  Southern  people 
who  had  been  at  war  with  the  Federal  Government,  and 
all  fully  recognizing  themselves  as  a  conquered  people, — 
as  a  matter  not  of  right  and  justice  abstractly  considered, 
or  as  a  voluntary  choice,  but  of  wisdom  and  prudence, 
and  as  the  speediest  and  safest  method  of  securing  peace 
to  the  people  and  protection  to  life,  liberty,  property, 
and  to  the  civil  and  legal  rights  and  amenities  of  the 
people  in  their  diversified  and  numerous  forms  and  rela 
tions,  favored  the  prompt  and  unconditional  acceptance 
of  all  the  positive  and  imperative  terms  dictated  by  the 
conquering  power.  The  proposed  amendments  and  their 
legal  and  logical  sequences,  which  the  conquered  States 
had  no  power  to  resist,  were  among  those  terms,  and,  for 
the  reasons  stated,  their  ratification  by  the  State  waa 
openly  urged  upon  the  people. 

Conspicuous  and  prominent  among  this  few  was  the 
displaced  governor  of  Georgia,  Joseph  E.  Brown,  upon 
whose  head  the  vials  of  wrath  from  his  former  foes  and 
friends,  with  only  a  few  exceptions,  and  from  almost  the 
whole  political  press  of  the  South,  were  poured  out  with 
relentless  fury. 

His  star  had  been  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  political 
firmament,  respected  for  its  brilliancy  and  power  even  by 
the  political  foes  who  did  not  profess  to  walk  by  its  light. 
But  now,  from  thousands  of  lips,  and  the  teeming  columns 
of  the  conquered,  resentful,  and  still  rebellious  press,  the  • 
tidings  and  accusations  were  sent  forth,  were  echoed  and 
reverberated  from  hill  to  dale,  and  from  mountain  to  sea 
board,  that  "  Joe  Brown,"  to  save  his  own  neck  from  the 
hangman's  halter  for  his  alleged  treason  in  resisting  Fed 
eral  authority  and  seizing  the  arsenal  and  forts  prior  to 
secession  and  while  Georgia  acknowledged  allegiance  to 


426  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

the  Union,  and  to  save  his  own  property  from  confiscation, 
had  turned  his  back  upon  his  own  country,  betrayed  the 
people  that  had  honored  and  raised  him  to  influence  and 
official  power,  whom  he  had  aided  in  leading  into  seces 
sion,  war,  and  to  its  direful  and  disastrous  consequences ; 
and  now,  to  save  himself  and  protect  his  own  accumula 
tions,  he  had  joined  our  enemies  and  made  common  cause 
with  them,  in  perfecting  and  completing  our  humiliation 
and  dishonor. 

It  is  necessary  to  have  lived  in  those  times  to  realize 
the  magic  power  and  widespread  influence  of  such  pas 
sionate  and  unfounded  clamor,  and  their  effect  upon  the 
popular  mind  and  heart,  and  the  accumulated  weight  of 
public  odium  that  gathered  around  the  name  and  charac 
ter  of  Georgia's  formerly  honored  and  idolized  chief.  His 
name,  so  potent  and  magical  up  to  this  terrible  test  of  his 
fidelity  to  his  own  accusing  people,  became  a  synonym  of 
perfidy,  treachery,  and  selfishness,  *  and  was  everywhere 
cast  out  as  evil ;  in  many  circles  the  public  cruelty  ex 
tended  to  social  proscription. 

But,  true  to  an  inherited  and  cultivated  firmness  and 
to  a  higher  and  broader  comprehension  of  the  situation 
of  the  Southern  States  in  their  subjugated  condition  than 
the  passions  of  the  times  allowed  to  most  of  our  late  lead 
ers,  he  withstood  it  all  with  composure,  and  determined 
to  abide  the  judgment  of  later  times,  while  through  the 
press,  in  private  circles  and  addresses,  he  made  public  his 
convictions  of  what  was  wisest  and  safest  for  the  people, 
and  vainly  urged  his  advice  upon  them. 

A  critical  examination  lately  made  of  the  .published  let 
ters  and  addresses  of  the  then  deposed  and  despised  pop 
ular  leader  furnishes  the  authority  to  state  his  precise 
position.  He  regarded  the  cherished  Democratic  and  Jef- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  427 

fersonian  doctrine  of  State  rights  and  State  sovereignty, 
and  the  consequent  asserted  right  of  secession  of  States 
for  causes  to  be  judged  of  by  their  people,  as  completely 
overthrown  ;  that  the  disputed  right  of  coercion  and  sub 
jugation  claimed  by  the  United  States  government  over 
revolting  and  seceding  States  held  by  that  government 
to  be  in  rebellion  was  fully  established  and  maintained  by 
military  power,  then  fully  and  effectually  asserted  over 
this  State ;  that  the  State  was  without  power,  and  hope 
less  as  to  all  means  of  enforcing  a  negative,  or  dictating 
terms  of  restoration  to  and  reunion  with  the  United  States 
from  which  we  had  separated. 

Having  made  war  for  four  years,  when  we  had  an  or 
ganized  Confederate  government,  and  governments  in  all 
the  States  composing  the  Confederacy,  when  they  had  the 
means  to  carry  it  on  ;  anqThaving  failed,  the  Confederate 
government  being  completely  overthrown,'  its  armies  'all 
disbanded,  and  the  disarmed  citizen  soldiers  that  composed 
them  all  having  returned  to  their  homes ;  and  the  general 
government  having  proclaimed  that  the  State  was  without 
civil  government,  and  substituted  for  the  time  being  the 
authority  of  the  military  over  the  people, — he  believed, 
and  so  advised,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  people  to  ac 
cept,  voluntarily,  the  terms  which  he  avowed  would  be  en 
forced  as  conditions  precedent  to  the  restoration  of  civil 
State  government,  and  re-admission  as  a  State  in  the  Fed 
eral  Union. 

He  also  protested  as  ardently,  in  the  presence  of  the 
military  an'd  in  the  face  of  Republican  domination,  against 
all  proposals  to  go  beyond  the  actual  requirements  of  the 
conquering  power,  as  made  known  through  the  acts  of 
Congress  and  official  orders  and  proclamations.  He  ve 
hemently  opposed  the  State  taking  any  voluntary  step 


428  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

calculated  to  degrade  or  humiliate  the  white  population, 
not  actually  dictated  and  required  by  the  government 
whose  authority  we  had  all  sworn  in  the  oaths  of  amnesty 
to  obey. 

These  are  the  opinions,  and  such  were  the  counsel  and 
advice  of  the  ex-Governor,  that  brought  him  face  to  face 
with  his  own  people  and  former  constituents,  and  invoked 
their  hostility  and  open  denunciations  upon  him. 

In  October,  1879,  in  consequence  of  assaults  made  on 
the  floor  of  the  Legislature  upon  the  character  and  con 
duct  of  Governor  Brown  in  those  days, — and  which  were 
also  repeated  through  the  press, — he  was  called  out  to 
vindicate  himself.  And  as  pertinent  to  the  matters  and 
subject  now  before  us,  the  author  quotes  here  his  owrn 
language  to  the  public.  Referring  to  the  days  of  1868, 
he  says : — 

"  That  was  a  period  of  unprecedented  bitterness,  madness,  and  vitupera 
tion.  It  was  just  after  the  war,  at  a  time  when  the  people  of  the  State  felt 
they  had  not  only  lost  all,  but  that  the  terms  dictated  by  the  conqueror  were 
harsh  and  rigorous.  Prominent  politicians  who  were  disqualified  to  hold 
office  under  the  reconstruction  legislation  of  Congress,  and  under  the  four 
teenth  amendment  which  we  were  required  to  adopt,  were  very  bitter  and 
denunciatory,  and  they  fired  the  passions  and  worst  feelings  of  the  people 
up  to  a  high  point. 

"  It  was  easy  then  to  float  with  the  current.  My  opinion  was,  however, 
that  it  was  the  time  of  all  others,  when  patriots  and  good  citizens  should 
meet  the  issue  calmly  and  coolly,  dismiss  passion,  and  be  controlled  entirely 
by  the  dictates  of  their  judgment.  Taking  this  view  of  the  situation,  and 
feeling  that  I  owed  the  people  of  Georgia  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  I  could 
never  pay,  for  the  honors  and  confidence  they  had  bestowed  upon  me,  I 
looked  carefully  into  the  situation,  and  whilst  every  prompting  of  my  nature 
and  of  my  passions  was  in  the  direction  of  the  popular  current,  my  judgment 
told  me  it  was  bad  policy  and  would  terminate  disastrously  to  pursue  that 
course. 

"  I  was  fully  convinced  that  further  resistance  to  the  will  of  the  conqueror 
would  be  worse  than  folly.  I  knew  the  Northern  mind  was  inflamed  against 
us,  and  that  the  party  which  had  favored  the  war  from  the  commencement 
and  had  come  out  of  it  triumphant  was  obliged  for  years  to  control  popular 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  429 

sentiment  th«jre.  I  was,  therefore,  satisfied  the  best  thing  we  could  do  was 
to  agree  with  the  adversary  quickly,  to  take  the  first  terms  they  offered  us, 
and  close  with  them  and  get  our  representatives  back  into  Congress  at  the 
earliest  date  possible,  and  our  State  again  recognized  as  a  member  of  the 
family  of  States  of  the  Union.  I  was  satisfied  if  we  made  no  resistance  to 
the  right  of  the  negroes  to  vote,  and  made  no  issue  with  them  upon  that 
subject,  we  could  retain  their  confidence  and  carry  a  majority  of  them  with 
us,  in  spite  <>f  all  the  influence  of  all  the  carpet-baggers  that  could  come  among 
them.  But  I  was  equally  well  satisfied,  if  we  made  war  upon  the  acts  of 
Congress  which  gave  them  the  right  to  vote,  it  would  be  a  war  in  which  we 
would  ultimately  be  vanquished  ;  and  the  very  fact  that  we  made  the  issue 
would  put  tliem  under  the  control  of  the  carpet-baggers  who  came  among 
us,  and  who  represented  themselves  to  the  colored  people  as  being  their 
friends  sent  here  to  see  that  these  rights  were  secured. 

•'  I  also  predicted  at  the  time,  in  my  public  speeches  which  are  now  of 
record,  that  the  time  would  come  in  less  than  fifteen  years,  when  the  New 
England  States  would  regret  that  they  had  given  suffrage  to  the  negro ;  and 
when  the  Southern  people,  on  account  of  the  power  which  the  negro  vote 
gave  us  in  Congress,  would  resist  any  effort  to  take  from  the  colored  people 
the  suffrage  already  given  them.  Under  the  14th  Amendment,  if  the  State 
were  to  permit  none  of  the  colored  race  to  vote,  she  could  count  none  of 
them  in  her  representative  population.  The  Southern  States,  therefore,  have 
some  thirty  members  of  Congress  and  thirty  votes  in  the  electoral  college 
which  they  would  not  have  if  they  had  deuied  to  the  colored  race  the  right 
to  vote.  The  Northern  radicals  saw  this  in  the  results  of  the  late  presiden 
tial  election,  and  many  of  them  have  since  cried  out  against  unqualified 
negro  suffrage.  What  Southern  man  would  now  yield  that  right,  thereby 
losing  the  power  which  we  have  .in  Congress  and  in  the  electoral  college,  and 
which  we  would  not  have  if  the  race  were  disfranchised? 

"But  this  is  not  all.  At  the  time  I  took  position  for  acquiescence  in  the 
reconstruction  acts,  no  15th  Amendment  had  been  put  upon  us,  as  part  of 
the  terms  of  re-admission  into  Congress ;  nor  was  it  done  until  a  number  of 
the  States  of  the  South  had  rejected  the  14th  Amendment.  I  predicted  at 
the  outset,  if  we  did  not  accept  the  terras  then  offered  to  us,  harder  terms 
would  be  imposed,  and  we  would  be  compelled  to  accept  them.  After  we 
had  rejected  the  14th  Amendment,  the  fifteenth,  which  guaranteed  the  right 
of  the  negro  to  vote,  was  proposed  and  made  part  of  the  terms ;  and  we  were 
informed  we  would  not  be  re-admitted  till  we  complied  with  this  additional 
requirement.  And  we  had  to  comply  before  we  were  re-admitted. 

"What  has  been  the  result?  Those  gentlemen  in  the  South  who  were 
then  the  leaders  of  popular  sentiment,  and  who  opposed  the  reconstruction 
measures  to  the  bitter  end,  until  they  had  been  agreed  to  by  the  Southern 
States,  have  since  become  prominent  in  Federal  politics ;  and,  notwithstand 
ing  their  denunciations  of  the  14th  and  15th  amendments,  and  their  predic- 


430  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

tions  that  they  would  never  be  enforced,  they  have  since  that  time  again  and 
again  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  with  these  amendments  incorpo 
rated  in  it.  And  the  national  Democratic  convention  which  met  at  St.  Louis 
incorporated  a  plank  into  its  platform  declaring  its  devotion  to  the  Consti 
tution  with  these  amendments. 

'•  As  my  enemies,  through  the  agency  of  their  instrument,  have  thought 
proper  to  wake  up  the  old  issue,  and  again  call  in  question  the  propriety  and 
wisdom  of  my  conduct  in  the  course  I  took  upon  reconstruction,  I  think  it 
not  improper  that  I  should  call  to  mind  these  facts,  and  ask  the  people,  who 
gave  the  wiser  advice  on  that  occasion.  Was  I  right  when  I  told  the  people 
we  would  he  obliged  to  submit,  to  these  terms?  What  advantage  did  South 
Carolina.  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  whose  people  refused  to  go  to  the  polls,  or 
have  anything  to  do  with  the  conventions  that  formed  their  constitution 
under  the  reconstruction  acts,  gain  by  the  hands-off  policy?  They  were 
advised  by  their  leaders  to  touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not  the  unclean  thing, 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  but  to  give  the  matter  up  into  the  hands  of 
the  negroes,  carpet-bnggers,  and  scalawags.  The  people  followed  the  advice 
of  their  leaders,  and  the  governments  of  those  States  were  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  classes  above  mentioned.  They  formed  the  constitution  to  suit  them 
selves;  and  the  world  knows  the  result. 

I  "On  the  other  hand,  the  white  people  of  Georgia  were  divided  upon  this 
question.  Some  thirty  or  forty  thousand  of  them  who  agreed  with  me,  think 
ing  it  better  to  have  a  hand  in  making  the  constitution  they  were  to  live 
under,  went  to  the  polls  and  elected  some  of  our  best  and  ablest  men,  who 
were  not  ineligible  to  represent  them  in  the  convention.  The  result  was,  we 
got  a  constitution  which  soon  placed  the  State  under  the  permanent  control 
of  the  white  race,  where  we  have  not  had  any  inconvenience  from  the  posi 
tion  the  negroes  have  occupied  in  the  jury  box, — in  a  word,  a  constitution 
under  which  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  State  soon  asserted  their 
supremacy;  and  our  leading  position  is  not  only  recognized  but  envied  by 
the  Southern  sisterhood  of  States.  But  for  the  course  of  the  constituency  I 
have  just  mentioned,  and  of  the  self-sacrificing  heroic  men  who  went  into 
the  convention,  and  who  watched  around  it,  with  the  curses  of  a  large  pro 
portion  of  the  white  people  against  them,  who  had  the  nerve  to  breast  the 
storm  and  do  right,  we  would  have  been  in  as  deplorable  a  condition  as  our 
three  Southern  sisters  above  mentioned.!  I  leave  it  therefore  for  the  honest, 
fair-minded  men  of  this  generation,  and  for  impartial  history  in  the  future, 
to  say  whether  the  course  I  took  and  the  advice  I  gave  during  that  great 
struggle  was  the  wisest  and  best  that  the  circumstances  permitted.  I  am 
willing  to  stand  or  fall  by  the  record;  and  my  enemies  who  have  provoked 
this  assault  are  welcome  to  make  the  most  of  it. 

(  "  Immediately  after  the  reconstruction  acts  had  passed,  if  the  whole  South 
had  accepted  the  situation  and  supported  General  Grant  for  President  in 
1863,  we  would  have  been  promptly  re-adrnitted  to  Congress,  our  State  gov- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  431 

ernments  would  have  been  left  in  our  own  hands,  political  disabilities  would 
have  been  removed,  and  we  should  have  had  no  carpet-bag  rule.  This  would 
have  thrown  together  in  the  Republican  party,  as  the  result  of  the  war,  ele 
ments  not  congenial  on  questions  of  banks,  currency,  tariffs,  etc  ,  and  before 
this  time  a  split  would  naturally  have  taken  place  on  those  issues.  And  as 
there  would  have  been  no  bloody  shirt  waved,  large  numbers  of  Northern 
men,  who  now  act  with  the  Republican  party,  who  were  originally  War 
Democrats,  would  naturally  have  drifted  back  to  their  old  position,  which 
has  been  prevented  by  the  position  of  the  South  on  the  reconstruction  issues. 
"  Entertaining  these  views,  I  did  not  support  the  Seymour  movement  on 
the  insane  platform  of  1868.  But  I  then  voted  for  General  Grant  as  a 
measure  of  policy,  as  the  Democratic  party  did  for  Greeley  in  1872.  The 
difficulty  was,  however,  that  the  party  did  not  adopt  the  proper  line  of  policy 
by  giving  their  support  to  a  Republican  till  four  years  after  the  opportunity 
had  passed.  That  which  would  have  been  wise  and  judicious  in  1868,  and 
would  have  secured  our  immediate  return  to  our  proper  position  iii  Congress, 
was  of  no  benefit  in  1872,  because  the  times  had  changed  and  the  opportu 
nity  was  gone.  The  mischief  had  already  been  done.  Had  the  whole  South 
moved  on  that  line  in  1868,  the  result  would  have  been  that  the  Democracy, 
designated  by  their  old  name  or  by  some  other  watchword,  would  before 
this  time  have  been  in  complete  control  of  the  government." 


In  the  numerous  published  speeches  and  letters,  advo 
cating  the  acceptance  by  Georgia  of  the  reconstruction 
proposed  and  at  last  enforced  by  Congress,  and  the 
advice  given  the  Republicans  in  the  State,  his  address  to 
the  Constitutional  Convention,  and  his  addresses  advo 
cating  the  adoption.  of  the  Constitution  after  it  had  been 
framed  and  submitted  to  the  people,  and  in  advocating 
the  election  of  General  Grant  for  the  presidency,  —  the 
spirit,  the  opinions,  and  advice  indicated  in  the  foregoing 
extract  abound.  And,  as  -stated,  the  hated  and  denounced 
ex-Governor,  while  he  advocated  going  the  length  de 
manded  by  the  Government,  protested  continually  against 
going  one  step  beyond  it. 

Congress  promptly  proceeded  with  the  work  of  recon 
struction.  The  act  of  March  2,  1867,  declared  that  no 
legal  State  governments,  or  adequate  protection  to  life 


432  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

or  property,  existed  in  the  States  of  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  Alabama, 
Florida,  Texas,  and  Arkansas;  divided  them  into  military 
districts;  authorized  the  President  to  assign  a  military 
commander  to  each  district,  and  to  detail  a  sufficient 
military  force  to  protect  alt  persons  in  their  rights  of 
person  and  property,  to  suppress  insurrection,  disorder, 
and  violence,  and  to  punish  or  cause  to  be  punished  all 
disturbers  of  the  peace  and  criminals,  giving  the  com 
manders  the  discretion  to  allow  the  local  tribunals  to  try 
offenders,  or  organize  a  military  commission  to  try  them. 

The  law  also  provided  that  when  the  people  of  any  of 
those  States  should  form  a  constitution  in  conformity  in 
all  respects  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
framed  by  a  convention  of  delegates  elected  by  the  mnle 
citizens  thereof  twenty-one  years  of  age,  without  distinc 
tion  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude, 
except  those  disfranchised  for  participation  in  the  Rebel 
lion,  or  for  felony  at  common  law, — the  constitution  of 
the  State  so  formed  to  provide  that  the  elective  franchise 
should  be  enjoyed  by  all  such  persons  as  are  authorized 
by  the  act  to  vote  for  delegates,  and  to  be  submitted 
to,  examined,  and  approved  by  Congress, — and  when  a 
legislature  elected  under  such  constitution  should  ratify 
the  14th  Amendment,  and  that  Amendment  become  a 
part  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  then  that 
State  should  be  entitled  to  representation  in  Congress. 
The  law  declared  all  civil  law  provisional  only  in  those 
States  until  they  should  comply  with  its  requirements. 

Governor  Jenkins  was  by  military  order  of  Major-Gen- 
eral  John  Pope  removed  from  office,  and  Brig. -General 
Ruger  of  the  United  States  army  placed  in  power.  Gen. 
Pope  himself  was  afterward  succeeded  by  Major-General 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  433 

Meade,  and  he  by  Major-General  Terry,  of  the  United 
States  army,  in  the  command  of  Georgia. 

The  States  referred  to  in  the  act  failing  to  take  steps  to 
hold  the  convention  and  to  comply  with  its  terms,  Con 
gress  proceeded  with  the  work  of  reconstruction.  A  sup 
plemental  bill  was  passed  providing  for  the  election  of 
delegates  to  conventions,  for  the  purposes  indicated,  under 
the  direction  and  authority  of  the  military  commanders  in 
charge ;  providing  rigid  rules  under  oath  for  registration, 
and  excluding  all  as  voters  who  by  the  provisions  of  the 
proposed  14th  Amendment  were  proscribed  from  holding 
office.  The  freed  blacks  without  exception,  except  felony 
at  common  law,  were  enfranchised,  as  were  the  white  peo 
ple  who  were  voters  under  existing  laws,  except  as  stated. 

This  proscription  debarred  a  very  large  number,  em 
bracing  most  of  the  leading  and  prominent  men  of  the 
State,  from  the  right  to  register  and  vote  in  the  election 
for  or  against  convention,  and  for  delegates  to  represent 
them,  —  they  having  held  offices  before  the  war,  and 
taken  the  usual  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  afterward  engaged  in  the  Rebellion, 
as  the  war  for  Confederate  independence  was  denomi 
nated  by  law  and  in  all  official  public  orders. 

The  colored  people  with  great  unanimity  and  enthu 
siasm  registered,  and  crowded  to  the  voting  places  at  the 
elections.  The  question  as  to  the  assembling  of  the  con 
vention  was  made  to  depend  on  the  votes  of  those  enti 
tled  when  voting  for  delegates.  In  case  a  majority  were 
indorsed  for  a  convention,  then  the  military  commander 
was  required  to  assemble  the  body ;  but  in  case  there 
was  not  a  majority  of  those  voting  on  that  question 
indorsed  for  convention,  then  it  was  not  to  be  held,  and 

the  military  authority  over  the  State  was  to  continue, 
id 


434  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

The  registration  was  conducted  by  officers  appointed 
under  the  acts  for  the  reconstruction — many  of  them 
negroes.  There  were  95,214  white  voters  and  93,457 
colored  voters  registered;  total  188,671. 

At  the  election,  95,772  votes  were  cast  for  convention, 
3,905  against  holding  a  convention,  and  5,406  votes  for 
delegates  which  were  blank  as  to  the  question  for  holding 
the  convention.  The  press  of  that  day  abounded  with 
charges  of  frauds  in  the  registration  and  injustice  on  the 
part  of  the  officers  in  charge  of  it,  and  with  charges  of 
fraud  in  the  count  of  votes.  But  this  is  the  official  result 
as  announced,  and  upon  which  the  convention  was  as 
sembled  by  the  military  authority  in  command  of  the 
State. 

The  senatorial  districts  of  the  State — forty-four  in  num 
ber — were  adopted  as  election  districts,  and  one  hundred 
and  sixty-nine  delegates  apportioned  and  chosen  from 
them,  by  an  election  appointed  and  held  for  three  days 
only  at  county  seats,  and  by  managers  appointed  by  the 
military  and  registration  authorities.  Many  of  the  man 
agers  were  negroes ;  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  dele 
gates  elected  to  the  convention  to  frame  the  new  consti 
tution  for  the  State  and  adopt  the  amendment  to  the 
Federal  Constitution  were  negroes  who  had  never  before 
voted,  and  very  many  of  them  entirely  illiterate. 

In  this  election,  held  in  October,  for  and  against  hold 
ing  a  convention  to  assemble  on  the  9th  of  December, 
1867,  thus  organized  and  submitted  to  the  registered 
voters  of  the  State,  the  negroes  voted  with  great  una 
nimity  and  enthusiasm;  and  also  for  delegates  favoring 
reconstruction  to  represent  them.  The  white  voters  in 
many  election  districts  stood  aloof,  and  refused  to  partici 
pate  in  the  election  for  convention  or  for  delegates.  They 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  435 

refused  to  take  part  in  the  act  of  calling  a  convention, 
and  of  appointing  by  ballot  delegates  for  the  purposes 
indicated.  Conducive  to  this  non-action  of  the  white 
people  there  had  been,  between  the  time  of  the  passage 
and  publication  of  the  reconstruction  acts  of  Congress 
requiring  this  convention,  and  the  ratification  of  the  14th 
Amendment,  a  vast  amount  of  able  and  some  acrimonious 
discussion  of  the  matters  by  the  press  and  political 
leaders  of  the  State. 

The  people  had  begun  to  revive  their  hopes  and  to 
regain  their  .energies,  and  ply  their  activity  and  industry. 
They  accepted  the  action  of  the  Legislature  rejecting  the 
14th  Amendment  with  great  unanimity,  and  seemed  to 
regard  the  matter  as  settled.  The  act  of  Congress  of 
March,  18G7,  looking  to  this  new  reconstruction  of  the 
State,  startled  the  hopeful  people  and  aroused  their  re 
sentment  to  the  General  Government,  under  the  general 
sense  of  wrong,  and  of  outrage  perpetrated  by  the  radical 
Congress.  Such  was  the  public  opinion,  and  the  gener 
ally  expressed  sentiment  of  the  press  representing  the 
people,  at  that  time. 

The  people  thus  summoned  suddenly  to  reconstruct 
themselves  and  their  own  government,  to  conform  to 
ideas  and  sentiments  above  all  the  most  repulsive  to 
them,  were  ready  to  follow  the  lead  of  any  man  who 
counselled  them  in  accordance  with  their  feelings  and 
sentiments.  In  the  absence  of  any  leader  they  were 
despondent,  dispirited,  and  depressed  in  view  of  the  ter 
rible  and  trying  ordeal  that  was  then  required  by  their 
conquerors. 

At  this  period,  most  of  the  former  old  leaders  who  sur 
vived  the  struggle  were  hopeless ;  many  of  them,  having 
lost  their  worldly  estates,  were  depressed  by  poverty ; 


436  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

many  of  them  feared  the  ultimate  consequences  of  having 
been  engaged  in  a  war  now  held  to  be  a  rebellion  by  a 
government  apparently  exasperated  and  incensed  against 
them.  It  was  a  sore  and  severe  trial  to  many  who  had 
not  quailed  before  the  guns  that  finally  had  subdued  our 
section. 

The  press  seemed  to  halt  and  hesitate,  the  leaders  to 
whom  the  people  looked  were  silent;  but  few  except 
Governor  Brown  spoke,  and  he  was  advising  them  con 
trary  to  every  instinct,  impulse,  and  passion  of  their  nat 
ure,  and  in  opposition  to  their  uninformed  judgment  under 
the  new  order  of  things. 

At  this  juncture  Benjamin  H.  Hill, — who  had  been 
before  the  war  a  formidable  and  powerful  foe  to  the 
Democracy  and  had  opposed  secession,  and  had  held  the 
office  of  senator  in  the  Confederate  Congress,  had  carried 
his  opposition  to  Governor  Brown  through  the  war,  had  be 
come  a  leading  spirit  and  light  in  the  civil  government 
of  the  Confederacy,  and  the  confidant  and  adviser  of  Pres 
ident  Davis, — with  a  boldness  that  challenged  almost  uni 
versal  applause,  opened  through  the  press  his  powerful 
criticisms  on  the  government  and  party  in  power,  the 
wrongs  as  alleged  of  the  proposed  reconstruction,  and 
the  order  of  things  that  would  result  from  their  adoption 
by  the  people,  entitled  u  Notes  on  the  Situation,"  which 
had  so  powerful  an  effect  on  the  people  then,  and  have 
been  so  often  referred  to  since,  as  to  have  made  them 
historic,  and  their  object  and  purport  are  necessarily  a 
part  of  our  State  history.  In  the  15th  of  these  papers 
he  sums  them  up  as  follows  : — 

"  The  points  which  I  sought  by  the  '  notes  '  to  establish 
were,  among  others, — 

"That  the  military  bills  were  contrary  to  the  Constitu- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  437 

tion  and  destructive  of  all  the  principles  and  guaranties 
of  free  government  in  America. 

"  2.  That  they  were  contrary  to  every  code  of  civilized 
nations,  and  in  infamous  bad  faith  to  the  terms  of  the  fight 
and  the  conditions  of  surrender. 

"  3.  That  the  reasons  urged  to  justify  these  meas 
ures — such  as  a  desire  to  restore  the  Union,  elevate  the 
black  race,  secure  guaranties  of  future  peace,  etc.,  etc., 
were  utterly  untrue,  inconsistent,  and  insidious — were 
pretexts  to  cover  the  only  real  purpose,  which  was  to 
perpetuate  the  power  of  the  radical  party. 

"  4.  That  the  acceptance  of  the  plan  proposed  by  these 
bills  could  only  result  in  a  permanent  subversion  of  the 
government  in  the  degradation  of  the  people  in  a  long  and 
bloody  reign  of  anarchy,  with  social,  civil  and  agrarian 
wars,  resulting,  after  unparalleled  horrors,  in  despotism  for 
the  whites  of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  extermination, 
exclusion,  or  political  re-enslavement  of  the  African  race. 

"  5.  The  only  remedy  for  these  evils,  both  threatened  and 
existing,  was  a  speedy  return  by  the  people  of  all  sections 
to  the  Constitution,  and  the  vigorous  enforcement  of  its 
remedies  against  all  its  violators. 

The  elaborate  and  voluminous  discussion  of  these  views 
with  the  passionate  style  of  a  great  writer,  and  on  the 
stump,  by  him,  one'  of  the  acknowledged  orators  of  the 
age,  to  a  people  whose  minds  and  hearts  were  in  unison 
with  his,  had  a  most  wonderful  effect  in  uniting  and 
solidifying  public  opinion  in  opposition  to  reconstruction 
on  the  terms  proposed. 

These  notes  and  Mr.  Hill's  speeches  called  out  elaborate 
and  able  reviews  by  Governor  Brown,  written  in  his 
usual  masterly  style,  setting  forth  and  defending  his  own 
opinions  and  assailing  those  of  Mr.  Hill. 


438  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

Mr.  Hill  now  had  the  popular  ear  and  heart.  The 
people  in  the  main  shared  his  sentiments,  and  hastily 
and  enthusiastically  accepted  his  conclusions,  and  en 
tered  into  his  passions ;  he  had  almost  the  unanimous 
press  to  laud  him  and  condemn  his  adversary  in  the  dis 
cussion.  The  journals  promptly  published  his  articles 
and  praised  him  extravagantly,  and  the  spirit  and  hopes 
of  the  people  were  aroused  and  re-assured.  A  few  only 
of  them  printed,  and  nearly  all  condemned  without  meas 
ure,  the  reviews  and  criticisms  of  Governor  Brown.  But 
few  of  them  were  charitable  enough  to  spare  his  motives. 

Other  powerful  influences  were  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  public  mind  at  this  period.  A  committee  of  distin 
guished  citizens  of  Atlanta  called  out  the  views  of  Ex-Gov 
ernor  Johnson,  whose  letter,  generally  published  over  the 
State,  was  a  terribly  scathing  and  withering  analysis  and 
denunciation  of  the  congressional  bills  and  plan  of  recon 
struction  ;  other  prominent  and  influential  leaders  joined 
only  in  the  opposition,  and  before  the  time  for  voting  on 
the  call  of  a  convention  and  the  election  of  delegates  ar 
rived  the  white  people  had  become  almost  solid  in 
opposition  to  the  proposed  reconstruction. 

The  effect  was  to  keep  the  white  voters  who  had  reg 
istered  in  many  districts  from  participating  in  the  election, 
but  not  in  the  slightest  degree  to  stay  the  progress  of 
reconstruction.  The  delegates  were  elected,  the  conven 
tion  assembled  and  proceeded  with  the  work  of  making 
a  new  constitution,  such  as  was  required  by  the  acts  of 
Congress,  and  submitting  it  to  the  voters  who  had 
been  registered  according  to  the  requirements  of  the 
reconstruction  laws  and  orders. 

The  sentiment  of  hostility  to  the  proceedings  was  al 
most  universal  in  most  parts  of  the  State.  But  even  after 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  439 

the  election  of  the  delegates  to  the  convention,  it  was  in 
an  unorganized  state.  The  people  had  not  participated 
in  the  election,  and  had  held  themselves  aloof  from  the 
proceeding,  under  the  advice  of  the  popular  leaders  who 
had  their  confidence,  and  of  the  exasperated  press  of  the 
State.  But  they  had  no  course  of  proceeding,  no  pro 
gramme  of  future  action  prescribed. 

True  to  the  passions,  impulses,  and  prevailing  opinions 
and  judgment  of  those  leaders,  a  voluntary  convention 
of  all  who  opposed  the  then  proceedings — to  recon 
struct  the  State  under  the  congressional  bills — was  called 
to  meet  in  the  city  of  Macon,  to  be  composed  of  dele 
gates  representing  the  counties  of  the  State. 

This  convention,  composed  of  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  delegates,  representing  seventy  counties,  assembled 
at  Macon  on  the  fifth  of  December,  1867.  Hon.  Benj. 
H.  Hill  was  chosen  president.  His  opening  and  closing 
addresses,  and  those  of  the  speakers  who  took  part  in  the 
discussions,  were  of  an  exciting  character,  characterized 
by  ability  and  dignity,  in  harmony  with  the  prevailing 
sentiment  and  feeling  of  the  people. 

An  able  committee,  composed  of  Geo.  A.  Mercer  and 
C.  B.  Richardson  of  the  First  Congressional  District, 
Philip  Cook  and  T.  M.  Furlow  of  the  Second,  P.  W.  Al 
exander  and  C.  H.  C.  Willingham  of  the  Third,  Thomas 
Hardeman,  Jr.,  and  Daniel  Hughes  of  the  Fourth,  David 
E.  Butler  and  E.  H.  Pottle  of  the  Fifth,  J.  Graham  and 
W.  W.  McLester  of  the  Sixth,  Luther  J.  Glenn  and  J.  A. 
Stewart  of  the  Seventh,  was  appointed.  Hon.  J.  J. 
Gresham  of  Bibb  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee. 

The  action  of  the  committee,  which  by  adoption  be 
came  the  action  of  the  convention,  was  more  wise  and 
conservative  than  the  speeches  and  the  leading  news- 


440  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

paper  enunciations  of  that  period  had  been,  but  was  ac 
cepted  and  approved  generally  by  the  constituency  of  the 
convention. 

They  provided  for  a  committee  to  publish  an  address 
to  the  people,  composed  of  Herschel  V.  Johnson,  chair 
man,  Absalom  H.  Chappell,  Benjamin  H.  Hill,  Warren 
Akin  and  Theodore  L.  Guerry,  which  was  written  by  the 
chairman,  in  his  powerful  and  masterly  style,  and  was  in 
harmony  with  the  resolutions  of  this  convention,  all  of 
which  were  extensively  published. 

The  preamble  and  resolutions,  which  express  the  con 
servative  opinions  and  sentiments  of  opposition  to  recon 
struction  then  prevalent,  are  as  follows  : — 

"  We,  the  delegates  of  the  people  of  Georgia,  in  convention  assembled,  rec 
ognizing  our  obligation  to  support  the  general  government  in  all  legal  and 
proper  measures,  and  claiming  from  that  government  the  due  performance 
of  the  reciprocal  duty,  to  extend  to  us,  in  common  with  all  the  people  of  the 
whole  country,  the  protection  guarantied  by  the  Constitution  of  our  fore 
fathers,  do  declare  and  affirm  that  manly  protest  against  bad  public  policy 
is  the  duty  as  well  as  the  right  of  every  American  citizen;  and  this  without 
factitious  opposition  to  government,  or  untimely  interruption  of  public  har 
mony.  The  season  for  honest  discussion  of  principles,  and  for  lawful  oppo 
sition  to  existing  abuses,  and  their  growth,  is  ever  present  and  pressing. 

"The  Southern  people  are  true  to  constitutional  liberty,  and  ready  to 
acquiesce  in  any  policy  looking  to  the  honor  and  good  of  the  whole  country, 
and' securing  the  rights  of  all  classes  of  people. 

"  We  regard  the  efforts  of  the  present  ruling  power  to  change  the  funda 
mental  institutions  of  the  United  States  government,  as  false  in  principle, 
impolitic  in  action,  injurious  in  result,  injurious  to  the  South,  and  detri 
mental  to  the  general  government.  Silence  under  wrong  may  be  construed 
as  endorsement.  Be  it  therefore 

"Resolved,  1st,  That  we  recognize  the  duty  to  sustain  law  and  order,  and 
support  cheerfully  all  constitutional  measures  of  the  United  States  govern 
ment,  and  maintain  the  rights  of  all  classes  under  enlightened  and  liberal 
laws. 

"Resolved,  2d,  That  the  people  of  Georgia  accept  in  good  faith  the  legiti 
mate  results  of  the  late  war,  and  renew  their  expressions  of  allegiance  to  the 
Union  of  the  States,  and  reiterate  their  determination  to  maintain  inviolate 
the  Constitution  framed  by  our  fathers. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  441 

"Resolve-/,  3.1,  That  we  protest  dispassionately,  yet  firmly,  against  what  is 
known  as  the  Reconstruction  Acts  of  Congress,  and  against  the  vindictive 
and  partisan  administration  of  those  acts  as  wrong  in  principle,  oppressive 
in  action,  and  ruinous  to  the  States  of  the  South,  as  well  as  hurtful  to  the 
true  welfare  of  every  portion  of  our  common  country,  and  leading  directly,  if 
not  intentionally,  to  the  permanent  supremacy  of  the  negro  race,  in  all  those 
States,  where  those  laws  are  now  being  enforced. 

"Resolved,  4th,  That  we  protest  in  like  spirit  and  manner  against  the  policy 
of  the  dominant  party  in  Congress,  which  seeks  to  inflict  upon  the  States  of 
the  South  permanent  bad  government,  as  wrong,  not  only  to  all  races  in  the 
South,  and  to  the  people  of  all  parts  of  the  Union,  but  a  crime  against 
civilization,  which  it  is  the  duty  of  all  right-minded  men  everywhere  to 
discountenance  and  condemn. 

"Resolvetl,  5th,  That  we  enter  on  record,  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  the 
people  of  this  State,  this,  our  solemn  protest  against  the  assembling  of  a 
convention,  which,  we  affirm,  with  evidence  before  us,  has  been  ordered 
under  pretence  of  votes  which  were  illegally  authorized,  forcibly  procured, 
fraudulently  received,  and  falsely  counted,  as  we  believe.  And  in  view  of 
the  solemn  responsibility  of  the  issues  involved,  we  do  hereby  declare  that 
we  will  forever  hold  the  work  of  framing  a  constitution  by  such  authority, 
with  intent  to  be  forced  by  military  power  on  the  free  people  of  this  ancient 
Commonwealth,  as  a  crime  against  our  people,  against  the  continuance  of 
free  government,  against  the  peace  of  society,  against  the  purity  of  the  bal 
lot-box,  and  against  the  dignity  and  character  of  representative  institutions." 

Notwithstanding  this  strong  and  decided  enunciation 
of  alleged  rights  and  wrongs,  and  the  earnest  protest  of 
their  opponents,  the  reconstruction  party  in  convention 
proceeded  with  its  work  of  framing  a  new  organic  law 
for  the  State. 

In  the  various  constitutions  that  have  been  made,  most 
of  the  provisions  of  the  old  constitution  in  force  before 
the  war  have  been  retained ;  some  have  been  modified, 
and  others  expunged,  and  provisions  inserted  to  suit  the 
new  order  of  things.  This  Constitution  of  1868  made 
some  elementary  and  radical  changes  of  organic  law. 

It  enacted  that,  "  The  State  of  Georgia  shall  ever  re 
main  a  member  of  the  American  Union ;  the  people 
thereof  are  a  part  of  the  American  nation.  Every  citizen 


442  EECONSTKUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

thereof  owes  paramount  allegiance  to  the  Constitution  and 
Government  of  the  United  States,  and  no  law  or  ordi 
nance  of  this  State,  in  contravention  or  subversion 
thereof,  shall  ever  have  any  binding  force. 

"  That  the  social  status  of  the  citizen  shall  never  be  the 
subject  of  legislation. 

"  There  shall  be  no  imprisonment  for  debt. 

"Whipping  as  a  punishment  for  crime  is  prohibited. 

"  There  shall  be  within  the  State  of  Georgia,  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  save  as  a  punishment 
for  crime  after  legal  conviction  thereof. 

"  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States, 
and  resident  in  this  State,  are  hereby  declared  citizens  of 
this  State/'  etc.  And  the  right  of  suffrage  is  extended  to 
such  as  are  male,  and  of  suitable  age  and  residence — and 
not  disqualified — by  special  provisions.  Debts  for  the 
sale  or  hire  of  slaves  were  abrogated.  The  Legislature 
was  required  to  provide  a  general  system  of  education  to 
be  free  to  all  children  of  the  State,  the  expense  of  which 
to  be  provided  by  taxation  or  otherwise.  A  homestead 
of  real  estate  and  exemption  of  personal  estate,  to  the  value 
of  $2,000  of  the  former  and  $1,000  of  the  latter  at  gold 
valuation,  were  provided,  and  the  seat  of  the  State  gov 
ernment  peremptorily  removed  from  Milledgeville  to 
Atlanta. 

The  convention  provided  by  ordinances  for  an  election 
by  the  persons  already  registered  as  voters,  for  the  rati 
fication  of  the  constitution  framed,  and  at  the  same 
time  for  the  election  of  a  governor,  members  of  the  Legis 
lature,  civil  officers  of  the  State,  and  representatives  in 
Congress. 

The  opposition,  composed  of  the  old  Democrats  and 
Whigs  and  conservative  men,  such  as  were  assembled 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  443 

and  represented  in  the  Macon  convention  of  the  preced 
ing  December,  now  changed  their  policy  and  mode  of 
opposition  from  non-action  and  inactivity,  to  action  and 
industrious  preparation  to  defeat  the  proposed  Constitu 
tion,  and  in  many  counties  to  elect  men  opposed  to  it  to 
represent  them  in  the  Legislature  in  the  event  of  its  be 
ing  declared  adopted  ;  to  elect  a  Democratic  governor 
and,  generally,  the  county  officers  over  the  State. 

The  Republican  members  of  the  convention  chose,  and 
put  in  nomination,  a  member  of  that  body  from  the 
county  of  Richmond — Rufus  B.  Bullock.  The  Demo 
crats  in  convention  nominated  Augustus  Reese  of  Morgan 
county,  a  judge  of  the  superior  court,  who  had  been  re 
moved  from  office  by  the  military  commander  of  the 
State — a  man  of  great  purity  and  integrity  of  character. 

It  transpired  that  he  was  subject  to  the  disability 
from  holding  office  imposed  by  the  proposed  Fourteenth 
Constitutional  Amendment,  and  thereupon  David  Irwinof 
Cobb  county,  also  a  man  of  ability  and  integrity,  command 
ing  public  confidence,  was  nominated.  It  also  transpired, 
that  he,  having  held  office  and  taken  the  constitutional  oath 
before  the  war,  while  not  a  soldier  in  the  Confederate  army, 
had  taken  such  part  as  disqualified  him,  and  thereupon 
the  executive  committee  of  the  party  selected  a  man 
who  had  never  held  office  before  the  war,  young  in  years, 
but  eminently  distinguished  as  a  soldier  and  commander 
in  the  Confederate  army — Lieut-General  John  B.  Gordon. 
His  nomination  was  popular.  And  while  there  was  but 
limited  confidence  among  the  public  men  of  the  party 
that  he  could  be  installed  if  .elected,  the  people  supported 
him  with  enthusiasm,  while  voting  for  their  county  of 
ficers  and  the  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  in  o posi 
tion  to  the  proposed  Constitution. 


444  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

The  canvass  was  an  exciting  one,  through  the  press, 
and  by  public  speeches  from  leading  men,  and  in  private 
circles.  The  resentment  against  the  method  of  holding 
and  conducting  the  election,  and  against  the  appointees  of 
the  military  to  conduct  it,  was  high  and  vehement.  There 
were  open  and  frequent  charges  and  complaints  of  fraud, 
miscount,  and  illegal  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  man 
agers — and  in  the  consolidation  of  the  vote.  But  there 
was  no  power  or  authority  to  investigate  and  decide  upon 
them. 

The  Constitution  was  declared  adopted,  Mr.  Bullock 
proclaimed  elected,  and  thereupon  General  Meade,  the 
officer  in  command  of  the  military  district,  having  suc 
ceeded  Major-General  Pope,  assembled  the  Legislature, 
and  under  military  escort  installed  the  members  and 
governor-elect,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1868. 

The  constitutional  amendment  was  promptly  ratified  ; 
and  thereupon  Congress  provided  for  the  admission  and 
representation  of  the  State  in  Congress,  and  civil  gov 
ernment  was  restored  and  military  authority  suspended 
on  the  21st  July,  1868. 

At  the  time  the  Legislature  was  assembled  and  installed, 
and  Gov,  Bullock  inaugurated  by  Maj.-Gen.  Meade,  com 
manding  the  military  district,  the  National  Republican 
party  had  been  in  convention  at  Chicago,  and  nominated 
Gen.  U.  S.  Grant  as  candidate  for  the  presidency  to  suc 
ceed  Andrew  Johnson.  Mr.  Johnson  had  been  made 
Vice-President  of  the  Union  because  he  was  a  Southern 
Democrat  of  great  intellect  and  force  of  character,  be 
cause  of  his  disloyalty  to  the  State  of  Tennessee  and  to  the 
Confederacy,  and  his  inflexible  loyalty  to  the  United 
States.  He  had  been  made  President  just  as  the  war 
of  opposing  armies  was  drawing  to  a  close,  by  the 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  445 

assassination  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States.  He  had  been  from  an  early  period  after  his  in 
stallation  as  President  at  issue  and  on  terms  of  variance 
and  often  of  conflict  in  judgment  with  the  party  that  had 
placed  him  in  power,  as  to  the  proper  course  of  the  gov 
ernment  toward  the  Southern  States  and  their  recon 
struction  and  re-admission  into  the  Union,  and  as  to  his 
advised  leniency  towards  the  men  regarded  by  the  lead 
ing  men  of  the  Kepublican  party  as  rebels  and  criminals 
and  deserving  of  penalties  instead  of  clemency.  This 
state  of  division  between  the  conquering  party  having 
the  majority  of  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  having  lost 
the  executive  by  assassination,  and  the  executive  of  the 
Union  who  had  acceded  to  the  presidency,  and  who 
evidently  was  not  in  sympathy  with  them  as  to  the 
proper  course  towards  us,  or  as  to  the  future  of  national 
parties,  had  led  to  bad  temper  and  mutual  bad  passions, 
and  culminated  in  a  most  powerfully  conducted  and  in 
genious  plan  to  impeach  and  remove  the  President,  which 
-on  final  trial  had  barely  failed.  The  President  was  virt 
ually  impeached  by  the  great  and  dominant  Republican 
party  of  the  Union,  and  as  strongly  and  triumphantly 
vindicated  by  the  deposed  and  defeated  yet  powerful 
Democratic  party  of  the  United  States,  North  and  South. 
We  of  the  South,  who  had  least  to  do  with  springing 
or  conducting  the  issues  and  disputes  between  President 
Johnson  and  the  party  that  elected  him,  were,  consequen 
tially  to  his  espousal  of  our  cause  and  proffered  protec 
tion,  made  to  an  extent  the  subjects  of  an  animosity  and 
opposition,  and  consequent  oppression  that  we  otherwise 
might  have  escaped,  from  the  dominant  party,  the  ene 
mies  of  the  President.  Our  reconstruction  was  on  hand 
at  this  period,  when  the  party,  under  whose  advice  and 


446  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

official  action  the  war  had  been  made  upon  us,  and 
under  whose  administration  and  under  whose  auspices, 
in  the  main,  it  had  been  prosecuted  to  a  successful  ter 
mination  against  us,  had  become  fully  aroused,  and  were 
intent  on  pressing  it  to  its  logical  and  necessary  final 
sequences,  and  on  reaping  to  themselves,  as  a  ruling  party, 
the  full  fruits  of  their  victory. 

They  had  called  to  bear  their  standard  in  the  approach 
ing  presidential  contest  the  man  they  recognized  among 
their  many  leaders,  who  had  become  distinguished  as  the 
great  successful  hero,  representing  the  military  glory  and 
the  spirit  of  the  national  Union  army  as  well  as  the  ob 
jects  and  aims  of  the  national  party. 

The  Democratic  party  of  the  Union  was  then  assem 
bling  in  the  city  of  New  York  to  bring  forward  a  com 
petitor,  and  to  set  forth  the  principles,  aims,  and  policy 
of  the  government  when  restored  to  them  by  the  pop 
ular  vote.  \ 

Horatio  Seymour,  ex-governor  of  New  York,  who  had 
been  identified  with  the  national  Democracy  and  opposed 
in  his  principles  and  sympathies  to  the  Kepublicans,  was 
nominated  for  the  office  of  President ;  and  Francis  P. 
Blair,  of  Missouri,  who  had  been  a  Democrat  in  earlier 
life  and  joined  the  national  Republicans  before  the  war, 
and  who  had  been  actively  engaged  in  the  war  of  subju 
gation  and  risen  to  the  rank  of  Major-General  in  the 
Union  army,  but  who  had,  after  the  close  of  the  war, 
reunited,  and  become  somewhat  extreme  in  his  public 
utterances,  was  nominated  for  Vice-President. 

In  his  letter  previously  published  to  Col.  James  A. 
Broadhead,  he  had  openly  assailed  and  denounced  the 
whole  scheme  of  reconstruction  in  strong  and  unmeasured 
terms.  In  this  widely  circulated'  letter  he  says : — 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.       447 

"  The  reconstruction  policy  of  the  Radicals  will  be  complete  before  the 
next  election  ;  the  States  so  long  excluded  will  have  been  admitted,  negro 
suffrage  established,  and  carpet-baggers  installed  in  both  branches  of  Con 
gress.  There  is  no  possibility  of  changing  the  political  character  of  the 
Senate,  even  if  the  Democrats  should  elect  their  President  and  a  majority  of 
the  popular  branch  of  Congress.  We  cannot,  therefore,  undo  the  Radical 
plan  of  reconstruction  by  Congressional  action ;  the  Senate  will  continue  a 
bar  to  its  repeal.  Must  we  submit  to  it?  How  can  it  be  overthrown  ?  It 
can  only  be  overthrown  by  the  authority  of  the  Executive,  who  is  sworn  to 
maintain  the  Constitution,  and  who  will  fail  to  do  his  duty  if  he  allows  the 
Constitution  to  perish,  under  a  series  of  Congressional  enactments  which 
are  in  palpable  violation  of  its  fundamental  principles. 

"  If  the  President  elected  by  the  Democracy  enforces  or  permits  others  to  en 
force  these  reconstruction  acts,  the  Radicals,  by  the  accession  of  twenty  spuri 
ous  senators  and  fifty  representatives,  will  control  both  branches  of  Congress, 
and  his  administration  will  be  as  powerless  as  the  present  one  of  Mr.  John 
son.  There  is  but  one  way  to  restore  the  government  and  the  Constitution, 
and  that  is  for  the  President-elect  to  declare  these  acts  null  and  void,  compel 
the  army  to  undo  its  usurpations  at  the  South,  disperse  the  carpet-bag  State 
governments,  allow  the  white  people  to  organize  their  own  governments  and 
elect  senators  and  representatives." 

And  after  amplifying  concluded  with  this : — 

"I  wish  to  stand  before  the  convention  upon  this  issue,  but  it  is  one  which 
embraces  everything  else  that  is  of  value  in  its  large  and  comprehensive  re 
sults.  It  is  the  one  that  includes  all  that  is  worth  a  contest,  and  without  it, 
there  is  nothing  that  gives  dignity,  honor,  or  value  to  the  struggle." 

The  nomination  of  the  great  leader  of  the  New  York 
Democracy — who  had  opposed  the  Republican  organiza 
tion,  its  aims  and  purposes — for  President,  and  the  author 
of  their  recently  published  "  Letter  by  a  Major-General 
of  the  Union  Armies,"  as  Vice-President,  on  the  Demo 
cratic  side,  to  compete  for  the  executive  government, 
against  General  U.  S.  Grant,  the  most  popular  general, 
and  Mr.  Schuyler  Colfax,  a  leading  Republican,  made 
the  issues  that  were  well  calculated  to  solidify  the 
Democratic  Southern  States  for  the  Democratic  nomi 
nees  where  there  was  not  a  majority  of  colored  voters, 


448  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

and  to  mass  the  people  of  the  North,  who  had  subjugated 
us,  in  the  support  of  the  Republican  candidates. 

The  tendency  of  these  nominations,  in  the  open  direc 
tion  thus  indicated,  was  greatly  increased  by  the  espousal 
of  the  Democratic  nominees  and  the  platform  of  prin 
ciples  adopted  by  the  National  Convention,  by  most  of 
the  distinguished  leaders  of  secession,  and  of  the  Confed 
erate  government  and  Southern  armies.  In  this  State, 
as  soon  as  the  nomination  of  Seymour  and  Blair  was 
announced,  General  Howell  Cobb,  provisional  president 
of  the  Confederacy,  General  Toombs,  Benj.  H.  Hill,  and 
others,  entered  the  canvass  as  speakers,  and  were  un 
measured  in  denunciation  -of  the  national  Republicans, 
the  Congressional  plan  of  reconstruction,  the  newly  pro 
posed  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution.  They 
exhausted  their  powers  of  invective  upon  the  few  leading 
men  of  Georgia  who  adhered  to  the  reconstruction  policy 
and  supported  General  Grant. 

The  national  Democrats  in  their  platform  of  principles, 
like  the  Republicans,  avowed  the  purpose  to  maintain 
the  public  debt  of  the  United  States,  their  adhesion  to 
the  Federal  Union,  and  demanded  economy  in  public 
administration.  The  Democrats  demanded  the  restoration 
of  the  conquered  States  to  the  Union,  amnesty  for  polit 
ical  offences,  and  the  regulation  of  the  elective  franchise 
in  the  States  by  their  citizens;  arraigned  the  radical 
party  for  oppression  to  the  Southern  States,  and  for  vio 
lating  the  pledges  of  the  Government  as  to  the  objects 
of  the  war — by  which  the  people  were  led  into  it ;  de 
clared  the  Jeffersonian  theory  of  government,  and  that 
the  Democratic  party  of  the  South  had  gone  into  the  war 
to  maintain  that  theory  of  government ;  declared  that 
the  radical  party,  instead  of  restoring  the  Union,  had,  so 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  449 

far  as  in  its  power,  dissolved  it,  and  subjected  ten  States, 
in  time  of  profound  peace,  to  military  despotism  and 
negro  supremacy. 

The  national  Kepublicans  claimed  the  success  of  the 
war,  and  the  reconstruction  policy  of  Congress,  "securing 
equal  civil  and  political  rights  to  all ; "  and  avowed  it 
the  "  duty  of  the  Government  to  sustain  these  institu 
tions,  and  to  prevent  the  people  of  the  Southern  States 
from  being  remitted  to  a  state  of  anarchy." 

The  canvass  made  before  the  American  people  upon 
the  issues  thus  indicated,  and  under  the  lead  of  the  men 
mentioned,  at  that  early  period  after  hostilities,  although 
conducted  with  great  ability,  zeal,  and  warmth  by  the 
leaders  and  press  of  both  parties,  necessarily  and  natu 
rally  resulted  in  the  united  action  of  the  majority  of  the 
white  voters  of  the  South  on  Seymour  and  Blair,  and  of 
a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  North  on  Grant  and  Col- 
fax,  and  in  their  election. 

The  next  political  and  unofficial  movement  of  the  peo 
ple  opposed  to  the  reconstruction  and  Republican  party  in 
this  State,  was  the  assembling  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
convention  in  1870 — composed  of  leading  surviving  mem 
bers  of  the  old  anti-war  parties  who  had  during  the  struggle 
made  common  cause,  and  of  the  same  kind  of  material, 
actuated  by  like  sentiments,  feelings,  passions,  opinions 
and  principles  as  composed  the  December  convention  of 
18G7  at  Macon,  and  the  Seymour  supporters  of  1868. 
Judge  Linton  Stephens,  who  died  two  years  later,  and  after 
bringing  to  bear  in  every  practical  method  on  public 
opinion  his  masterly  opposition  to  the  reconstruction  acts 
and  the  constitutional  amendments,  was  a  delegate  from 
Hancock  county,  and  as  chairman  of  the  business  commit 
tee  was  the  author  of  the  platform  of  principles  adopted. 

29 


450       RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

It  has  transpired  since,  that  it  was  prepared  on  confer 
ence  with  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  before  going  to  the 
convention.  The  declaratory  resolutions  are  as  follows : 

1.  That  the  Democratic  party  of  the  State  of  Georgia 
stand  upon  the  principles  of  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
Union,  bringing  into  special  prominence,  as  applicable  to 
the  present  extraordinary  condition  of  the  country,  the 
unchangeable  doctrine,  that  this  is  a  union  of  States,  and 
of  the  indestructibility  of  States,  and  of  their  rights,  and 
of  their  equality  with   each  other,  as  an  indispensable 
part  of  our  political  system. 

2.  That  in  the  approaching  State  election  the  Demo 
cratic  party  cordially  invite  everybody  to  co-operate  with 
them  in  a  zealous  determination  to  change,  as  far  as  the 
several  elections  to  be  held  can  do  so,  the  present  usurp 
ing  and  corrupt  administration  of  the  State  government, 
by  placing  in  power  men  who  are  true  to  the  principles 
of  constitutional  government  and  to  a  faithful  and  eco 
nomical  administration  of  public  affairs. 

The  Republican  administration  of  the  State  under  Gov 
ernor  Bullock,  and  the  Legislature  elected  contempora 
neously  with  him,  a  majority  of  whose  members  were  in 
accord  and  sympathy  with  him,  and  the  national  Repub 
lican  party,  of  which  he  was  a  zealous  and  active  member, 
had,  by  many  causes  combined,  lost  favor  and  support 
from  the  people  who  placed  them  in  power,  and  increased 
and  intensified  the  hatred  and  opposition  of  the  Demo 
cratic  people  of  the  State.  The  way  was  prepared  for  a 
change  in  administration.  The  resolution  assailing  the 
party  in  power  was  based  on  evidences  of  maladministra 
tion  so  numerous  as  to  be  beyond  question  or  contro 
versy,  by  any  fair  and  candid  man,  and  wras  therefore  in 
full  accord  with  the  public  temper.  The  resolution  de- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.       451 

claring  federal  relations  ignored  the  subject  of  the  new 
amendments  upon  which  the  national  Democratic  party 
had  been  defeated  in  1868,  and  presented  common  ground 
on  which  all  the  people  who  were  disposed  to  organize  in 
opposition  to  Republican  rule  in  this  State  and  in  the 
Union  could  stand  and  act  together. 

The  result  was  the  triumph  of  the  party  and  the  elec 
tion  of  a  Democratic  Legislature,  a  body  decidedly  hostile 
in  principle  and  sentiment  to  Governor  Bullock,  whose 
term  of  office  under  the  new  constitution  was  four  years, 
and  who,  if  he  should  remain  and  continue  to  hold  his 
office,  would  have  to  meet  and  confer  with  and  be  sub 
jected  to  the  hostile  investigations  of  an  opposing  Legis 
lature. 

Pursuing  the  narrative  of  political  parties  beyond,  in 
the  order  of  time,  the  civil  administration  in  the  State, 
we  reach  the  final  solution  of  differences  between  leaders 
who  had  stood  aloof  and  been  in  hostility  to  each  other 
from  the  time  the  reconstruction  began ;  in  the  attitude 
and  position  of  national  parties ;  in  the  Presidential  elec 
tion  of  1872,  when  the  Republican  party  renominated 
General  Grant,  and  the  Democratic  party,  despairing  of 
success  in  electing  a  man  of  their  own  party,  determined 
upon  the  nomination  of  a  man  of  the  Republican  party, 
Horace  Greeley  of  New  York.  He  had  been  an  open 
enemy  to  the  national  Democracy  from  early  life,  had 
been  a  Whig,  and  leading  journalist  of  that  party  while 
it  had  an  organization ;  had  been  an  anti-slavery  advo 
cate  ;  had  early  espoused  the  national  Republican  organi 
zation  in  opposition  to  the  Democracy ;  and  had  boldly 
advocated  the  war  of  subjugation,  and  the  sequences  on 
the  races  in  the  South  after  victory.  He  had  favored  all 
the  amendments  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  addition 


452  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

to  the  reconstruction  acts  of  Congress,  and  maintained 
the  civil  and  political  rights  of  the  liberated  negroes  of 
the  South. 

The  Democratic  party  in  the  State  elections  north 
had  found  it  necessary  to  acquiesce  in  all  these  measures, 
and  stood  in  harmony  with  the  Republicans  as  to  the 
binding  force  of  the  Constitution  as  amended,  and  the 
laws  for  its  enforcement.  The  Democratic  party  of 
the  South,  in  its  hopeless  condition  of  political  antago 
nism  to  the  organic  law  of  the  Union,  which  all  public 
officers  were  required  under  oath  of  office  to  support,  had 
drifted  upon  the  same  common  ground  with  their  North 
ern  allies,  ignoring  the  past  offensive  action  and  doctrines 
of  Mr.  Greeley  and  his  life-long  opinions  and  theory  of 
the  constitutional  government,  and  agreeing  with  him  on 
the  present  issues  and  aims  of  the  party ;  regarding  his 
liberal  views  toward  the  South  and  to  all  sections  of  the 
country,  and  appreciating  his  patriotism,  sense  of  justice, 
and  large  philanthropy ;  and  in  the  hope  of  drawing  off 
from  the  national  Republican  party  a  large  and  respect 
able  element  known  as  Liberal  Republicans,  and  organ 
izing  that  element  with  the  national  Democratic  party, 
and  thus  gaining  ascendency,  he  was  nominated  for  the 
office  of  President. 

Alexander  H.Stephens,  and  Lin  ton  Stephens,  who  died 
at  this  juncture,  with  only  a  few  other  Democrats  of  the 
State,  bitterly  and  openly  opposed  the  action  of  the  party, 
and  the  former  continued  the  opposition  and  refused  his 
support  to  Mr.  Greeley. 

But  the  leaders  and  people  generally  had  abated  all 
their  active  opposition  to  reconstruction,  and  to  the 
amendments  as  parts  of  the  Federal  Constitution  and  of 
binding  force,  had  abandoned  all  idea  of  restricting 


KECONSTKUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  453 

suffrage  on  account  of  race  or  color,  or  withholding  from 
the  freed  negroes  of  the  State  any  rights  to  which  they 
were  entitled  under  the  Constitution  and  laws  in  force. 
They  had  an  intensified  opposition  to  the  national  Repub 
lican  party;  had  been  exasperated  by  its  course,  under 
General  Grant's  administration,  toward  the  South,  and 
toward  the  party  while  in  power  in  the  State  under  Gov 
ernor  Bullock's  administration.  They  ardently  desired 
to  change  the  national  Government  from  the  control  of 
the  Republican  to  that  of  the  national  Democratic  party ; 
but  they  despaired  of  hope  in  that  grand  result  by  an 
attempt  to  elect  a  Democratic  President.  Such  appeared 
to  be  the  decisive  judgment  of  most  of  the  leading  minds 
of  the  party  north,  and  such  was  the  action  of  State  or 
ganizations  north,  as  to  then  render  the  attempt  nugatory 
and  hopeless.  The  next  great  aim  indicated  by  the 
Northern  Democrats  was  to  meet  the  overtures  of  the 
more  moderate  wing  of  the  Republicans,  who  sympathized 
with  them  in  suppressing  the  abuses  of  the  ruling  party, — 
in  the  hands  generally  of  extreme  and  severe  men, — and 
in  the  re-establishment  of  law  and  order  and  peace,  and 
protection  to  the  people  of  the  South,  white  and  black, 
and  to  the  stability  of  State  laws  and  tribunals.  As  a 
choice,  it  was  the  object  of  intense  desire  to  place  that 
class  of  men  in  power  in  lieu  of  those  of  whose  exactions, 
oppressions,  and  abuses  they  complained. 

The  consequence  was  that  this  State  in  its  party  or 
ganization  glided  smoothly  into  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Greeley,  the  ratification  of  the  platform  and  policy  of  the 
national  party  that  placed  him  in  nomination,  and,  by  her 
delegates  accredited  to  the  national  convention  of  the 
party,  actually  participated  in  the  nomination. 

There  had  been,  however,  a  point  of  radical  difference 


454  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

of  opinion  and  action  among  the  native  and  original  citi 
zens  of  the  State,  who  had  been  at  variance  with  the 
Democrats  and  acted  with  the  Kepublicans.  Some  of 
them  were  radicalized  in  sentiment,  feeling,  and  opinion, 
hated  the  Democratic  party  and  its  leaders,  and  became 
fully  identified  with  the  national  party.  They  were  few 
in  numbers,  but  acted  in  concert  with  the  national  party 
in  this  State,  composed  mainly  of  negroes,  and  supported 
General  Grant  for  the  second  term. 

A  large  portion  of  them  regarded  the  organization  for 
the  support  of  the  Government  in  the  reconstruction  of 
the  State,  her  rehabiliment  and  restoration  to  the  Union, 
as  having  accomplished  the  object  that  had  separated 
them  from  their  old  party.  They  had  lived  to  see  the 
grounds  taken  by  them  in  1867 — and  maintained  against 
great  opposition,  and  in  the  face  of  denunciation  and 
abuse,  in  1868 — occupied  openly  by  the  national  party 
to  which  they  had  belonged,  and  by  the  leaders  in  official 
position  in  the  State,  and  by  the  men  who  shaped  and 
controlled  the  action  of  the  Democratic  party  in  this 
State;  that  the  party  now  led  by  the  men  who  had  de 
nounced  them  by  resolutions  of  the  most  unequivocal 
character  sustained  their  action  in  everything  wherein 
they  had  differed.  This  wing  of  the  reconstruction  party 
was  led  by  a  few  of  the  best  men  of  the  old  party,  prom 
inent  among  them  being  ex-Governor  Joseph  E.  Brown. 

The  sequence  was  easy,  logical,  and  natural.  They 
all  came  together  and  cordially  united  in  the  support  of 
Mr.  Greeley,  and  secured  his  triumphant  success  in  this 
State,  though  of  course  he  was  defeated  in  the  Union. 
They  have  acted  in  harmony  in  State  and  National  elec 
tions  since  that  time,  and  the  bitterness  that  existed  be 
tween  them  has  in  great  part  passed  away. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  455 

BRIEF  RESUME  OF  POLITICAL  CHANGES. 

From  1850  to  1872,  a  period  of  only  twenty-two  years, 
the  changes  of  political  parties  were  numerous,  rapid,  and 
in  many  respects,  marvellous.  At  and  prior  to  the  first 
period  named,  the  voters  of  the  State,  then  composed  only 
of  white  men,  as  well  as  the  public  virtue,  patriotism  and 
intelligence,  were  divided  with  great  e'quality  between  the 
national  Democratic  and  Whig  parties.  An  election  with 
a  change  of  only  a  few  hundred  votes  often  had  the  effect 
to  shift  the  majority  and  predominance  from  one  party  to 
the  other  in  this  State.  The  popularity  of  leaders  or  of 
particular  measures,  or  the  want  of  it,  was  sufficient  to 
effect  a  change  of  political  power  in  the  government. 
This  state  of  parties  was  a  constant  guard  over  the  public 
administration,  and  to  a  very  large  extent  a  protection 
to  the  people  against  excesses  and  abuses  of  power  and 
prerogatives. 

At  this  time,  as  we  have  seen,  the  division  arose  be 
tween  the  leaders  and  extended  to  the  people,  as  to  the 
course  this  State  should  pursue  on  account  of  alleged  and 
admitted  wrongs  of  the  Federal  government  in  the  anti- 
slavery  policy  of  the  compromise  measure  of  that  year 
enacted  by  Congress,  known  as  the  Omnibus  Bill,  ad 
mitting  California  as  a  State,  with  her  alleged  fraudu 
lently  procured,  anti-slavery  constitution ;  the  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  alleged  to 
be  a  violation  of  the  Federal  constitution ;  the  purchase, 
at  the  price  of  $3,000,000,  of  territory  of  Texas,  a  slave 
State,  and  annexing  it  to  New  Mexico,  a  then  being  or 
ganized  territory ;  the  interdiction  of  slavery  north  of  a 
certain  line  in  that  territory  and  Utah,  and  the  refusal  to 
provide  for  its  establishment  or  protection  south  thereof; 


456  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

and  the  law  providing  for  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves 
from  Northern  States  and  Territories,  to  their  owners. 

This  difference  suspended  both  organized  parties,  and 
produced  in  their  stead  two  new  parties,  called  the  Union 
and  Southern  Rights  parties,  which  for  a  short  time  were 
intensely  opposed  and  bitter  toward  each  other.  The  set 
tlement  of  the  controversy  by  the  action  of  a  State  con 
vention,  and  the  acceptance  thereof  on  the  part  of  both, 
dissolved  these  new  parties  and  remitted  most  of  the  men 
in  them  to  their  old  alignments  for  the  presidential  con 
test  of  1852,  from  which  time  forward  until  1860,  the 
national  Democratic  party  remained  organized  in  the 
State.  But  the  overthrow  of  Fillmore  and  such  other  na 
tional  men  as  were  acceptable  to  the  southern  entire 
Whig  party,  and  the  nomination  of  General  Scott,  who 
was  obnoxious  to  many  of  the  most  powerful  leaders,  as 
a  candidate  of  the  party  for  President,  precipitated  a  divi 
sion  of  the  party,  and  caused  the  nomination  of  Webster 
and  Jenkins.  The  elements,  however,  came  together  un 
der  the  name  of  the  Constitutional  Union  party  in  1853, 
in  the  support  of  Mr.  Jenkins  for  governor.  And  again, 
in  1855,  with  the  loss  of  some  members  and  leaders,  and 
some  Democratic  accessions  in  the  support  of  Garrett  An 
drews,  the  "  Know  Nothing  "  or  American  party  candidate. 
Under  the  name  of  "  opposition  party,"  after  the  defeat 
of  the  American  party,  their  organization,  though  in  a 
minority,  was  kept  up  and  active  until  after  the  presi 
dential  election  of  1860,  which  resulted  in  favor  of  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

In  that  contest  the  Democratic  party  had  divided, 
the  larger  wing  supporting  Breckenridge  and  Lane,  the 
smaller  wing  supporting  Douglas  and  Johnson.  The 
opposition  party,  composed  in  the  main  of  the  old  Whigs 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA.  457 

who  had  been  Know  Nothings  or  Americans,  supported 
Bell  and  Everett,  the  national  Whig  nominees.  The  Re 
publican  or  radical  party,  supporting  Mr.  Lincoln,  was 
sectional  in  organization,  and  had  no  electoral  ticket  or 
acknowledged  supporters  in  the  State.  His  election 
caused  an  immediate  suspension  of  all  parties  in  the 
State,  and  new  alignments  growing  out  of  differences  of 
opinion  as  to  the  wisest  and  best  course  to  be  pursued. 

A  majority  of  old  Democrats  with  a  large  minority  of 
the  old  opposition  espoused  the  cause  of  secession.  A 
majority  of  the  opposition  with  a  large  minority  of  old 
Democrats — opposing  separate  State  action,  and  advo 
cating  that  whatsoever  action  should  be  taken  should  be 
by  co-operation  of  Southern  States — constituted  a  co 
operation  party,  which  was  defeated  in  the  election  of 
delegates  to  a  State  convention ;  a  majority  of  whom 
voted  for  immediate  secession,  and  declared  a  secession 
and  separation  from  the  other  States  of  the  Union.  There 
upon  both  parties,  while  there  was  a  partial  division  on 
State  affairs  and  in  the  election  of  State  officers  during 
the  war,  cordially  united  in  the  revolutionary  movement, 
and  supported  the  Confederacy  and  the  war. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  and  up  to  the  beginning  of 
Congressional  reconstruction  under  the  amendments  of 
the  Constitution  we  had  no  political  party,  but  all  stood 
together  upon  the  platform  created  for  a  common  people, 
under  the  situation  of  total  subjugation  and  defeat. 

We  have  seen  that  when  the  freed  black  race  came 
upon  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  under  the 
coercive  measures  we  have  described,  the  voters  of  that 
race  massed  themselves  under  the  banner  of  their  natural 
allies,  the  national  Republican  party,  and  that  the  over 
whelming  majority  of  the  white  voters  were  aligned 


458       RECONSTRUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. 

against  them,  and  vindictively  and  spitefully  against  na 
tive  Georgians  and  Northern  Eepublicans  who  advised 
and  favored  accepting  the  terms  of  reconstruction  dictated 
to  us;  and  that  in  the  brief  period  from  1868  to  1872 
the  majority  yielded  all  opposition  to  the  terms  and  to 
the  constitutional  amendments,  and  cordially  affiliated 
with  the  despised  few  at  home  and  the  great  body  of  the 
national  party  in  supporting  and  upholding  them. 


CHAPTER  XIV.  / 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOVERNOR  BULLOCK. 

Recurring  to  the  narrative  of  the  State  Legislature  un 
der  Governor  Bullock,  it  will  appear  that  the  subject  of 
prolongation  excited  much  debate  and  controversy  in 
that  body,  and  by  the  press.  In  this  discussion  it  was  in 
sisted  that,  in  the  face  of  the  constitution,  this  General 
Assembly,  arbitrarily  and  without  the  two  thirds  vote  re 
quired,  prolonged  its  session  in  order  to  retain  office  and 
power;  on  the  other  hand,  that  their  sessions  were  legal, 
and  demanded  by  the  public  interest  and  policy  of  the 
State.  The  matter  is  of  vital  interest,  on  account  of  the 
passage  of  most  important  acts  in  the  session  alleged  to 
have  been  illegally  prolonged,  and  that  the  acts  were 
therefore  void.  The  constitution  prohibited  that  any  ses 
sion  after  the  second  under  that  constitution  should 
extend  beyond  forty  days,  except  by  a  two  thirds  vote  of 
both  branches.  The  session  of  1868  was  adjourned,  and 
a  session  held  in  1869,  which  was  adjourned  and  a  session 
held  in  1870,  which  by  only  a  majority  vote  was  pro 
longed,  and  important  bills  passed  after  the  expiration  of 
forty  days — the  lease  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  rail 
road  bill,  to  which  special  reference  will  be  made,  the 
district  court  bill,  the  act  requiring  the  taxes  to  have, 
been  paid  in  before  certain  old  debts  could  be  collected 
by  suit,  and  other  statutes. 

The  matter,  however,  went  before  the  supreme  court, 


460  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

a  majority  of  the  judges  deciding  that  not  to  be  a  session 
after  the  second  under  this  constitution  ;  that  the  State 
government  was  provisional  until  the  constitutional 
amendments  had  been  legally  adopted,  as  we  shall  here 
after  see.  And  upon  these  rulings  the  legality  of  prolon 
gation  was  settled. 

This  Legislature,  at  its  first  session,  proceeded  upon  the 
apparent  pressing  necessities  and  demands  of  the  people 
in  their  impoverished  condition.  Slaves  had  been  eman 
cipated,  and  lost  as  property  to  the  former  owners ;  the 
labor  system  had  been  demoralized  ;  real  estate  had  be 
come  redundant,  and  declined  in  market  value  ;  live  stock 
of  all  kinds  reduced  by  the  waste  of  war ;  much  property 
had  been  destroyed  by  fire ;  a  great  deal  had  depreciated 
by  age  and  decay,  for  want  of  repairs.  The  circulating 
medium,  gold  and  silver,  had  been  carried  out  during  the 
war ;  bank  bills  withdrawn  from  circulation,  and  many  of 
them  of  reduced  and  doubtful  value ;  Confederate  money 
and  bonds  that  had  taken  the  place  of  these  had  died 
with  the  government  that  issued  them.  A  large  propor 
tion  of  the  State  securities  and  treasury  notes  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  had  been  issued  under  laws  enacted  in  aid 
of  the  rebellion,  and  had,  under  Federal  coercion,  been 
repudiated  and  made  worthless  to  the  holders.  The  peo 
ple  who  owed  debts  contracted  on  the  faith  of  property 
and  securities  now  destroyed  sympathized  in  the  efforts 
of  the  government  of  the  State  to  afford  them  relief. 
They  regarded  it  as  just  that  capital  invested  in  promises 
and  obligations  to  pay  money  should  share  the  general 
loss,  and  be  abated  in  proportion  to. the  losses  of  other 
capital.  Many  creditors,  recognizing  the  justice  and  hu 
manity  of  this  theory,  did  not  hesitate  to  compromise 
and  settle  at  large  reductions  debts  due  them,  while 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  461 

many  insisted  on  the  stern  legal  right  to  collect  all  that 
was  due  them. 

Many  debtors  paid  up  entire,  dollar  for  dollar.  Many 
others  were  willing  and  ready  to  adjust  and  compromise, 
and  pay  as  much  as  they  were  reasonably  able  to  pay ; 
while  others  favored  repudiation  of  debts,  and  favored  all 
the  means  proposed  for  avoiding,  postponing,  and  obstruct 
ing  the  payment  of  old  debts,  and  for  reducing  the 
amounts  due  and  claimed  on  them.  They  favored  the 
ordinance  of  1865,  the  provisions  of  the  stay  laws,  the 
constitution  of  1868,  and  the  bankrupt  law  of  1867. 

A  voluminous  act  was  passed  for  the  relief  of  debtors 
and  to  authorize  the  adjustment  of  debts  upon  principles 
of  equity,  and  an  act  to  carry  into  execution  the  pro 
vision  of  the  State  constitution  setting  apart  a  homestead 
of  realty  to  the  value  of  $2,000,  and  exemption  of  person 
ality  of  $1,000,  both  on  gold  value.  These  acts  gave  rise 
to  immense  litigation  in  all  the  courts  of  the  State.  On 
writs  of  error  to  the  United  States  on  constitutional 
grounds,  those  laws  which  tended  to  prevent  the  collec 
tion  of  pre-existing  debts  were  set  aside,  as  impairing  con 
tracts  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Even 
debts  due  for  slaves  were  held  to  be  binding  by  that  tri 
bunal,  notwithstanding  slavery  had  been  abolished  and 
forever  prohibited  by  the  Federal  Constitution. 

The  spirit  of  enterprise  and  development  then  rife 
among  the  people  found  a  ready  response  in  this  Legisla 
ture,  in  the  liberal  acts  incorporating  railroad  and  other 
companies,  and  other  public  acts  to  which  reference  will 
be  made. 

On  the  29th  July,  1868,  this  Legislature  on  joint  ballot 
elected  Honorable  Joshua  Hill  and  Dr.  Homer  V.  M.  Mil 
ler  United  States  senators.  By  resolutions  respectively 


462  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

in  the  House  and  Senate,  passed  in  September,  the  colored 
members  of  the  Legislature  were  declared  ineligible,  and 
for  that  reason  were  expelled.  And  thereupon  a  new 
reconstruction  began. 

These  negro  members  had  been  holding  seats  and  act 
ing  as  legislators  about  two  months,  and  voted  on  the  pas 
sage  of  laws  as  well  as  in  the  election  of  officers  and  of 
senators.  They  had  been  admitted  to  seats  without  ques 
tion  of  eligibility,  as  had  all  the  white  members,  without 
enquiry  as  to  whether  they  were  eligible  to  seats  under 
the  requirements  of  the  14th  constitutional  amend 
ment. 

When  Mr.  Hill,  one  of  the  senators  elect,  applied  for  his 
seat  at  the  December  session  of  Congress,  objection  was 
made,  upon  the  grounds  of  these  alleged  illegal  proceed 
ings  ;  and  thereupon  the  whole  matter  underwent  investi 
gation.  It  transpired  that  when  negro  members  were 
expelled,  the  white  members  receiving  a  minority  of  votes 
were  seated,  that  twenty-seven  members  disqualified  by 
the  14 th  amendment  held  seats,  and  voted  for  senators. 

At  the  session  of  December,  1869,  upon  the  recom 
mendation  of  President  Grant,  Congress  proceeded  with 
the  reconstruction  of  Georgia  by  the  passage  of  a  law,  by 
large  majorities  in  both  houses,  declaring  the  government 
of  the  State  provisional,  until  the  State  should  be  ad 
mitted  to  representation  in  Congress.  Brevet  Major-Gen- 
eral  Alfred  H.  Terry  was  in  command  of  Georgia  as  a 
military  district — assigned  by  the  President,  January  4, 
1870.  " 

The  Legislature,  acting  under  the  recommendation  of 
Governor  Bullock,  adopted  the  14th  Amendment  again 
which  had  been  proposed  by  the  39th  Congress,  and 
ratified  by  that  body  in  July,  1868.  Also  the  15th 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  463 

Amendment,  which  in  the  meantime  had  been  proposed 
by  the  40th  Congress.  The  General  Assembly  also  pro 
ceeded  to  restore  the  negro  members  who  had  been 
ejected,  and  to  apply  the  test  oath  under  the  14th  Amend 
ment  to  the  senators  and  representatives,  and  to  seat  the 
defeated  competitors  of  all  who  refused  to  qualify  under 
the  requirements  of  that  oath.  Some  members  who  had 
served  through  two  sessions  previously  were  ejected,  and 
the  persons  who  had  received  a  minority  of  votes,  called 
and  qualified  in  their  places,  and  were  voted  pay  from 
the  first  of  the  first  session.  The  ejected  negro  members 
were  restored,  receiving  full  pay  for  the  whole  time ;  and 
the  members  who  had  been  temporarily  seated  retired  on 
pay  for  the  time  they  had  served. 

Under  the  constitution  of  1868,  the  Governor's  term  of 
office  was  four  years.  Hence,  in  the  popular  elections  of 
1 870,  there  were  only  the  representatives  and  half  the 
senators  of  a  legislative  body  to  elect.  This  election 
having  resulted  in  the  selection  of  Democrats  with  a  de 
cisive  majority  in  both  houses,  Governor  Bullock  would 
have  to  hold  the  executive  office  contemporaneously 
with  a  Legislature  fully  in  sympathy  with  the  people  and 
therefore  hostile  to  him  ;  and  there  being  various  matters 
hinted  at,  and  statements  made  in  private,  and  some  of 
them  in  the  public  press  of  the  State,  imputing  criminal 
ity  on  his  part  in  the  administration  of  his  office,  and  a 
disposition  to  investigate  and  to  prosecute,  the  dispir 
ited  governor  resigned  his  office  and  left  the  State. 

At  a  later  period,  and  after  indictments  had  been  pre 
ferred,  the  ex-governor  was  brought  back  under  requisi 
tion  of  his  successor,  Governor  Smith,  placed  on  trial  in 
the  superior  court  at  Atlanta,  and  fully  and  finally  ac 
quitted  by  the  juries. 


464  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

Governor  Bullock's  departure  from  the  State  and  vaca 
tion  of  the  executive  office  occurred  just  before  the 
assembling  of  the  Legislature-elect,  which  was  known  to 
contain  in  each  house  a  majority  of  Democrats.  Benjamin 
Conley  of  Augusta — a  man  of  Northern  birth  but  long 
residence  there,  a  Republican,  who  had  maintained  the 
character  of  a  good  citizen  and  reliable  man — was  one  of 
that  half  of  the  Senate  elected  for  four  years,  and  there 
fore  would  hold  over  with  the  governor.  He  was  presi 
dent  of  the  Senate  at  the  previous  sessions,  and  therefore 
assumed  the  duties  of  governor  as  required  by  the  con 
stitution. 

Upon  the  organization  of  this  Legislature,  Hon.  L.  N. 
Trammell,  of  Dalton,  was  elected  president ;  and  Hon. 
James  M.  Smith,  of  Columbus,  speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives.-  Prompt  action  was  taken  by  the  Legis 
lature  to  bring  on  an  election  to  fill  for  the  unexpired 
term  the  vacant  executive  office,  while  Mr.  Conley,  a 
member  of  the  Senate,  was  exercising  the  functions  of 
the  office. 

At  a  party  convention,  Hon.  James  M.  Smith  was  put 
in  nomination,  and  at  the  election  held  soon  thereafter 
he  was  elected  without  formidable  opposition.  Soon  there 
after  he  was  duly  inaugurated,  and  entered  upon  the 
duties  of  the  office.  Hon.  Jos.  B.  Gumming,  of  Augusta, 
was  elected  speaker  in  his  stead. 

During  the  summer  of  1872 — six  months  after  the  in 
stallation  of  Governor  Smith — the  Democratic  party  of 
the  State  was  preparing  by  the  appointment  of  delegates 
to  the  national  convention,  in  anticipation  of  the  nomi 
nation  of  Mr.  Greeley,  a  Republican ;  and  the  full  ratifi 
cation  of  reconstruction,  and  all  the  amendments  to  the 
Federal  Constitution,  and  the  unqualified  pledge  of  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  465 

party  to  their  support, — all  of  which  occurred  soon  after. 
The  convention  of  the  party,  of  the  State,  in  full  accord 
-with  the  people,  most  cordially  ratified  the  action  of  their 
national  delegates,  and  renoininated  Governor  Smith, 
without  opposition,  for  the  four  years'  term  next  ensuing. 
He  was  elected  by  an  immense  majority  over  Hon.  Daw- 
son  A.  Walker,  the  Republican  candidate.  The  public 
odium  that  had  attached  to  the  Republican  party  during 
its  rule  in  the  State,  followed  by  the  departure  of  the 
chief,  had  completely  dispirited  the  people  and  many  of 
the  leaders.  Judge  Walker,  though  himself  an  able  man 
of  good  private  character,  was  literally  overwhelmed  by 
the  new  and  popular  Democratic  governor,  who  had  the 
sympathies  of  the  people  in  all  parts  of  the  State. 

The  most  important  work  upon  which  the  legislators  at 
this  juncture  entered,  the  one  in  which  the  people  were 
most  in  sympathy  and  accord  with  them,  was  the  investi 
gation  of  the  acts  of  malversation  and  fraud,  which  had 
been  publicly  alleged  through  the  press  of  the  State,  dur 
ing  the  preceding  administration — by  the  governor,  the 
legislature,  and  public  officers  and  employees  of  the  State. 

As  it  is  the  purpose  to  defer  a  full  account  of  the  times 
following  those  of  Republican  rule,  to  a  later  volume,  I 
only  present  here  the  results  of  investigation  in  the  im 
portant  matters  that  had  previously  transpired,  and  were 
part  and  parcel  of  action  of  predecessors. 

FRAUDULENT  BONDS  AND  PUBLIC  DEBTS. 

This  subject  is  directly  connected  with  the  faith,  the 
credit,  and  prosperity  of  Georgia.  The  excitement  pro 
duced  by  its  discussion  and  exposition  was  intense  among 
our  own  people,  and  also  among  the  holders  of  the  State's 
obligations  abroad. 


so 


466  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

There  were  outstanding  bonds  and  obligations  to  the 
amount  of  $18,133,000.  A  majority  of  these  bonds  and 
obligations  had  been  denounced  as  'bogus  ;  that  they  were 
fraudulently  issued,  and  without  authority  of  law.  It 
was  also  alleged  and  claimed  that  they  were  issued  for 
valuable  consideration  by  the  governor  acting  publicly 
for  the  State,  and  therefore  the  State  was  bound  to  re 
deem  them.  And  still  more  strongly  was  it  urged,, that 
very  many  of  them  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  inno 
cent  holders — persons  who  were  totally  disconnected  with 
the  alleged  frauds,  who  at  the  time  of  paying  value  for 
them  had  no  knowledge  or  notice  thereof,  and  therefore 
acted  in  the  most  perfect  good  faith  in  taking  them  as 
the  bonds  of  Georgia. 

The  committee  appointed  for  this  important  investiga 
tion  were,  from  the  Senate,  Hon.  Thomas  J.  Simmons  of 
Maoon,  oaow  judge,  by  election  of  the  last  General  Assem 
bly,  of  the  Macon  circuit;  from  the  House,  Hon  John 
I.  Hall,  'Of  Upson  county,  afterward  appointed  by  Gov 
ernor  Smith  judge  of  the  Flint  circuit ;  and  Hon.  Garnett 
McMillan  -of  Habersham  county,  afterwards  elected  to 
Congress,  who  died  during  the  term. 

The  committee  devoted  great  'labor  and  attention  to 
the  facts  that  they  elicited,  and  to  the  laws  under  which 
the  questioned  bonds  were  issued,  before  making  their 
report,  which  involved  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
State's  debts  and  liabilities.  The  public  current  of  opin 
ion  and  feeling  ran  strongly  with  the  committee  and 
against  the  validity  of  all  bonds  not  issued  strictly  accord 
ing  to  law.  Their  report  was  adopted  and  became 
the  law  as  to  those  debts.  I  condense  from  the  exten 
sive  printed  report,  as  follows  : — 


ADMINISTKATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  467 

ALABAMA  AND  CHATTANOOGA  RAILROAD  BONDS. 

In  the  matter  of  the  Alabama  and  Chattanooga  rail 
road  bonds,  under  act  of  the  Legislature  of  March  20, 
1869,  granting  aid  to  this  company,  the  governor  en 
dorsed  their  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $194,000,  that  all 
the  requirements  of  the  act,  and  the  Constitution  were 
fully  complied  with,  and  the  proceeding  regular,  except 
the  omission  to  attach  the  great  seal  of  the  State  to  the 
bonds ;  and  that  long  acquiescence  amounted  to  a  ratifica 
tion,  and  that  the  State  is  bound  by  her  endorsement  of 
these  bonds. 

BAINBRIDGE,   CUTHBERT,  AND    COLUMBUS   RAILROAD 

BONDS. 

The  act  of  March  18,  1869,  granting  aid  to  this  com 
pany  required  the  completion  by  the  company  of  twenty 
miles  of  the  road,  to  be  in  running  order  and  free  from 
iiicumbrance,  as  a  precedent  condition  to  the  indorsement 
of  the  bonds  to  be  issued  for  additional  building  and 
equipment;  without  the  completion  of  any  part  of  the 
road,  Governor  Bullock  -endorsed  bonds  to  the  amount  of 
$240,000,  to  be  binding  when  the  signature  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  and  the  great  seal  of  the  State  should  be 
attached,  which  was  never  done  These  bonds  were 
negotiated  to  and  held  by  persons  who  knew,  when  tak 
ing  them,  of  the  incomplete  condition  of  the  work,  and 
that  the  State  would  not  be  bound  by  the  indorsement 
until  the  company  should  comply  with  the  law.  These 
bonds  were  declared  void  as  to  the  State's  indorsement. 

At  the  time  of  this  action  II.  I.  Kimball  &  Co.,  who 
had  obtained  the  charter  from  the  corporators,  who  were 
citizens  residing  at  Bainbridge,  Cuthbert  and  Columbus — 


468  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

Mr.  Kimball  himself  being  president  of  the  road — had 
failed,  the  work  was  entirely  abandoned,  and  so  it  has  con 
tinued  to  this  time. 


CARTERSVILLE  AND  VAN  WERT  RAILROAD  BONDS. 

By  act  of  March  12,  1869,  providing  for  aid  to  this 
company,  and  without  a  compliance  with  its  requirements, 
Governor  Bullock  endorsed  the  bonds  to  the  amount  of 
$275,000.  This  road  also  had  passed  from  the  corpo- 
rators/citizens  of  that  section  of  the  State,  into  the  hands 
of  H.  I.  Kimball  &  Co.,  and  Mr.  Kimball,  who  was  presi- 
ident,  negotiated  them  to  Henry  Clews  of  New  York, 
the  then  holder,  who  was  also  treasurer  of  the  company, 
and  had  knowledge  of  the  failure  to  comply  with  the  law 
prior  to  the  endorsement  of  the  bonds. 

By  Act  of  the  Legislature  of  October  5,  1870,  the 
name  of  the  company  was  changed  to  that  of  "  Cherokee 
Bailroad,"  instead  of  "  Cartersville  and  Van  Wert."  And 
thereupon,  and  while  there  was  not  a  compliance  of  the 
company  with  the  requirements  of  the  Act,  the  Governor 
indorsed  $300,000  of  the  bonds  of  the  Cherokee  Railroad 
Company  to  take  the  place  of  those  previously  issued, 
which  latter  were  to  be  returned  and  cancelled.  These 
Mr.  Kimball  negotiated,  without  taking  up  or  returning 
the  others. 

Both  sets  of  bonds  for  this  company  were  declared 
void  as  to  the  State's  indorsement  thereon. 

BRUNSWICK  AND  ALBANY  RAILROAD  BONDS. 

There  were  two  Acts  granting  aid  to  this  company. 
One  of  March  18,  1869,  providing  for  $15,000  a  mile  for 
the  whole  road  from  Brunswick,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  to 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  469 

the  river  Chattahoochee,  with  rigid  provisions  to  secure 
the  State  against  loss  on  account  of  her  indorsement  of 
the  company's  bonds.  The  other  amendatory  of  the  first, 
— 17th  October,  1870,  when  about  100  miles  of  the  road 
was  completed, —  providing  for  the  issuing  of  the  State's 
own  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $8,000  a  mile  for  the  whole 
road,  and  authorizing  and  requiring  the  Governor  to  take 
up  the  company's  second  mortgage  bonds  amounting  to 
$2,300,000,  and  to  pay  the  company  for  the  same  in  the 
bonds  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  at  par,  amounting  to 
$1,880,000. 

Evidence  is  arrayed  of  the  guilty  knowledge  and  par 
ticipation  of  the  holders  and  interested  parties  abroad ; 
many  gross  irregularities  are  cited ;  and  the  committee 
say:— 

u  There  was  no  investment  by  private  parties,  to  give 
to  the  State  the  security  required  by  the  constitution  as 
a  condition  precedent  to  the  indorsement  of  its  guaranty. 
In  every  case,  the  bonds  to  cover  the  sum  of  the  author 
ized  guaranty  were  issued  and  indorsed  before  the  com 
pletion,  in  the  manner  required  by  law,  of  the  section  of 
the  road,  upon  the  completion  of  which  only  such  guar 
anty  could  be  given,  under  the  State  aid  acts."  Hence 
the  conclusion  that  the  bonds  were  void  as  to  the  State's 
indorsement.  Their  total  was  $1,480,000.  It  is  recited 
in  the  preamble  to  the  first-named  Act,  that  the  State 
was  indebted  to  the  owners  of  the  road ;  and  they  had 
been  damaged  $3,400,000  by  the  tearing  up  and  demoli 
tion  of  the  road  by  the  authority  of  the  State  during  the 
war. 

The  committee  say  this  is  false,  as  shown  by  the  testi 
mony  before  them.  That  the  control  taken  by  Governor 
Brown  in  October,  1861,  was  at  the  instance  of  the  stock- 


470  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

holders  and  managers,  through  their  agent  and  president, 
and  under  a  contract  with  them.  That  the  seizure  of  the 
iron  and  materials  of  the  road  was  consented  to  and 
acquiesced  in  by  the  board  of  directors,  and  was  not  the 
act  of  the  State  or  her  authority,  but  of  the  Confederate 
Government;  and  they  were  used  to  facilitate  the  trans 
portation  of  troops  and  supplies  for  the  Confederate 
armies.  And  that  the  iron  seized  was  all  paid  for. 

There  was  great  opposition  at  the  time  to  this  bill,  on 
account  of  the  large  sum  of  $15,000  a  mile  for  the  whole 
road,  a  part  of  which  had  been  graded  and  in  use  before, 
and  on  the  grounds  set  forth  in  this  committee's  report. 

The  second  bill,  approved  by  Governor  Bullock  Octo 
ber  17,  1870,  as  a  fraud,  seems  to  have  no  parallel  in  the 
history  of  this  State,  in  immensity  of  design,  in  abuse  of 
public  trust,  and  in  utter  want  of  shame  on  the  part  of 
the  interested  parties  and  outside  managers.  It  was  sup 
pressed  in  publishing  the  Acts  of  the  Legislature.  No 
mention  is  made  of  the  subject  of  this  bill  in  any  of  its 
phases  in  the  Journal  of  either  house  of  the  Legislature. 

The  committee  in  their  report,  written  by  Judge  Sim 
mons,  say : — 

"  This  Act  was  prepared  by  W.  L.  Avery  in  New  York, 
by  him  submitted  to  the  board  of  directors  in  said  city, 
and  by  said  board  accepted  and  approved  before  it  was 
forwarded  for  introduction  in  the  Georgia  Legislature. 
Frost  and  Clews,  the  president  and  treasurer,  were  cogni 
zant  of  the  nature  of  the  bill,  and  were  advised  of  every 
step  in  the  course  of  its  progress,  of  which  any  other 
person  in  interest  in  New  York  was  informed." 

At  the  date  of  its  passage,  this  New  York  company — 
having  had  issued  by  the  company,  and  indorsed  by  the 
governor,  in  every  instance  before  the  completion  of  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  471 

work  required  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  indorse 
ment,  and  not  having  invested  any  private  capital  to 
secure  the  State,  as  the  organic  law  required — had  nego 
tiated  or  hypothecated  these  bonds,  and  had  obtained 
money  thereon,  and  had  constructed  and  placed  in  run 
ning  order  about  100  miles  of  the  road.  By  the  terms 
of  this  Act,  prepared  by  the  attorney  of  the  company  in 
New  York,  it  was  provided  for  an  additional  sum  of 
$8,000  per  mile  for  the  whole  distance  from  Brunswick 
to  the  Chattahoochee ;  not  by  indorsing  the  company's 
bonds,  but  by  issuing  the  State's  gold  bonds;  and  for 
taking  up  the  company's  second  mortgage  bonds  to  the 
amount  of  $2,350,000,  and  paying  the  company  for  the 
same  in  the  bonds  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  at  par,  amount 
ing  to  $1,880,000;  and  for  placing  the  whole  power 
and  supervision  of  the  affairs  in  the  Governor  alone,  and 
cutting  off  the  supervision  of  the  State  treasurer.  The 
report  of  this  committee  has  not  been  denied,  or  the  evi 
dence  on  which  it  was  founded  called  in  question  to  im 
peach  its  verity.  That  report  contains  the  following 
terse  passage  upon  this  stupendous  Act : — 

"  There  were,  then,  indorsed,  under  Act  of  March  18,  1869,  3,300  six  per 
cent,  gold  bonds  of  $1000  each,  making  $3,300,000.  There  were  also  issued 
in  aid  of  this  road,  to  be  exchanged  for  its  second  mortgage  bonds,  1,880 
seven  per  cent.  State  gold  bonds  of  $1000  each,  making  $1,880,000.  By  the 
terms  of  the  first  Act,  approved  March  18,  1869,  granting  aid  to  this  com 
pany,  '  twenty  consecutive  miles '  must  have  been  built  '  in  a  substantial 
manner'  and  be  placed  'in  good  running  and  working  order,  which  shall  be 
certified  to  by  an  engineer  appointed  by  his  Excellency  the  Governor/  where 
upon  the  '  company  shall  present  to  the  treasurer  of  the  State  of  Georgia  the 
bonds  of  the  company,'  'amounting,  in  the  aggregate,  to  $15,000  per  mile 
upon  the  road  so  completed,  and  from  time  to  time  thereafter,  as  often  as 
said  company  shall  have  completed  any  additional  consecutive  ten  miles,'  'to 
be  certified  as  above,'  '  the  like  indorsement  may  be  had.'  By  the  Act  of 
17th  October,  1870,  the  above  Act  was  so  amended  as  to  require  the  presen 
tation  for  indorsement  of  the  company's  bonds  to  the  governor  instead  of 


472  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

the  treasurer  of  the  State.  This  same  amending  Act  authorized  and  required 
the  governor  to  take  up  the  company's  second  mortgage  bonds,  amounting 
to  $2,350,000,  and  to  pay  the  company  for  the  same  in  the  bonds  of  the  State 
of  Georgia  at  par,  amounting  to  $1,880,000 — that  bonds  of  the  State,  at  the 
rate  of  $8,000  per  mile,  were  to  be  issued  to  replace  the  second  mortgage 
bonds  of  the  company  at  the  rate  of  $10,000  per  mile ;  and  this  wise  provis 
ion,  for  the  credit  of  the  State,  was  to  be  intrusted  specially  to  the  governor, 
who,  to  render  assurance  of  the  State's  credit  doubly  sure,  was  further 
empowered,  upon  sixty  days'  failure  of  payment,  at  any  time,  of  the  semi 
annual  interest  on  these  second  mortgage  bonds,  or  the  like  failure  to  deposit 
the  sinking  fund  of  two  per  centum  provided  for  in  the  deed  of  trust,  to  take 
possession  of  the  road  with  all  its  franchises  and  all  the  rolling  stock  and 
other  property,  real  and  personal,  and  sell  the  same.  By  reason  of  the  un 
timely  ending  of  his  Excellency's  administration,  this  sale  never  transpired." 

MACON  AND  BRUNSWICK  RAILROAD  BONDS. 

The  acts  under  which  the  bonds  of  this  company  were 
endorsed  by  Governor  Jenkins  to  the  amount  of  $450,- 
000,  and  by  Governor  Bullock,  to  the  amount  of  $1,500,- 
000  was  by  the  act  of  1866.  Under  an  amended  act  of 
1870,  Governor  Bullock  also  endorsed  bonds  to  the 
amount  of  $600,000,  making  a  grand  total  of  $2,550,- 
000. 

The  committee  sny  $2,100,000  were  actually  paid  in 
and  invested  in  the  road  in  good  faith  by  private  parties, 
prior  to  asking  for  or  receiving  the  aid.  This  was  equal 
to  the  amount  of  Governor  Bullock's  endorsement,  but 
not  to  that  of  all  the  bonds  endorsed.  The  committee 
referred  the  matter  to  the  Legislature  without  a  recom 
mendation;  and  thereupon  that  body  resolved  that  the 
State's  guaranty  placed  on  those  bonds  was  binding  upon 
the  State. 

SOUTH  GEORGIA  AND  FLORIDA  RAILROAD  BONDS. 

Under  act  of  26th  September,  1868,  granting  aid  to  this 
company,  Governor  Bullock  endorsed  their  bonds  to  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  473 

amount  of  $464,000.  The  statute  and  constitution  hav 
ing  been  strictly  complied  with,  the  endorsements  were 
declared  binding  upon  the  State. 

WESTERN  AND  ATLANTIC  EAILROAD  MORTGAGE  BONDS. 

The  sum  of  $614,000  of  these  bonds  prepared  and  ex 
ecuted  by  Governor  Jenkins,  left  by  him  in  the  Bank  of 
the  Kepublic  when  he  was  expelled  from  his  office,  came 
into  the  hands  of  Governor  Bullock,  who  endorsed  and 
used  them  legally  and  properly  in  taking  up  past  due 
bonds  of  the  State.  These  bonds  were  declared  valid  and 
binding  upon  the  State. 

CURRENCY  BONDS. 

Under  act  of  27th  August,  1870,  Governor  Bullock  is 
sued  $2,000,000  of  currency  bonds,  which  were  hypothe 
cated  Henry  Clews  &  Co.,  the  Fourth  National  Bank  of 
New  York,  and  Russell  Sage  of  New  York ;  and  loans 
were  made  to  the  State.  These  bonds  were  intended  as 
a  temporary  issue,  to  be  taken  up  and  cancelled  and  re 
turned  to  the  State  treasurer,  so  soon  as  the  bonds  author 
ized  by  act  of  September  15,  1870,  steel-engraved  quar 
terly  gold  bonds,  could  be  prepared ;  under  which,  early 
in  1871,  Governor  Bullock  prepared,  signed,  and  put  in 
circulation  $3,000,000,  and  directed  that  the  currency 
be  returned  as  cancelled.  Governor  Bullock  intrusted 
Mr.  H.  J.  Kimball  with  the  sale  of  the  gold  bonds,  with 
instructions  to  take  up  the  currency  bonds  held  by  the 
Fourth  National  bank,  and  by  Clews.  The  bank  surren 
dered  the  currency  bonds  to  Kimball,  who,  instead  of  re 
turning  them  as  instructed,  kept  $170,000  of  them,  and 
received  money  on  his  own  account.  Clews  receiving  the 
gold  bonds  refused  to  surrender  the  currency  bonds,  al- 


474  ADMINISTBATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

though  notified  that  they  were  retired  by  the  issue  of  the 
gold  bonds.  Russell  Sage  loaned  the  State  $275,000 
through  John  Rice,  and  received  $530,000  of  those  cur 
rency  bonds  as  collaterals.  Governor  Bullock  afterward 
forwarded  him  $500,000  of  the  gold  bonds  to  take  their 
place,  which  he  received ;  but  he  refused  to  surrender 
the  others,  thus  holding  $1,030,000,  to  secure  a  debt  of 
$275,000. 

Thereupon,  it  was  determined,  that  the  $2,000,000  of 
currency  bonds  were  all  retired  by  the  issue  of  the  quar 
terly  gold  bonds,  and  were  of  no  binding  force  against 
the  State  of  Georgia. 

QUARTERLY  GOLD  BONDS. 

Under  the  act  of  September  15,  1870,  which  did  not 
limit  the  amount  authorized,  Governor  Bullock  issued,  as 
we  have  seen,  $3,000,000.  This  authority  to  issue  gold 
bonds  was  to  pay  the  bonds,  coupons,  and  interest  of  the 
State,  due  or  to  become  due,  and  for  such  other  general 
or  special  pui  poses  as  the  General  Assembly  might  desig 
nate;  $300,000  of  these  bonds  which  had  been  hypothe 
cated  had  been  returned  ;  $102,000  not  hypothecated,  but 
in  the  hands  of  Henry  Clews  as  financial  agent  to  sell, 
the  committee  declare  not  binding  on  the  State.  The 
balance  were  $2,598,000,  some  of  which  were  hypothe 
cated,  and  some  had  been  sold.  Of  these  the  committee 
say  $350,000  were  given  for  the  opera  house,  for  the 
Capitol,  and  the  purchase  of  the  Executive  mansion. 
Mr.  Clews  sold  $1,650,000,  and  the  remainder  was  manip 
ulated  by  Kimball ;  the  amount  realized  by  him  not 
ascertained.  Clews  realized  about  $1,432,250;  of  this 
sum  $375,000  were  used  in  taking  up  past  due  bonds  and 
interest,  and  purchasing  gold  on  State  account ;  about 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  475 

$100,000  in  paying  coupons  of  Western  &  Atlantic  rail 
road  mortgage  bonds  and  interest  on  endorsed  bonds  of 
Alabama  and  Chattanooga  railroad  ;  $609,192  were  paid 
by  Clews  on  the  drafts  of  Bullock  and  Foster  Blodgett, 
the  larger  portion  of  which  was  represented  to  be  on  ac 
count  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  railroad;  $198,700 
were  paid  to  the  Fourth  National  bank  on  account  of  the 
State ;  and  the  remaining  $254,000  were  paid  for  adver 
tising,  expressage,  notarial  fees,  telegrams,  interest  on-  ad 
vances,  and  other  expenses  attending  the  sale.  The  com 
mittee  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  gold  bonds  issued 
by  Governor  Bullock  for  the  purchase  of  property,  or  sold 
in  the  markets  by  his  agents,  should  be  recognized  as 
good  and  binding ;  that  those  hypothecated,  and  on  which 
money  was  borrowed  by  the  State,  be  returned  to  the 
treasurer;  the  amount  borrowed,  with  interest  and  rea 
sonable  expenses  of  returning  the  bonds,  be  paid  by  the 
issuance  of  new  currency  bonds  having  the  same  time  to 
run  as  the  quarterly  gold  bonds,  or  in  cash,  at  the  option 
of  the  holders. 

The  action  of  the  Legislature  was  in  accordance  with 
the  conclusions  of  their  committee. 

Acting  Governor  Conley,  in  his  retiring  message  to  the 
General  Assembly  in  January,  1872,  presents  the  follow 
ing  statement  of  the  action  of  Governor  Bullock  upon 
the  subject  of  the  bonds,  which  we  think  proper  to  pub 
lish  in  connection  with  the  facts  set  forth,  and  the  action 
of  the  committee  and  the  Legislature  thereon  : — 

"Under  the  authority  of  acts  of  the  Legislature,  passed  in  1868,  there  were 
issued  by  Governor  Bullock,  to  pay  off  the  members  of  the  General  Assem 
bly  and  other  expenses  of  that  body,  and  to  meet  the  interest  due  and  un 
paid,  and  the  interest  maturing  on  the  bonds  of  this  State  up  to  February  1, 
1869,  $600,000  of  seven  per  cent,  currency  bonds.  These  bonds  were  never 
intended  for  sale,  but  were  only  to  be  used  as  security  for  temporary  loans 


476  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

made  to  the  State  until  such  loans  could  be  met  by  payments  from  the 
treasury.  The  amount  borrowed  upon  them  has  long  since  been  refunded, 
as  the  books  of  the  treasurer  will  probably  show,  and  these  currency  bonds, 
with  the  exception  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight,  which  were  deposited  in 
the  treasury  to  secure  the  school  fund  that  has  been  used  by  the  State  for 
general  purposes,  have  all  been  cancelled  and  returned  to  the  treasurer's 
office. 

"  Under  authority  of  acts  of  the  General  Assembly,  approved  August  27, 
1870,  September  15,  1870,  and  October  5,  1870,  two  millions  of  dollars 
($2,000,000^)  of  seven  per  cent,  currency  bonds  were  issued  by  Governor  Bul 
lock  for  the  purpose  of  being  used  as  collateral  security  upon  which  to  pro 
cure  temporary  loans  for  immediate  use,  which  loans  were  to  be  applied  to 
the  objects  mentioned  in  those  acts. 

"  These  bonds  were  never  intended,  and  were  never  offered  for  gale.  They 
were  issued  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  required  some  time  for  the  prepara 
tion  of  the  steel-engraved  bonds.  The  distinct  understanding  with  the 
parties  to  whom  they  were  delivered  was,  that  they  were  not  to  be  placed 
upon  the  market  at  all,  but  were  to  be  held  synply  as  temporary  collateral 
for  any  advances  they  might  make  to  the  State  until  the  gold  bonds  provided 
for  in  the  act  of  September  15,  1870,  could  be  prepared  and  substituted  for 
them,  and  that  as  soon  as  such  gold  bonds  were  substituted,  the  currency 
bonds  were  to  be  cancelled  and  returned  to  this  department. 

"  The  gold  bonds  were  subsequently  prepared  and  were  intended  to  be 
substituted  for  these  currencies,  and  to  be  used  for  the  purposes  provided  for 
by  the  act  under  which  they  were  issued. 

In  pursuance  of  the  understanding  above  mentioned,  there  have 
been  cancelled  and  returned  to  this  office  of  these  currency 

bonds .        .        .        .      $500,000 

"  The  balance  of  these  bonds  are  now  held  by  the  following  parties : 

Messrs.  Clews  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  have 800,000 

Messrs.  J.  Boorman  Johnston  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  have       .        .        120,000 

Russell  Sage,  of  New  York,  has 530,000 

The  Fulton  Bank  of  Brooklyn  has 50,000 

$2,000,000 

"None  of  these  currency  bonds  can  be  considered  as  being  in  any  way  a 
claim  against  the  State,  because  they  were  cancelled  by  the  substitution  of 
the  gold  bonds  in  their  stead.  I  have  written  to  the  various  parties  who  now 
hold  them  informing  them  of  this  fact,  but  they  decline  to  return  them  on 
the  ground  that  it  is  not  customary  to  surrender  any  securities  until  the  ac 
count  is  closed. 

"  Under  the  authority  of  the  act  of  September  15, 1870,  there  were  prepared 
and  issued  three  million  dollars  ($3,000,000)  of  gold  bonds  of  the  State,  hav- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  477 

ing  twenty  years  to  run,  with  interest  at  seven  per  cent.,  payable  quarterly, 
in  gold  coin.  These  bonds  were  issued  for  the  purpose,  as  stated  in  the  act 
of  meeting  and  redeeming  all  bonds  of  this  State,  and  the  coupons  thereon 
now  due,  or  when  the  same  shall  have  fallen  due,  and  for  such  other  pur 
poses  as  the  General  Assembly  may  direct,  and  to  take  the  place  of  the  cur 
rency  bonds  that  had  been  issued  for  temporary  purposes. 

Of  these  gold  bonds  there  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  Messrs. 

Henry  Clews  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  for  sale  and  to  secure 

advances  made  by  them  upon  the  currencies  and  otherwise,  $1,750,000 
There  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  Russell  Sage,  of  New  York, 

for  the  same  purpose, 500,000 

There  were  deposited  in  the  Fourth  National  Bank  of  New 

York, 300,000 

There  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  A.  S.  Whiton,  of  New  York,  .  100,000 
There  were  given  to  Mr.  H.  I.  Kiuiball,  for  the  purchase  of  the 

capitol  building, 250,000 

There  were  given  to  Mr.  John  II.  James,  for  the  purchase  of  the 

Executive  mansion,      ........        100,000 


$3,000,000 

"  These  figures  account  for  the  whole  issue  of  these  gold  bonds.  The  state 
ment  of  the  account  of  Messrs.  Henry  Clews  &  Co.  with  the  State  is  in  the 
treasurer's  office,  aud  is  open  to  inspection.  The  detailed  statements  of  the 
other  parties  have  not  been  forwarded  to  this  office,  but  I  have  written  to  ob 
tain  them,  and  they  will  probably  be  transmitted  at  an  early  day. 

"  According  to  the  treasurer's  report  for  the  year  ending  December  31, 
1870,  there  fell  due,  during  the  years  1870  and  1&71,  bonds  of  the  State 
amounting  to  $215,000.  The  larger  portion  of  this  amount,  together  with  a 
part  of  the  interest  upon  other  bonds  of  the  State,  as  it  fell  due,  has  been  met 
from  the  proceeds  of  these  gold  bonds,  as  also  the  £15,000  sterling  of  bonds 
which  fell  due  in  1868,  and  the  £3,000  interest  due  thereon.  Large  advances 
have  also  been  made  upon  these  bonds  to  pay  the  claims  passed  upon  by  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  appointed  to  audit  claims  against  the  Western  & 
Atlantic  railroad,  and  to  pay  the  liquidated  claims  provided  for  in  the  act. 
Notes  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  railroad  for  large  amounts,  given  for  the 
purchase  of  cars,  engines,  etc.,  and  falling  due  in  1870  and  1871,  have  also 
been  paid  from  the  proceeds  of  these  gold  bonds.  An  investigating  com 
mittee  of  your  honorable  body  can  readily  ascertain  what  has  become  of 
every  dollar  that  has  been  realized  from  the  sale  of  these  gold  bonds.  These 
gold  bonds  have  all  been  prepared  in  strict  conformity  with  the  law  authoriz 
ing  their  issue,  have  been  duly  registered  by  the  Comptroller-General  in  a 
book  kept  for  that  purpose,  and  by  him  reported  to  the  treasurer  in  precisely 
the  manner  the  act  prescribes. 


478  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

"  Under  the  authority  of  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly,  approved  Octo 
ber  17,  1870,  temporary  lithographed  gold  bonds,  to  the  amount  of  $880,000, 
were  prepared  and  issued,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  officers  of  the 
Brunswick  &  Albany  Railroad  Company,  to  be  used  for  their  temporary  re 
quirements,  until  the  regular  steel-engraved  gold  bonds  of  the  State,  author 
ized  by  that  act  to  be  issued  to  the  company,  could  be  prepared.  These 
regular  steel-engraved  gold  bonds  were  soon  after  issued,  and  the  $880,000 
lithographed  gold  bonds  have  all  been  cancelled,  and  are  now  in  the 
treasurer's  office. 

"  The  act  of  October  17, 1870,  above  referred  to,  authorizes  and  directs  the 
Governor  of  the  State  to  receive  from  the  President,  or  other  officer  author 
ized  by  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Brunswick  &  Albany  Railroad  Com 
pany,  the  whole  issue  of  the  second  mortgage  bonds  of  said  company, 
amounting  to  $10,000  per  mile  upon  said  company's  road,  and  amounting  in 
the  aggregate  to  the  sum  of  $2,350,000,  and  to  pay  said  company  for  the 
same  in  the  bonds  of  the  State  of  Georgia  at  par,  bearing  seven  per  cent,  in 
terest,  payable  serni-annually  on  the  first  day  of  June  and  December  in  each 
year,  at  the  rate  of  $8,000  per  mile,  and  in  the  aggregate  amounting  to 
$1,880,000,  the  principal  sum  of  said  bonds  to  be  payable  in  twenty- five 
years  from  the  first  day  of  December,  A.  D.,  1869,  and  his  Excellency  the 
Governor  is  authorized  and  directed  to  cause  said  bonds  to  be  executed  in 
due  and  legal  form,  and  paid  over  to  said  company  as  aforesaid. 

"  Under  the  provision  above  recited,  there  have  been  issued  and  delivered 
to  the  officers  of  the  Brunswick  &  Albany  Railroad  Company,  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  steel-engraved  bonds  of  the  State  for  $1,000  each,  having 
twenty-five  years  to  run,  with  interest  at  seven  per  cent.,  payable  semi-an- 
nually,  principal  and  interest  payable  in  gold.  These  bonds  have  been  duly 
registered  in  the  office  of  the  Comptroller-General  and  reported  to  the 
treasurer.  All  of  the  second  mortagage  bonds  of  the  Brunswick  &  Albany 
Railroad  Company,  for  which  these  gold  bonds  were  given  in  exchange,  have 
been  forwarded  to  the  treasurer's  office  as  required  by  law,  except  one  hun 
dred  and  sixty-two,  which  the  company  still  hold,  and  which  they  will  con 
tinue  to  hold,  I  suppose,  until  they  have  completed  their  road  and  received 
the  remaining  eighty  State  bonds  to  which  they  will  then  be  entitled.  These 
eighty  bonds  have  been  partially  executed  and  are  now  in  the  Executive 
office. 

"  The  foregoing  statement  covers  every  description  and  character  of  bonds 
that  have  been  issued  during  the  administration  of  my  predecessor,  and  from 
it  your  honorable  body  will  see  that  the  only  kind  of  bonds  issued  by  him 
that  are  now  outstanding,  and  that  are  a  claim  against  the  State,  are  the 
$3,000,000  of  gold  bonds  issued  under  authority  of  the  act  of  September  15, 
1870,  and  the  $1,800,000  of  gold  bonds  issued  to  the  Brunswick  &  Albany 
Railroad  Company  in  accordance  with  the  act  of  October  17,1870.  The 
actual  liability  of  the  State,  therefore,  incurred  during  his  administration, 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  479 

is  represented  by  the  sum  of  $4,800,000.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  a 
large  portion  of  this  sum  has  been  devoted  to  the  redemption  of  bonds  fall 
ing  due  in  1870  and  1871,  and  in  years  previous  thereto,  and  to  the  payment 
of  interest  on  them  and  on  others  still  to  fall  due.  The  debt  of  the  State  is 
not,  therefore,  actually  increased  by  that  amount. 

"  The  contingent  liability  of  the  State,  incurred  by  the  General  Assembly 
during  the  time  that  my  predecessor  was  in  office,  is  represented  by  the  in 
dorsement  of  the  State  upon  bonds  of  railroad  companies. 

u  The  railroads  upon  whose  bonds  the  indorsement  of  the  State  has  been 
placed  during  the  administration  of  Governor  Bullock,  and  the  amount  of 
such  indorsement  as  they  appear  from  the  records  of  this  department  and 
from  the  books  in  the  offices  of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  treasurer,  are  as 
follows  : 

Alabama  &  Chattanooga, $      194,400 

Brunswick  &  Albany, 3,300,000 

Cartersville  &  Van  Wert,  .    ' 275,000 

Cherokee  Railroad,      . 300,000 

Macon  &  Brunswick,  .  .        •        .        .        .        .        .        .  2,150,000 

Georgia  Air  Line,  ,        • 240,000 

South  Georgia  &  Florida,  .      ' 464,000 


Total,      . $6,923,400 

"  At  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature,  the  charter  of  the  Cartersville  & 
Van  Wert  road  was  so  amended  as  to  change  the  name  of  that  road  to  the 
Cherokee  Railroad,  and  the  indorsement  of  the  State  was  placed  upon  the 
bonds  of  the  road  under  its  new  name. 

"  The  bonds  of  the  Georgia  Air-Line  road,  upon  which  the  indorsement  of 
the  State  was  placed,  have  been  cancelled  by  the  officers  of  that  road  and  re. 
turned  to  this  department,  arid  are  now  in  the  treasurer's  office.  This  in 
dorsement  amounts  to  $240,000,  and  should  be  deducted  from  the  total 
amount  above  stated.  The  sum  of  $6,683,400  then  remains,  which  repre 
sents  the  total  amount  of  contingent  liability  of  the  State,  now  outstanding, 
incurred  duiing  the  administration  of  Governor  Bullock. 

"  It  has  been  ascertained  from  the  officers  of  the  Macon  &  Brunswick  Rail 
road  Company,  that  $iOO,000  of  the  bonds  of  that  company  were  indorsed  by 
Governor  Charles  J.  Jenkins,  no  record  of  which  indorsement  is  found  on  the 
books  of  this  department.  If  we  add  this  sum  to  that  last  above  stated,  we 
have  an  amount  of  $7,083,400,  which  represents  the  whole  amount  of  contin 
gent  liability  incurred  by  the  State  since  the  adoption  of  the  policy  known  as 
"  State  Aid."  The  conditions  upon  which  this  aid  is  granted  are  familiar  to 
your  honorable  body.  As  the  State  does  not  indorse  the  bonds  of  any  road 
until  a  specified  portion  of  that  road  has  been  actually  completed,  and  then 
only  for  a  sum  equal  to  half  the  cost  of  construction,  and  as  she  has  a  prior 


480  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

lien  upon  the  property  of  the  road,  in  the  event  the  conditions  upon  which 
her  indorsement  is  given  are  not  complied  with,  it  is  not  believed  that  she 
will  ever  be  the  loser  to  any  great  extent,  and  this  contingent  liability  should 
not  by  any  means  be  put  down  as  actual  indebtedness. 

"  The  above  statement  covers  the  whole  period  that  my  predecessor  was  in 
office,  and  is  a  complete  and  accurate  summary  of  his  official  action  in  the 
matter  of  which  it  treats." 

WESTERN  AND  ATLANTIC  RAILROAD  LEASE. 

In  December,  1871,  under  resolution  of  the  Legisla 
ture,  a  committee  composed  of  Hon.  Wm.  M.  Reese  and 
Hon.  A.  D.  Nunnally  of  the  Senate,  and  Hons.  Geo.  M. 
Netherland,  Charles  B.  Hudson,  and  Geo.  F.  Pierce,  Jr., 
was  appointed,  "  to  investigate  the  fairness  or  unfairness 
of* the  contract  made  between  Rufus  B.  Bullock  as  gov 
ernor,  and  the  present  lessees,  known  as  the  Western 
&  Atlantic  Railroad  Company,  by  which  the  road  with 
all  its  appurtenances  was  leased  to  that  company,  on  the 
twenty-seventh  day  of  December,  1870,  under  the  act  of 
the  Legislature  passed  at  the  last  session,  and  to  in 
vestigate  the  question  of  fraud  in  said  contract,  if  any 
exists." 

The  Lease  Act,  though  passed  by  the  Republican  legis 
lature,  and  sanctioned  by  their  governor,  was  introduced 
by  Hon.  Dunlap  Scott,  a  Democrat,  warmly  advocated  by 
Democratic  members,  and  approved  by  a  large  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  State.  This  great  public  work,  as 
was  shown  in  the  early  part  of  this  volume,  was  long  a 
source  of  public  expense,  in  addition  to  the  vast  cost  and 
public  debt  for  construction.  It  was,  moreover,  a  politi 
cal  agency  in  the  hands  of  dominant  parties,  as  well  as  a 
cause  of  irritation  and  strife,  not  to  say  of  fraud  and 
public  corruption.  We  have  seen  the  magic  and  striking 
revolution  in  its  management  under  Governor  Brown, 
when  he  came  into  power  in  1857;  and  his  grand  success 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  481 

thence  up  to  and  during  the  war,  in  making  it  a  source 
of  revenue  instead  of  a  public  burden. 

It  had  now  passed  into  the  hands  of  an  administration, 
was  controlled  by  appointees  not  possessing  the  public 
confidence,  and  was  being  made  a  wreck  as  to  material ; 
and  also  a  drain  on  the  public  treasury.  The  party  had 
power  to  pass  a  pending  bill  to  sell  the  road,  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  wonderful  facility  for  spending  and  squan 
dering  the  money.  Foster  Blodgett,  the  superintendent 
under  Governor  Bullock,  who  with  him  had  drawn  out 
upwards  of  $600,000  of  the  State's  funds  from  Clews,  her 
agent  for  the  sale  of  bonds  in  New  York,  on  the  pretence 
of  paying  the  expenses  of  the  road,  was  then  asking  the 
Legislature  for  an  appropriation  of  $500,000  to  repair 
the  road. 

During  the  twenty  years  that  had  elapsed  since  the 
completion  of  the  road,  upwards  of  $4,000,000  had  been 
appropriated  out  of  the  treasury  from  time  to  time  for  it, 
a  sum  far  exceeding  the  amounts  paid  into  the  treasury 
from  it,  leaving  out  the  war  period  of  heavy  payments  in 
depreciated  currency. 

The  public  mind  was  ready  to  accept  a  solution  of  the 
matter  which  promised  to  stop  the  immense  leakage  from 
the  treasury  and  increase  of  taxation  to  meet  it ;  prevent 
the  loss  of  the  property,  proven  in  the  time  of  Governor 
Bro\vn  to  be  immensely  valuable,  by  a  sale  of  the  road, 
and  sequestration  and  peculation  of  the  proceeds  by  un 
safe  men  in  power;  and,  in  addition,  a  reasonable  and 
steady  income  to  the  State  for  a  period  of  twenty  years, 
with  the  road  and  all  its  appurtenances  reclaimed  from 
waste,  kept  and  returned  in  good  order  at  the  end  of 
the  lease.  The  public  mind  was  still  better  satisfied  and 
pleased  when  the  lease  was  awarded  to  a  company 

31 


482  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

headed  by  Ex-Governor  Brown  himself.  It  was  at  once 
an  assurance  of  its  success  as  well  as  good  faith  and  integ 
rity. 

The  Legislature  had  been  elected  without  reference 
to  it.  There  were  strong  prejudices,  against  Governor 
Brown,  and  some  of  his  associates  who  were  Northern 
men ;  there  was  vindictive  feeling  against  Governor 
Bullock,  then  a  refugee  from  the  State.  There  was  also 
a  competing  company  for  the  lease,  having  among  the 
members  many  men  of  worth,  integrity,  political  and 
social  influence,  and  financial  ability,  to  which  power  and 
influence  was  added  that  of  some  of  the  most  able  and 
popular  men  in  the  State,  who  were  retained  as  attorneys. 

The  charge  through  the  press  that  the  lease  contract 
was  fraudulent  was  easily  made,  and  met  with  the  sym 
pathy  of  a  large  number  of  the  best  people  in  the  State ; 
and  there  was  no  solution  to  satisfy  either  side  but  a 
thorough  and  sifting  investigation.  It  was  made  by  able 
lawyers  who  composed  the  committee,  men  of  integrity, 
and  resolute  to  bring  out  facts,  with  the  period  of  several 
months  within  which  to  perform  their  work. 

When  their  report  came  in  at  the  July  session,  1872,  the 
matter  was  ably  discussed  for  consecutive  days  in  each 
House,  a  large  majority  in  each  House  agreeing  with  the 
minority  of  the  committee,  sustaining  and  vindicating  the 
lease  in  full  harmony  with  an  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  State,  as  every  where  indicated  by  their 
outspoken  voice  and  through  the  press. 

It  was  against  all  the  committee  except  Mr.  Nunnally, 
and  against  a  highly  respectable  minority  of  the  General 
Assembly,  many  of  whom  in  the  heat  of  the  contest  ad 
hered  to  their  original  convictions  and  feelings  against 
the  lease. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  483 

The  General  Assembly  adopted  this  resolution,  which 
put  the  whole  matter  at  rest  thence  to  this  time  : — 

"  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  General  Assembly,  the 
lease  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  Railroad  secures  to 
the  State  a  certain  sum  for  rental  much  larger  than  can 
be  hoped  for  under  political  control." 

The  wisdom  of  preventing  the  sale  of  this  public  work 
by  this  plan  to  lease  iif  is  abundantly  manifest  by  the 
fact  that  the  company,  after  expending  large  amounts 
of  their  own  money  to  repair,  improve,  equip  and  make  it 
a  first-class  road,  and  having  kept  it  up  to  that  standard, 
has  paid  into  the  State  treasury  the  monthly  rental  of 
$2f>,000  for  nine  years  and  three  months  (this  April, 
1880),  making  an  aggregate  of  $2,975,000  which  have 
gone  in  lieu  of  the  people's  taxes.  The  company  has 
also  made  money  largely,  and  holds  the  road  for  the  State 
with  its  value  largely  enhanced. 

The  lease  act  made  $25,000  per  month  the  minimum 
rate  of  rental,  required  bond  and  ample  security  of  $8,- 
000,000,  that  the  lessees  be  at  least  seven  in  number,  and 
a  majority  of  them  be  bona  fide  citizens  of  this  State,  and 
that  they  be  worth  above  their  indebtedness  at  least 
$500,000,  and  forbade  the  governor  to  lease  to  a  com 
pany  that  tendered  even  doubtful  security. 

A  bid  of  $36,500  was  made  by  a  company  all  of  the 
city  of  Atlanta,  composed  of  M.  G.  Dobbins,  Foster  Blod- 
gett,  A.  K.  Seago,  Henry  Banks,  W.  B.  Dobbins,  John 
K.  Wallace,  Win.  McNaught,  James  Ormond,  Thomas 
Fcrutchins,  James  M.  Ball,  A.  C.  and  B.  F.  Wyley,  T.  J. 
Hightower  &  Co.,  P.  and  G.  T.  Dodd,  Abbot  &  Bro.,  John 
Collier,  S.  B.  Hoyt,  John  M.  Harwell,  W.  J.  Tanner,  and 
A.  Leyden,  who  showed  that  they  were  worth  above  their 
indebtedness,  $950,000  ;  and  tendered  as  security  the 


484  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK. 

Central  Railroad  and  Banking  Company,  the  South 
western  Railroad  Company,  and  the  Macon  &  Western 
Railroad  Company. 

Notice  was  filed  with  the  governor,  by  W.  S.  Holt, 
president  of  the  Southwestern  Railroad ;  A.  J.  White, 
president  of  Macon  &  Western  Railroad ;  and  W.  B.  John 
son,  agent  of  the  Central  Railroad  &  Banking  Company, 
denying  the  authority  of  this  company  to  tender  those 
corporations  as  security,  and  refusing  to  become  their 
security  on  their  proposal  to  lease. 

The  company  who  obtained* the  lease  showed  that 
they  were  worth  above  their  indebtedness  $4,000,000. 
It  was  composed  of  Joseph  E.  Brown,  Benjamin  H.  Hill, 
Wm.  S.  Holt,  John  T.  Grant,  Andrew  J.  White,  Benja 
min  May,  Hannibal  I.  Kimball,  John  P.  King,  Richard 
Peters,  Charles  A.  Nutting,  Wm.  B.  Johnson,  Wm.  C. 
Morrill,  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  and  H.  B.  Plant,  all  of 
this  State,  Simon  Cameron  of  Pennsylvania,  John  S.  De 
lano  of  Ohio,  Wm.  T.  Walters  of  Maryland,  Thomas  A. 
Scott  of  Pennsylvania,  Edmond  W.  Cole  of  Tennessee, 
George  Cook  of  Connecticut,  Ezekiel  Waitzfelder  of  New 
York,  Thomas  Allen  of  Missouri,  and  Wm.  B.  Dinsmore 
of  New  York. 

They  offered  as  security  the  Central  Railroad  and  Bank 
ing  Company,  the  Southwestern  Railroad  Company,  the 
Macon  &  Western  Railroad  Company,the  Georgia  Railroad 
&  Banking  Company,  the  Atlanta  &  West  Point  Railroad 
Company,  the  Macon  &  Brunswick  Railroad  Company,  the 
Brunswick  &  Albany  Railroad  Company,  all  in  this  State  ; 
Nashville  &  Chattanooga  Railroad  Company,  and  the  St. 
Louis  &  Iron  Mountain  Railroad  Company,  with  verifica 
tion  as  to  the  worth  of  the  applicants  and  the  securities 
offered. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  BULLOCK.  485 

Governor  Bullock  decided  that  this  was  the  only  bid 
that  complied  with  the  requisitions  of  the  lease  act,  and 
awarded  the  lease  to  this  company.  And  thereupon  the 
road  and  all  the  property  that  appertained  to  it  were 
turned  over  to  them,  at  the  stipulated  rental  of  $25,000 
per  month,  or  $6,000,000  for  the  whole  period. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A  SUMMARY  OF  GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  CHARACTER. 

The  personal  history  of  Governor  Brown  is  blended 
with  and  becomes  an  important  part  of  the  history  of 
the  State,  as  appears  up  to  the  time  of  his  displacement 
by  the  military  power  of  the  United  States  at  the  close  of 
the  late  war ;  and  his  political  course  after  the  war  and 
during  the  period  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  State,  and 
of  political  parties  fully  appears  in  tliat  part  of  our  narra 
tive. 

Governor  Brown  like  all  leaders  of  the  people  has 
been  the  subject  of  opposition,  and  has  suffered  defeat. 
The  failure  of  the  Confederacy  was  a  sore  and  humili 
ating  defeat  to  him,  as  well  as  to  all  the  dominant  party 
leaders  of  the  South.  After  his  brilliant  triumphs  before 
the  people  of  the  State,  anterior  to  and  during  the  war, 
never  having  been  defeated  in  any  popular  election, 
and  after  he  had  become  the  leader  of  reconstruction 
in  this  State  and  the  subject  of  extreme  and  bitter  oppo 
sition  by  his  former  political  friends  and  allies,  he  be 
came  a  candidate  for  the  first  time  before  a  legislative 
body — a  body  composed  of  a  large  majority  of  members 
agreeing  with  him  in  political  tenets.  He  was  nomi 
nated  by  the  party  caucus  for  the  office  of  United  States 
senator.  His  former  defeated  rival  in  1863  for  the  office 
of  governor,  the  Hon.  Joshua  Hill,  became  also  a  candi 
date  and,  dividing  the  Republican  and  receiving  the 


GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  CHARACTER.  487 

Democratic  vote  of   the  General  Assembly,  was    elected 
over  Brown. 

Soon  afterward  he  was  nominated  by  Governor  Bul 
lock  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  as  chief  justice  of  the 
supreme  court  of  the  State  for  the  term  of  twelve  years. 
It  had  been  eleven  years  since  he  resigned  the  judge- 
ship  of  the  Blue  Ridge  circuit,  to  enter  the  Executive 
office.  He  had  grown  older  and  maturer  in  judgment, 
his  intellectual  powers  had  been  quickened  and  strength 
ened  by  constant  and  often  intense  and  exciting  labor 
and  application  in  the  matters  of  state.  The  people, 
even  those  who  severely  condemned  his  late  political 
course,  awarded  to  him  superior  mental  power  and  fit 
ness  for  the  judicial  office. 

The  expectation  of  the  public  was  amply  fulfilled  in 
the  prompt,  firm,  able,  and  impartial  administration  of  the 
chief  justice  during  his  short  career.  Hon.  Hiram 
Warner — who  had  long  been  a  superior  court  judge  in  early 
life,  a  superior  court  judge  after  the  close  of  the  war,  a 
supreme  court  judge  for  eight  years  on  the  first  organiza 
tion  of  the  court,  and  since  the  war  chief  justice,  and 
who  is  now  the  chief  justice — and  the  Hon.  H.  K.  Mc 
Kay,  a  man  of  great  ability  and  labor,  were  his  associates. 
Many  of  the  questions  for  adjudication  were  new  and  ex 
citing  to  the  public  mind.  The  judges  sometimes  dif 
fered  in  opinion  and,  all  being  made  of  stern  material, 
they  continued  to  differ.  The  published  opinions  are 
characterized  by  learning,  ability,  and  firmness,  and  form  a 
series  of  authoritative  decisions  on  all  the  important  legal 
and  constitutional  questions  of  that  period.  In  the  latter 
part  of  1870  Governor  Brown  resigned  the  office  of  chief 
justice  and  took  charge  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  Railroad, 
as  president  of  the  company  of  lessees,  as  we  shall  see. 


488  GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  CHARACTER. 

His  career  since  retiring  from  active  connection  with 
politics  appears  to  the  public  to  have  been,  if  possible, 
better  adapted  to  his  capabilities  and  talents,  and  has 
been  crowned  with  still  greater  success,  as  a  financier,  in 
the  management  of  the  public  enterprises  confided  to  him, 
as  well  as  in  that  of  his  own  private  fortune ;  for  the  ten 
years  intervening  are  matters  of  universal  commendation 
and  approval  in  commercial  and  business  circles,  because 
of  a  general  and  grand  success,  free  from  all  well  grounded 
suspicions,  implication  or  charges  of  unfairness,  fraud  or 
violation  of  public  or  private  faith  and  engagements. 
In  this  characteristic,  which  distinguishes  him  from 
many  of  his  contemporaries,  he  has  erected  to  himself  a 
monument  that  will  be  and  should  be  more  enduring 
than  the  stones  that  an  earthly  accumulation  may  and 
will,  within  a  few  years  rapidly  coming  and  going,  place 
above  his  resting  place  in  mother  earth. 

One  of  the  enterprises  in  which  he  embarked,  which 
has  proven  to  be  a  grand  financial  success,  and  connects 
him  directly  with  the  material  welfare  and  progress  of 
the  State,  in  the  development  of  a  part  of  her  vast  sub 
terranean  wealth,  was  that  of  coal  mining  at  Sand  Moun 
tain  in  Dade  county,  near  the  borders  of  Alabama  and 
Tennessee.  This  enterprise  began  as  a  private  company, 
but  was  afterward  incorporated  under  the  name  of  the 
Dade  Coal  Company.  The  stock  is  owned,  one-half  by 
Joseph  E.  Brown,  and  son  Julius  L.  Brown ;  the  other 
half  by  John  T.  Grant,  and  son  W.  D.  Grant,  and  W.  C. 
JVJorrill,  of  Atlanta.  Ex-Governor  Brown  has  been  pres 
ident  of  this  company  from  its  organization  to  this  time. 
The  company  owns  fifteen  thousand  acres  of  lands  of 
untold  mineral  deposits  j  employs  three  hundred  State 
penitentiary  convicts  as  lessees  of  the  State;  and  about 


GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  CHARACTER.  489 

one  hundred  other  persons  as  engineers,  laborers,  over 
seers,  and  guards.  Their  works  turn  out  from  13,000  to 
14,000  bushels  of  coal  per  day;  which  yields  a  large 
amount  of  coke,  as  good  as  any  in  the  United  States, 
which  supersedes  the  burning  of  timber  for  charcoal. 

In  addition  to  these  extensive  coal  and  coke  operations, 
under  the  presidency  and  sagacious  management  of  Ex- 
Governor  Brown,  that  company  in  connection  with  Mr.  J. 
C.  Warner  of  Tennessee  has  lately  purchased  the  Rising 
Fawn  iron  property  and  furnace,  in  Dade  county,  embrac 
ing  about  seven  thousand  acres,  including  a  large  amount 
of  coal  and  iron  ore,  and  has  upon  it  one  of  the  finest 
iron  furnaces  of  the  country. 

The  whole  property,  including  construction  of  the  fur 
nace  and  improvements,  cost  the  new  company,  the  origi 
nal  owners,  upwards  of  a  half  million  of  dollars.  The 
company,  under  authority  of  an  act  of  the  Legislature, 
issued  their  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $300,000  secured 
by  mortgage  on  the  property,  and,  having  made  default 
of  payment  of  the  interest  for  a  considerable  period  of 
time,  the  bondholders  proceeded  to  foreclose  the  mort 
gage  in  the  United  States  circuit  court  for  Georgia.  Un 
der  the  decree  of  foreclosure,  the  property  was  sold 
by  the  United  States  marshal  at  Atlanta,  and  purchased 
by  the  Dade  Coal  Company,  and  Mr.  Warner,  an  experi 
enced  iron  manufacturer,  for  one  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  dollars.  These  parties  are  operating  the  fur 
nace  successfully.  It  consumes  from  eighty  to  ninety 
tons  of  coke  per  day,  which  is  made  at  the  Dade  coal 
mine,;  also  consuming  per  day  about  one  hundred  tons 
of  iron  ore,  and  producing  per  day  about  fifty  tons  of 
pig  iron. 

In  connection  with  this    the  Dade    Coal  Company  is 


490  GOVEKNOK  BKOWN'S  CHAKACTER. 

constructing  a  railroad  from  Rogers  station  on  the  West 
ern  and  Atlantic  railroad  to  some  inexhaustible  deposits 
of  superior  iron  ore,  located  on  Petet's  creek  in  Dade 
county  ;  from  which  it  is  expected  the  company  will  ship 
large  quantities  to  the  different  places  in  the  South. 

In  view  of  the  vast  improvements  in  railways  and 
works  at  the  company's  expense,  the  vast  and  increasing 
demand  for  their  products,  and  that  of  the  deposits  of  coal 
and  iron  belonging  to  them,  these  enterprises  taken  to 
gether  are  much  the  largest  and  most  important  of  any 
of  the  kind  ever  made  in  the  State. 

His  successful  management,while  governor,  of  the  West 
ern  &  Atlantic  railroad,  as  the  property  of  the  State ; 
the  conversion  of  the  immense  public  capital  invested  in 
it,  from  what  was  constantly  denounced  as  a  vast  political 
machine  attended  with  public  expense,  to  the  basis  of  a 
well  managed  and  paying  railroad  ;  excluding  political 
corruption  and  private  peculation,  making  it  a  source  of 
great  income  to  the  State  treasury, — has  only  been  equaled 
by  his  successful  career  as  president  of  the  company  of 
lessees  from  the  State,  from  1870  to  this  time. 

Perhaps  no  higher  tribute  has  been  paid  to  his  superior 
forecast,  sagacity,  and  entire  safety  and  reliability  as  a 
business  man,  than  the  presidency  of  the  Southern  Rail 
way  and  Steamship  Association,  in  1874,  upon  its  organ 
ization,  and  the  annual  re-election  from  that  time  to  the 
present. 

This  association  embraces  all  the  steamship  lines 
running  down  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  most  of  the  railways 
east  of  the  Mississippi  river,  between  the  Potomac^ and 
the  Ohio. 

His  grand  and  far-seeing  policy  of  public  education, 
that  engrossed  so  much  of  his  heart  and  mind  while  gov- 


GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  CHARACTER.  491 

ernor,  far  in  advance  of  the  situation  and  public  spirit  of 
that  period,  has  grown  upon  the  succeeding  period,  and 
has  already  attained  a  wonderful  success,  and  promises 
still  greater  in  the  near  future.  While  not  holding  any 
political  office,  he  has,  since  the  adoption  of  the  school 
system  provided  for  by  the  constitution  of  1868,  held  the 
position  of  president  of  the  educational  board  of  Fulton 
county,  and  has  also  been  a  most  devoted  member  of 
the  board  of  trustees  of  the  State  university  of  Georgia 
for  upward  of  twenty  years.  He  has  educated  his  sons 
there  in  later  years,  but  from  his  earliest  connection  with 
this  great  center  of  Southern  learning,  he  has  been  an  ar 
dent  and  devoted  friend  in  public  and  private,  devoting 
his  mind  with  all  its  power,  to  the  consideration  of  the 
vast  and  comprehensive  aims  of  the  institution.  And  it 
is  no  disparagement  to  the  array  of  able  and  devoted  men 
who  are  associated  with  him,  that  he  has  always  exercised 
a  very  large  and  controlling  influence  in  the  councils  and 
deliberations  of  the  board. 

In  no  circle  he  ever  enters  as  a  participant  is  he  looked 
down  upon  by  a  senior  in  ability,  power,  practical  judg 
ment,  and  influence.  Most  men,  even  of  great  ability, 
eminence,  and  wealth,  who  are  associated  or  come  in  bus 
iness  contact  with  him,  have  long  since  learned  to  look 
up  and  defer  to  this  prodigy  of  a  man,  who,  within  a  few 
years  after  leaving  the  old-field  log-cabin  school  and  the 
handle  of  the  plow,  sprang  to  the  first  rank,  not  only  as 
a  statesman  and  jurist,  but  as  a  philanthropist  in  project 
ing  enterprises  for  the  public  good,  and  as  a  man  of  far- 
seeing  wisdom  and  p  udence  in  all  matters  of  business, 
either  for  the  public  or  as  related  to  his  own  private 
affairs. 

And  if  superior  excellence  is  to  be  found  in  one  sphere 


492  GOVEKNOE  BKOWN'S  CHARACTER. 

of  his  activity  of  mind  and  body  over  another,  it  is  per 
haps  in  the  last  named  department.  He  grew  up  a  farmer 
boy,  and  has  carried  forward  his  early  training  to 
great  improvement,  and  with  great  profit  to  the  present. 
In  addition  to  the  public  enterprises  that  engross  so  much 
of  his  time  and  mind,  he  has  kept  up  farming  as  a  con 
stant  business ;  and  although  he  has  not  figured  in  the 
current  agricultural  literature  of  his  time,  he  has  been 
eminently  practical  and  successful  in  his  investments  and 
operations.  In  this,  as  in  every  other  matter  under  his 
control,  he  has  been  endowed  with  almost  prophetic  wis 
dom  in  the  selection  of  agents  and  superintendents ;  and 
has  with  them  what  .but  few  men  can  truthfully  claim  in 
business  matters,  that,  added  to  inflexible  justice  and 
promptness  in  dealing,  he  is  invariably  firm  in  the  re 
quirement  of  faithfulness  from  them. 

He  has  three  large  farms  in  Northern  Georgia,  in  the 
counties  of  Cherokee  and  Gordon,  on  which,  by  his 
regular  direction,  through  employes,  there  is  annually 
carried  on  a  well  diversified  and  profitable  system  of  agri 
culture. 

But  the  plan  adopted  by  Governor  Brown  soon  after 
the  war,  of  drawing  in  investments  from  other  sources, 
and  placing  them  in  the  charred  and  desolate  ruins  of  the 
wonderfully  progressive  city  of  Atlanta,  has  been  per 
haps  in  proportion  to  original  costs  the  most  powerful 
and  effective  agency  in  the  rapid  accumulation  of  his  fort 
une. 

To  all  who  would  study  the  business  example  of  Joseph 
E.  Brown  with  profit,  it  is  not  considered  out  of  place  to 
add  that  but  few  men  have  been  endowed  as  he  is, 
with  brain  capacity,  energy,  the  power  of  endurance  and 
perseverance,  quickness  of  apprehension  and  rapidity  of 


GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  CHARACTER.  493 

decision  ;  and  perfection  of  schemes  and  plans  for  his  pur 
poses  ;  but  few,  who  like  him,  can  either  mould  and  bring 
about  circumstances,  or  adapt  themselves  to  the  unavoid 
able.  And  there  are  but  few  who  are  so  entirely  exempt 
from  habits  of  intemperance  and  excess  as  to  hope  for 
his  perfect  steadiness  and  regularity  of  life.  These  quali 
ties  in  the  ex-Governor  when  realized  to  exist,  as  all  do 
realize  them  who  have  an  opportunity,  indicate  at  once  to 
the  reflecting  the  sources  of  his  great  success. 

But  there  is  one  mental  and  business  habit,  and  of  ac 
tion  and  repose,  that  all,  now  and  hereafter,  may  study 
and  practice  with  benefit. 

He  works  with  the  regularity  of  a  perfectly  adjusted 
machine ;  is  temperate  in  the  application  of  supporting 
diet,  as  is  a  skilled  machinist  in  the  application  of  steam ; 
and  sleeps  by  the  force  of  controlling  will  power  as 
promptly  and  soundly  as  the  wheels  and  levers  of  the 
machine  stop  and  rest  when  the  steam  is  shut  off.  This 
is  the  great  and  valuable  key  to  explain  how  a  man  of 
naturally  frail  and  feeble,  though  tough  and  durable  physi 
cal  constitution  has  been  able  to  live,  enjoy  health,  and 
perform  the  herculean  labor  he  has  for  the  whole  period 
of  his  manhood. 

He  is  different  from  almost  all  business  men  in  another 
mental  habit ;  that  is,  one  thing  at  a  time.  When  Brown 
is  on  railroading,  or  coal,  or  iron  mining,  farming,  or  any 
other  subject,  for  the  time  being  all  his  powers  are  so  en 
grossed  in  and  devoted  to  that  as  to  shut  out  all  the 
others  ;  and  when  he  suspends,  the  subject  is  laid  aside  at 
a  given  point,  and  precisely  at  that  point,  when  the  time  or 
occasion  arises  to  make  it  necessary,  he  resumes  it  as  easily 
and  promptly  as  the  tailor  resumes  work  upon  an  unfin 
ished  garment,  or  the  carpenter  the  incomplete  edifice. 


494  GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  CHARACTER. 

But  not  by  far  the  least  important  method  and  agency 
of  the  financial  success,  in  all  his  large  and  small  enter 
prises,  may  be  summed  up  in  one  word,  promptness. 
It  is  a  fundamental  and  tenaciously  adhered  to  principle — 
adopted  from  boyhood  and  followed  without  exception, 
up  to  the  present — to  meet  every  financial  engagement 
or  liability  with  absolute  promptness,  no  matter  what  the 
inconvenience  or  cost  might  be.  Hence,  his  credit  has 
never  been  the  subject  of  criticism  or  doubt  in  any  finan 
cial  circle.  This,  with  the  sagacity  and  forecast  which 
were  in  great  measure  the  gift  of  the  Creator,  and  which 
have  been  cultivated  and  enlarged  by  practice  that  ena 
bled  him  to  determine  when  it  was  safe  and  advisable  to 
make  those  engagements,  has  contributed  wonderfully  to 
the  success  that  has  crowned  the  laborious  life  of  Joseph 
Emerson  Brown.  For  the  sake  of  the  moral,  religious, 
financial,  educational  and  material  welfare  of  his  country 
and  ours,  it  will  be  well  if  the  period  under  Divine  Provi 
dence  is  still  distant  in  the  future,  when  the  sorrowful 
mind  of  his  memorialist  shall  be  called  on  to  set  forth  the 
deeds  of  benevolence  and  charity,  of  the  honest  business 
man,  jurist,  statesman,  philanthropist,  and  Christian. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

SUPPLEMENT  PREPARED  FOR  THE  PUBLISHERS,  BRINGING 
THE  NARRATIVE  OF  EVENTS  TO  SEPTEMBER,  1883. 

Colonel  Fielder's  volume  ends  with  the  last,  the  15th 
chapter.  The  current  of  events  in  Georgia  is  brought 
from  the  year  1872,  when  he  closes  his  narrative,  up  to 
the  date  of  the  publication  of  the  book  in  September, 
1883. 

The  administration  of  Gov.  James  M.  Smith  continued 
until  the  12th  day  of  January,  1877.  Among  the  more 
important  public  matters  during  his  terms  that  have  not 
been  alluded  to  were  the  establishment  of  the  depart 
ments  of  agriculture  and  geology,  and  the  endowment  of 
the  State  University  at  Athens  with  the  Land  Scrip  Fund, 
and  the  resulting  organization  of  branch  colleges  at  Mil- 
ledgeville,  Cuthbert,  and  Thomasville.  The  department 
of  agriculture  was  begun  on  the  26th  of  August,  1874, 
by  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Thomas  P.  Janes  as  commis 
sioner.  He  was  reappointed  in  1878,  resigned  in  Septem 
ber,  1879,  and  was  succeeded  on  the  24th  of  September, 
1879,  by  the  Hon.  John  T.  Henderson,  who  is  still  commis 
sioner.  It  is  difficult  to  measure  the  value  of  this  depart 
ment.  It  has  introduced  rust-proof  oats  and  wheat,  ren 
dering  these  valuable  crops  a  certainty.  It  has  not  only 
protected  the  farmers  from  loss  by  frauds  in  commercial 
fertilizers,but  it  has  by  the  proceeds  of  inspection  supported 
the  department  and  paid  large  sums  into  the  State  treas 
ury,  running  as  high  as  $64,060.23  in  a  single  year.  It 


496        DEPARTMENT  OF  GEOLOGY. 

has  operated  a  constant  and  valuable  interchange  of  ideas 
and  practices  among  the  planters.  It  has  distributed 
new  and  valuable  seeds  for  trial  and  adoption.  It  has 
revolutionized  the  old  systems  of  planting,  furnishing 
progressive  methods  and  processes,  increasing  the  yield 
and  lessening  the  cost  of  production.  Its  periodical  pub 
lications  of  farming  intelligence  have  disseminated  bene 
ficial  information,  and  formed  the  basis  of  valuable 
statistics  and  comparison  of  experiences.  Its  manuals 
upon  special  stock  industries  have  been  a  liberal  education 
to  the  people  in  such  specialties.  Each  year  adds  to  the 
efficiency  and  utility  of  this  department. 

The  department  of  geology  was  inaugurated  by  the 
selection  of  Dr.  George  Little  as  State  geologist,  August 
10,  1874.  The  department  was  run  until  the  year  1879, 
when  the  General  Assembly  unwisely  refused  to  appro 
priate  the  necessary  funds  to  continue  its  operations. 
The  benefit  of  a  complete  geological  survey  of  the  State 
may  be  understood  from  the  valuable  practical  results 
that  have  followed  from  the  partial  survey  that  was 
made.  Large  mining  and  manufacturing  enterprises 
have  sprung  into  existence,  drawing  capital  and  increas 
ing  the  taxable  wealth  of  the  State,  based  upon  the  revela 
tion  of  the  resources  of  the  Commonwealth  made  by  the 
geological  department. 

The  recent  death  of  Ex-Gov.  Charles  J.  Jenkins  recalls 
that  during  the  term  of  Governor  Smith,  that  venerable 
and  illustrious  citizen  and  chief  magistrate  of  the  State 
returned  to  the  executive  department  the  executive  seal 
which  he  had  carried  with  him  when  removed  from  his 
high  office  by  the  military.  The  Legislature  of  1872 
passed  a  resolution  introduced  by  the  Hon.  J.  B.  Cum- 
ining  authorizing  the  governor  to  present  to  Governor 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV.  COLQUITT.  497 

Jenkins  a  gold  copy  of  the  executive  seal  with  the  suggest 
ive  inscription  upon  it,  "  Presented  to  Charles  J.  Jenkins 
by  the  State  of  Georgia/'  and  the  words  "In  arduis  Fi- 
ddis"  Governor  Smith  performed  this  agreeable  duty 
through  Hon.  J.  B.  Gumming  in  an  appropriate  letter,  to 
which  Governor  Jenkins  made  an  eloquent  response ;  in 
the  recent  legislative  honors  paid  to  the  memory  of  Gov 
ernor  Jenkins,  the  orator  Col.  Charles  C.  Jones,  Jr.,  made 
touching  reference  to  this  incident. 

During  Governor  Smith's  term  Gen.  John  B.  Gordon 
was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1873,  while 
Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  was  re-elected  to  Congress, 
from  which  he  had  retired  to  private  life  before  the  war. 
In  1875  the  Hon.  Benjamin  H.  Hill  was  elected  to  Con 
gress. 

Governor  Smith  was  succeeded  by  Gov.  Alfred  H.  Col- 
quitt,  who  held  the  exalted  office  of  chief  magistrate  from 
the  12th  of  January,  1877,  until  December  4th,  1882. 
The  administration  of  Governor  Colquitt  was  marked  by 
many  important  public  events  and  marked  changes  in  the 
State  government.  The  leading  political  occurrence  during 
his  terms  was  the  sweeping  alteration  of  the  organic  law 
of  the  State  by  the  constitutional  convention  of  1877,  of 
which  the  lamented  Jenkins  was  the  president.  The 
Constitution  of  1868,  while  it  was  a  very  good  instrument, 
labored  under  the  odium  of  having  been  framed  by  a 
body  chosen  under  the-strong  dictation  of  bayonet  rule,  and 
there  was  a  large  element  in  the  State  who  held  it  in  such 
disfavor  that  after  continued  agitation  of  the  subject  the 
Legislature  of  1877  passed  an  act  giving  the  people  an 
opportunity  to  vote  a  constitutional  convention  into  ex 
istence  if  they  desired  it.  The  vote  was  a  very  small 
one,  aggregating  87,238,  and  the  convention  was  carried 


32 


498        CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION  OF  1877. 

by  9,124  majority.  The  body  was  a  fair  representative 
organization  of  the  State's  best  men  ;  there  were  28  pub 
lic  men  who  had  been  governors,  United  States  senators, 
congressmen,  and  judges  The  largest  measure  enacted 
was  the  creation  of  the  commission  to  manage  the  rail 
roads;  the  terms  of  officers  were  shortened,  and  sala 
ries  reduced ;  judges  and  solicitors  were  made  elective  by 
the  Legislature  instead  of  appointive  by  the  Governor 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate ;  the  State 
House  officers  were  made  elective  by  the  people  instead 
of  by  the  Legislature ;  the  homestead  was  reduced  ;  State 
aid  was  forever  prohibited  ;  the  payment  of  the  illegal 
bonds  was  forbidden ;  the  increase  of  the  public  debt  was 
inhibited ;  biennial  sessions  of  the  General  Assembly 
were  adopted  ;  an  attempt  was  made  to  restrict  local  leg 
islation  by  requiring  local  notice,  and  burdening  legislation 
with  troublesome  formalities.  The  people  were  allowed 
to  vote  on  the  question  of  locating  the  capital  at  Milledge- 
ville  or  Atlanta,  and  the  reduction  of  the  homestead  ; 
the  vote  gave  Atlanta  a  majority  of  43,964;  for  the  home 
stead  of  1877,  42,722;  and  for  the  ratification  of  the  new 
Constitution,  69,495. 

The  Legislature  carried  out  the  constitutional  innova 
tion  for  controlling  the  railroads  by  the  creation  of  a  com 
mission.  In  October,  1859,  Governor  Colquitt  appointed 
under  this  act  as  railroad  commissioners,  Ex-Gov.  James 
M.  Smith  for  six  years,  Major  Campbell  Wallace  for  four 
years,  and  Samuel  Barnett  for  two  years.  Upon  the  ex 
piration  of  Mr.  Barnett's  term  in  October,  1831,  Governor 
Colquitt  appointed  Hon.  L.  N.  Tramrnell,  and  Major  Camp 
bell  Wallace  was  re-appointed  in  August,  1883,  as  his'  own 
successor.  There  has  been  a  steady  opposition  by  some 
of  the  railroads  to  the  commission  ;  the  Savannah,  Florida 


THE  RAILROAD  COMMISSION.  499 

&  Western  railroad  made  an  effort  in  the  United  States 
court  to  resist  the  commission,  but  failed.  The  Georgia 
railroad  in  the  State  courts  instituted  suit  for  the  same 
purpose,  but  met  with  defeat;  every  issue  made  in  the 
law  tribunals  to  dwarf  the  authority  of  the  commission 
has  failed.  The  Georgia  railroad  will  carry  its  case 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  when  there 
will  be  a  final  adjudication  of  the  power  of  the  Board. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  commission  has  sought 
to  do  justice  to  the  railroads  while  endeavoring  to  pro 
tect  the  popular  interest,  and  under  its  orders  the  busi 
ness  of  the  roads  has  increased.  The  practical  workings 
of  the  body  have  been  beneficial.  The  commission  has 
made  repute  for  itself  and  the  State,  and  served  as  a 
model  for  other  States. 

Governor  Colquitt's  administration  was  'a  singularly 
beneficial  one  in  practical  results  for  the  State.  At  the 
very  inception  of  his  term  he  was  called  upon  by  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly  to  send  in  a  message  giving  suggestions 
upon  public  policy.  He  framed  a  document  full  of  valu 
able  ideas  that  were  afterwards  carried  out  to  a  large  ex 
tent.  He  treated  in  this  carefully  prepared  paper  the 
questions  of  a  complete  return  of  property  for  taxation,  of 
both  a  closer  and  cheaper  collection  of  taxes,  of  reducing 
the  cost  of  legislation,  of  cutting  down  the  clerk  hire  of  the 
General  Assembly,  of  diminution  of  outlay  in  the  printing, 
contingent,  and  building  funds,  of  reducing  the  clerical  force 
in  all  the  executive  departments,  of  abolishing  superfluous 
offices  and  instituting  a  general  system  of  small  economies. 
He  went  into  the  details  of  these  reforms,  evincing  his 
careful  study  of  the  subject  and  mastery  of  the  questions 
involved. 

During   his    terms    there    were   paid   into  the    public 


500  DECREASE  OF  PUBLIC  DEBT. 

treasury  from  outside  sources  $213,731.34,  on  old  claims 
connected  with  the  war  of  1836  and  the  Western  & 
Atlantic  railroad;  the  sum  of  $216,68327  was  collected 
from  the  railroads  of  the  State  on  back  taxes  of  1874, 
1875,  and  other  years,  besides  a  larger  annual  railroad 
tax  secured;  the  sum  of  $164,608.12  was  collected  in 
earnings  from  the  Macon  &  Brunswick  railroad  that 
had  not  paid  before  anything  to  speak  of;  the  floating 
debt  of  $200,000  was  completely  wiped  out;  the  public 
debt  was  reduced  from  $11,095,879  to  $9,343,500,  or 
$752,379,  in  addition  to  four  per  cent,  bonds  redeemed; 
the  rate  of  taxation  was  reduced  from  five-tenths  of  one 
per  cent.,  or  fifty  cents  on  the  hundred  dollars,  to  two 
find  a  half  tenths  of  one  per  cent.,  or  twenty-five  cents  on 
the  hundred  dollars,  or  one-half;  the  practical  effect  of 
the  reduction  of  the  rate  of  taxation  being  that  under  the 
five-tenths  rate  the  large  sum  of  $1,229,268  was  raised 
on  taxable  property  of  $245,853,750  ;  while  under  the 
two  and  a  half  tenths  rate  at  the  close  of  Governor 
Colquitt's  terms,  $700,000  was  raised  on  $270,000,000  of 
property,  the  people  being  relieved  of  $750,000  in  round 
numbers,  of  actual  annual  taxation. 

There  were,  during  Governor  Colquitt's  admirable  ad 
ministrations,  lengthy  legislative  investigations  into  sev 
eral  of  the  departments  of  the  State  government,  includ 
ing  an  examination  into  his  own  official  act  of  endorsing 
$260,000  of  the  bonds  of  the  Northeastern  railroad. 
Governor  Colquitt's  conduct  was  fully  endorsed,  and  he 
was  re-elected  governor  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
The  investigations  into  the  State  departments  left  the 
executive  wholly  unaffected.  At  the  end  of  Governor 
Colquitt's  term  he  was  elected  by  the  General  Assembly 
to  the  United  States  Senate  for  the  term  of  six  years 


THE  WESTERN  AND  ATLANTIC  B.  E.  LEASE.     501 

beginning  on  the  4th  day  of  March,  1883.  This  honor 
was  won  by  this  gentleman,  like  his  re-election  as  Gov 
ernor,  under  a  full  test  of  the  public  sentiment  after  con 
tests  of  great  warmth,  and  under  circumstances  peculiarly 
gratifying. 

The  career  of  Governor  Brown  since  1872  has  been 
full  of  steady  growth  in  public  esteem,  the  rectification 
of  an  unjust  and  severe  public  misconception  of  his 
motives  and  acts  during  reconstruction,  wider  recognition 
of  his  private  excellences,  legitimate  enlargement  of  his 
private  means  and  influence  and  a  broadening  public  use 
fulness  and  honor.  Resigning  the  distinguished  position 
of  chief  justice  after  only  two  years  most  capable  service 
and  renouncing  ten  years  of  his  term,  a  conclusive  dem 
onstration  that  his  unpopular  position  upon  reconstruc 
tion  had  been  uninfluenced  by  personal  ambition,  he 
devoted  himself  for  years  to  the  quiet  pursuit  of  his  pri 
vate  fortunes.  His  position  as  president  of  the  company 
that  leased  the  Western  &  Atlantic  railroad  brought 
him  into  various  conflicts  with  the  Legislatures  of  the  State 
to  repel  assaults  made  upon  the  integrity  of  the  lease. 
In  these  conflicts,  covering  the  Legislatures  of  3872  and 
1874,  he  exhibited  all  of  those  remarkable  powers  that 
belong  to  the  man.  Cool,  poised,  tireless,  full  of  resources, 
aggressive,  master  of  the  subject,  he  made  himself  master 
of  the  situation. 

A  joint  committee  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1872, 
consisting  of  Senators  A.  D.  Nunnally  and  William  M. 
Reese,  and  Representatives  C.  B.  Hudson,  George  M. 
Netherland  and  George  F.  Pierce,  investigated  for  weeks 
the  circumstances  of  the  granting  of  the  lease.  Every 
fact  was  patiently  sought ;  the  examination  of  witnesses 
was  as  complete  as  it  could  be  made;  the  discussions 


502  LEGISLATIVE  INVESTIGATIONS. 

were  full,  covering  the  whole  ground.  The  Seago-Blodg- 
ett  company,  as  the  rival  organization  seeking  to  obtain 
the  lease  was  called,  with  strong  counsel,  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  invalidate  the  lease  contract.  The  result  was  a 
decisive  victory  for  Governor  Brown  and  his  co-lessees  ; 
the  lease  was  affirmed  in  the  most  solemn  manner. 

Again  in  1874  a  legislative  assault  was  made  upon  the 
lease,  and  a  lengthy  investigation  resulted  in  a  complete 
victory  for  the  lessees.  In  this  as  in  the  previous  ordeal 
Governor  Brown  was  the  leader  of  the  defence,  exhibiting 
the  same  masterly  qualities  of  management,  and  the  same 
effective  handling  of  a  good  cause  that  gave  no  chance  for 
defeat  and  secured  the  triumph  of  the  right  against 
powerful  and  well-conducted  attack.  Governor  Brown  in 
this  last  contest  gave  a  characteristic  illustration  of  that 
species  of  ambush  that  in  conflicts  of  argument  and  inter 
est,  as  well  as  in  war,  proves  very  effective.  The  gentle 
man  antagonizing  the  lease  was  forgetful  enough  to  deny 
the  existence  of  a  letter  whose  production  overwhelmed 
him  with  confusion,  weakened  his  effort  and  discomfited 
him  to  such  an  extent  as  to  wholly  emasculate  his  oppo 
sition.  Several  times  in  Governor  Brown's  battles  has 
he  sprung  forgotten  letters  upon  opponents  with  power 
ful  effect.  And  his  antagonists  have  learned  to  dread  his 
resources  and  strategy. 

The  last  General  Assembly  made  another  lengthy  inves 
tigation  into  the  lease  to  ascertain  the  status  of  the  bond 
and  the  ownership  of  the  shares,  and  referred  the  whole 
matter  to  the  attorney-general,  with  instructions  to  report 
to  the  Governor  whether  the  bond  should  be  strengthened, 
and,  if  after  notice  the  lessees  should  fail  to  do  so,  to 
institute  suit  to  abrogate  the  lease.  All  of  this  was  done. 
The  present  General  Assembly  after  a  full  discussion  of 


GOV.  BROWN'S  MINING  ENTERPRISES.,         503 

the  matter  wisely  passed  a  resolution  to  dismiss  the  suit 
and  let  the  lease  alone.  Senator  Brown  made  an  argu 
ment  before  the  Senate  committee  which  covered  the 
whole  ground.  This  powerful  paper  of  the  distinguished 
president  of  the  lease  company  was  conclusive.  It  placed 
the  matter  in  so  strong  a  light,  and  was  backed  by 
so  large  a  public  sentiment  in  the  State,  that  the  Legisla 
ture  by  an  overwhelming  majority  passed  the  resolution 
to  dismiss  the  suit,  declining  to  either  require  an  increase 
of  the  bond  or  the  payment  of  the  costs  of  suit  by  the 
lessees,  both  of  which  propositions  were  pressed.  This 
decisive  action  is  probably  a  final  settlement  of  this  active 
and  costly  lease  agitation.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  other 
person  could  have  carried  the  lease  through  the  trying 
ordeals  through  which  it  has  passed  besides  Senator 
Brown.  And  his  triumph  over  so  many  and  such  vigor 
ous  attacks  has  been  a  crucial  test  of  his  remarkable 
abilities. 

Governor  Brown  for  many  years  devoted  himself  almost 
exclusively  to  business  pursuits,  pretty  nearly  ignoring 
politics.  He  became,  as  we  have  seen,  president  of  the 
Western  &  Atlantic  Railroad  Company.  He  also  became 
president  of  the  Dade  Coal  Company,  working  four  hun 
dred  and  fifty  hands,  of  which  three  hundred  and  fifty 
were  convicts  of  the  State.  This  coal  company  owned 
about  twenty-five  thousand  acres  of  coal  and  iron  lands, 
and  has  been  run  with  the  same  successful  business 
methods  that  have  marked  all  of  the  enterprises  both 
large  and  small  that  have  been  managed  by  this  remark 
able  man.  He  became  president  of  the  Walker  Iron  and 
Coal  Company,  which  is  worked  in  connection  with  the 
Dade  Coal  Company,  working  about  ninety  tons  a  day. 
The  Dade  Coal  Company  also  owns  very  valuable  beds  of 


504  PHENOMENAL  SUCCESS 

iron  ore  in  Bartow  county,  which  are  being  worked  to 
profit  by  Governor  Brown  and  his  company.  The  writer 
has  no  doubt  that  these  various  mineral  properties  will  em 
brace  one  million  dollars  of  capital.  These  three  mineral 
interests  controlled  and  worked  by  Governor  Brown  em 
ploy  over  eight  hundred  hands.  He  was  president  of  the 
Southern  Railway  and  Steamship  Association,  which  em 
braces  the  great  lines  of  Southern  freight  transportation. 

Whatever  scheme  he  handled  was  conducted  by  him 
with  consummate  ability  and  sagacity.  He  seemed  equally 
at  home  in  every  species  of  material  industry.  No  new 
business  proved  too  much  for  his  extraordinary  and  varied 
capacities,  or  was  able  to  baffle  his  comprehension  and 
mastery.  His  marvellous  business  career  has  been  as  phe 
nomenal  as  his  political  course,  as  full  of  daring  surprises 
of  achievement.  His  executive  ability  was  simply  proof 
against  any  draft  upon  it;  his  multifarious  trusts  were  any 
single  one  of  them  enough  for  an  ordinary  man.  But  so 
well  systematized  are  his  labors,  so  judicious  his  selection 
of  agents  and  subordinates,  so  masterly  and  correct  his 
grasp  of  the  principles  of  each  industry,  so  thorough  his 
supervision,  so  firm  his  authority  and  so  intelligent  and 
sensible  his  policy,  that  he  keeps  well  in  hand  his  many 
enterprises  and  drives  them  all  to  remunerative  success. 

He  is  less  in  a  hurry  than  any  living  man,  and  he  does 
all  things  thoroughly  ;  he  is  the  most  deliberate  of  men, 
and  the  most  attentive  to  his  smallest  obligations.  He 
forgets  nothing,  omits  nothing,  attends  to  everything. 
The  most  trivial  undertakings  that  he  assumes  are  re 
membered  and  executed.  His  wonderful  despatch  of 
business,  however,  while  due  very  largely  to  systematic 
method,  and  prompt  attention,  is  attributable  also  to 
native  qualities  of  mind  and  will  that  few  men  possess. 


IN  BUSINESS  LIFE.  505 

He  has,  beyond  the  most  of  men,  a  quick  intuition  and  a 
rapid  judgment.  He  has  uncommon  industry  and 
energy,  but  with  them  the  capacity  of  swift  assimilation, 
and  instantaneous  decision.  His  mind  leaps  to  prompt 
conclusions  and  accurate  ones  ;  what  he  weighs  in  his  mind 
is  conned  over  with  searching  power  of  native  analysis, 
looking  dispassionately  to  just  results  without  self-decep 
tion  growing  out  of  self-interest,  but  with  a  marvellous 
power  to  confront  and  own  the  truth.  Governor  Brown 
does  not  allow  his  wishes  to  deceive  his  perceptions,  as 
the  most  of  men  do.  He  has  the  sense  to  see  the  reality, 
in  which  the  majority  of  men  are  like  him,  and  the  nerve 
to  admit  it  to  himself  and  act  on  it,  in  which  he  is  unlike 
the  majority  of  men.  His  superiority  is  in  his  more 
thorough  investigation,  swifter  judgment,  and  more  reso 
lute  determination.  Add  to  these  his  perfect  system  and 
we  have  the  range  of  business  qualities  that  have  made 
Governor  Brown  so  phenomenally  successful  in  business. 
All  of  the  time,  however,  that  Governor  Brown  was 
pursuing  his  material  plans  of  wealth,  his  name  had  ever 
a  mysterious  and  perennial  potency  in  public  matters. 
He  was  the  hidden  power  of  Georgia  politics,  believed  to 
be  the  ruling  spirit  of  every  campaign,  endowed  by  the 
popular  fancy  with  an  inscrutable  influence  in  framing 
every  result,  and  alternately  anathematized  and  be- 
praised  as  the  omnipotent  author  of  defeat  or  victory. 
His  subtle  agency  was  alleged  in  every  piece  of  deft 
strategy  that  scored  a  triumph  or  discomfited  an  oppo 
nent.  His  strong  hand  was  imaginatively  discerned  in 
every  political  combination.  His  wily  brain  was  claimed 
in  each  wise  or  fruitful  movement  of  great  parties.  It  was 
remarkable  how  the  public  mind  endowed  the  man,  and 
all  this  was  a  striking  practical  tribute  to  his  genius. 


50Q  THE  TILDEN-HAYES  ELECTION. 

Governor  Brown  did  occasionally  make  a  political 
stroke;  he  had  urged  the  acceptance  of  reconstruction, 
but  he  stopped  right  at  the  line  of  what  he  considered 
absolute  public  necessity.  He  went  not  one  step  beyond. 
He  had  fought  every  wrong  of  the  reconstruction  regime 
from  prolongation  to  robbery.  He  had  opposed  addi 
tional  reconstruction  that  sought  an  unnecessary  resubju- 
gation  of  the  Southern  States.  He  had  condemned  Grant 
and  Bullock  when  their  administrations  bore  with  gratui 
tous  severity  upon  our  people ;  when  a  man  named  Isaac 
Seeley  invented  a  trick  to  get  Congress  to  prevent  the 
abridgment  of  voting  for  non-payment  of  taxes  by  the 
fabrication  of  affidavits  showing  the  denial  of  the  right 
to  vote  by  false  challenges,  Governor  Brown  exposed  it 
in  an  open  letter. 

He  was  ready  at  all  times  and  in  any  way  to  serve  the 
public  welfare.  In  the  memorable  contest  between  Mr. 
Tilden  and  Mr.  Hayes  for  that  great  prize,  the  presidency 
of  the  United  States,  won  by  Mr.  Tilden  at  the  ballot 
box,  but  enjoyed  by  Mr.  Hayes,  Governor  Brown  took  an 
important  and  historic  part  for  the  Democracy.  Bur 
dened  with  his  multiplied  and  onerous  business  cares, 
suffering  from  a  disease  of  the  throat  that  rendered  him 
really  unfit  for  any  duty  private  or  public,  he  yet  laid 
aside  his  private  matters  and,  ignoring  the  admonitions 
of  his  physician,  he  went  to  Florida  and  spent  weeks 
there  in  obedience  to  the  call  of  the  Democratic  party 
to  give  his  great  abilities  to  the  investigation  of  the 
alleged  election  frauds  upon  whose  proof  rested  the 
hope  of  making  Hayes  president.  If  the  vote  of  Florida 
for  Tilden  could  be  set  aside  his  election  could  be  pre 
vented.  In  this  uncommon  and  novel  contest  for  the 
presidency  of  fifty  millions  of  people,  the  little  orange 


THE  FLORIDA  CONTEST.  507 

El  Dorado  of  the  South  was  one  of  the  battle  fields,  and 
Governor  Brown  was  the  Democratic  leader  in  that  cru 
cial  struggle,  and  the  cynosure  of  the  nation's  gaze. 
Well  did  he  bear  the  Democratic  standard  in  this  unique 
conflict.  It  involved  the  purity  of  the  ballot,  the  revela 
tion  of  fraud,  and  the  vindication  of  the  popular  will. 
Through  all  the  tedious  and  trying  enquiry  Governor 
Brown  remained  the  unpaid  advocate  of  public  welfare 
and  political  honesty,  with  consummate  ability,  sleepless 
vigilance,  and  determined  boldness,  defending  the  right 
and  exposing  the  wrong.  His  speech  was  a  masterpiece, 
analyzing  the  law  with  unerring  astuteness,  and  discussing 
the  principles  with  profound  power. 

Governor  Starnes  was  the  Republican  executive  of  the 
State,  claiming  the  right  to  decide  wrho  were  chosen  elec 
tors.  The  courts  were  sought  to  enjoin  him  from  using 
this  dangerous  authority.  With  the  decision  in  the  hands 
of  a  partisan  Governor  there  was  no  chance  for  the  Demo 
crats  whatever.  The  Electoral  Board  had  one  Democratic 
member,  and  therefore  there  was  more  possibility  of  fair 
dealing  before  the  Board  than  before  the  Executive.  Gov 
ernor  Brown  was  chosen  to  make  the  argument  before  the 
court  against  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Executive  in  the 
matter,  and  his  strong  and  conclusive  argument  given 
below  settled  this  part  of  the  case. 

THE  FLORIDA  CONTEST. 
TEXT  OF  EX-GOVKRNOR  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN'S  ARGUMENT. 

"  Muy  it  please  your  Honor: 

"  As  His  Excellency,  the  Governor,  in  his  answer  in  this  case  has  not  dis 
claimed  jurisdiction  over  the  subject  of  canvassing  the  election  returns,  and 
has  used  no  expression  which  amounts  to  a  pledge,  or  which  precludes  him 


508  GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  ARGUMENT. 

from  assuming  the  jurisdiction  at  any  future  day,  it  is  proper  to  discuss  the 
question  as  to  his 

LEGAL  POWERS  IN  THE  PREMISES. 

"In  the  division  of  labor  in  this  case,  the  duty  has  been  assigned  me  of 
submitting  an  argument  which  I  have  prepared  with  some  care,  showing  that 
the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Florida  has  no  power  given  by  any  statute 
of  the  State,  or  other  known  law,  to  canvass  the  returns  of  the  election  for 
electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  and  determine 
the  result.  That  power,  as  we  contend,  is  vested  by  the  statutes  of  the  State 
in  the  Board  of  State  canvassers  composed  of  the  attorney-general,  the  sec 
retary  of  state  and  the  comptroller  of  public  accounts ;  and  if  vested  in  them, 
then  the  Governor  has  no  right  to  exercise  it,  and  an  attempt  to  do  so  would 
be  an  assumption  of  power  not  conferred  upon  him.  The  question  of  the 
jurisdiction  of  your  Honor  to  grant  an  injunction  restraining  His  Excellency 
from  the  assumption  or  usurpation  of  such  a  power  has  been  and  will  be  fully 
discussed  by  other  counsel  who  also  appear  for  complainants  in  this  bill.  I 
shall  confine  myself  to  a  discussion  of  the  questions  above  mentioned. 

"  And  at  the  expense  of  being  somewhat  tedious,  I  shall  take  up  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  bearing  upon  this  question,  and  such 
of  the  statutes  of  the  State  of  Florida  as  may  be  necessary  to  a  proper  under 
standing  of  it,  and  discuss  them.  And  I  shall  incorporate  in  this  argument 
such  liberal  quotations  from  the  statutes  as  may  be  necessary  to  show  the 
current  of  legislation  on  this  subject,  and  such  as  may  lead  us — construing 
the  whole  together — to  a  safe  conclusion  on  the  question  of  disputed  juris 
diction.  In  discussing  this  question  it  may  be  very  important  to  inquire 
whether  or  not  an  elector  of  president  and  vice-president  is  a  State  officer. 

"The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  article  2,  section  1,  paragraph  2, 
declares  that,  'each  State  shall  appoint  in  such  manner  as  the  Legislature 
thereof  may  direct,  a  number  of  electors  equal  to  the  whole  number  of  sena 
tors  and  representatives  to  which  the  State  may  be  entitled  in  Congress.' 

"  Article  12,  amendments,  declares  that  the  electors  shall  meet  in  their  re 
spective  States  and  vote  by  ballot  for  President  and  Vice-President,  and  sets 
forth  the  manner  of  conducting  such  election  by  ballot.  It  then  provides  for 
a  meeting  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  when  the  President  of  the  Senate 
shall,  in  the  presence  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  open  all  the 
certificates,  and  the  votes  shall  then  be  counted,  and  the  person  having  the 
greatest  number  of  votes  for  President  shall  be  President,  if  such  number  be  a 
majority  of  the  whole  number  of  electors  appointed,  and  if  no  person  have 
such  majority,  then  from  the  persons  having  the  highest  numbers,  not  exceed 
ing  three  on  the  list  of  those  voted  for  as  President,  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives  shall  choose  immediately  by  ballot  the  President.  But  in  choo.»ing 
the  President,  the  votes  shall  be  taken  by  States,  the  representation  from  each 
State  having  one  vote ;  a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall  consist  of  a  member 


GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  ARGUMENT.  509 

or  members  from  two-thirds  of  the  States,  and  a  majority  of  all  the  States 
shall  be  necessary  to  a  choice. 

ELECTORS  STATE  OFFICERS. 

"  Now  it  seems  very  clear  from  these  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  that  the  electors  of  the  several  States  who  meet  in  their 
respective  States  act  as  the  officers  or  representatives  of  their  State,  and  not 
as  officers  of  the  Federal  Government;  and  this  conclusion  is  greatly  strength 
ened  by  the  provision  made  for  the  election  of  President,  in  the  event  no  one 
has  received  a  majority  of  all  the  electors  appointed.  In  that  case,  it  is  not 
the  officers  of  the  Federal  Government,  nor  the  representatives  of  the  Federal 
Government  who  choose  the  President;  but  the  House  of  Representatives 
make  the  choice,  the  representation  from  each  State  having  one  vote.  In 
other  words,  each  of  the  respective  States  by  its  representation  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  in  Congress  casts  one  vote  for  President.  In  that  case, 
the  State  of  Florida  has  the  same  weight  in  the  election  of  President  as  the 
State  of  New  York.  The  election,  in  other  words,  is  made  by  States,  each 
speaking  through  its  representation  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  not  by  the  officers  or  agents  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government.  And  it  is  necessary  that  two-thirds  of  all  the  States  shall 
vote  to  make  an  election  ;  and  a  majority  of  all  the  States  is  necessary  to  a 
choice. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  therefore,  leaves  no  room  for  rea 
sonable  doubt  that  the  electors  for  President  and  Vice-President  are  the 
officers  of  their  respective  States,  and  that  they  act  for  their  respective  States 
in  casting  the  vote  for  President  and  Vice-President,  and  in  case  of  a  failure 
of  the  electoral  colleges  to  make  a  choice,  the  States  themselves,  each  having 
equal  weight  with  another,  through  their  representation  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  United  States,  proceed  to  elect  a  President.  So  much 
for  the  constitutional  provisions. 

SEARCHING  THE  STATUTES. 

"  The  Act  of  Congress  provides  that  electors  of  President  and  Vice-Presi 
dent  shall  be  appointed  in  each  State,  on  the  Tuesday  next  after  the  first 
Monday  in  November  in  every  fourth  year  succeeding  every  election  of  a 
President  and  Vice-President.  Revised  statutes  of  the  United  States,  sec 
tion  131,  section  133  declares  that:  '  Each  State  may  by  law  provide  for  the 
filling  of  any  vacancies  which  may  occur  in  its  college  of  electors,  when  such 
college  meets  to  give  its  electoral  vote.'  Section  134  declares  that,  'whenever 
any  State  has  held  an  election  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  electors,  and  has 
failed  to  make  a  choice  on  the  day  prescribed  by  law,  the  electors  may  be 
appointed  on  a  subsequent  day  in  such  manner  as  the  Legislature  of  such 
State  may  direct.'  Section  135  declares  that,  '  the  electors  for  each  State 
shall  meet  and  give  their  votes  upon  the  first  Wednesday  in  December  in 


510  GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  ARGUMENT. 

the  year  in  which  they  are  appointed,  at  such  place  in  each  State  as  the 
Legislature  of  such  State  may  direct.'  Section  136  declares  that,  '  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  executive  of  each  State  to  cause  three  lists  of  the  names  of 
the  electors  of  such  States  to  be  made  and  certified,  and  to  be  delivered  to 
the  electors  on  or  before  the  day  on  which  they  are  required  by  the  preceding 
section  to  meet.' 

"An  examination  of  these  general  provisions  of  the  statutes  of  the  United 
States  seems  to  show  very  conclusively  that  the  electors  of  President  and 
Vice-President  are  in  every  case,  and  under  every  contingency,  to  be  chosen 
by  the  respective  States,  that  they  are  the  officers  or  representatives  of  such 
States — that  they  are  not  authorized  to  meet  anywhere  except  within  the 
limits  of  their  respective  States;  and  in  case  of  a  vacancy  in  the  electoral 
college  of  any  State,  it  is  left  to  the  State  to  provide  for  the  filling  of  such 
vacancy.  And  in  case  any  State  has  held  an  election  at  the  proper  time  and 
failed  to  make  a  choice  of  electors  on  the  day  prescribed,  her  electors  are  to 
be  appointed  on  a  subsequent  day  in  such  manner  as  the  Legislature  of  such 
State  may  direct.  And  it  is 

WORTHY  OF  NOTE, 

in  this  connection,  that  the  electors  are  not  directed  either  by  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  or  the  laws  of  the  United  States  to  be  appointed 
by  .popular  election  in  the  State;  they  are  not,  therefore,  the  representatives 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  nor  are  they  in  the  strict  sense  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people  of  the  State,  but  they  are  the  representatives  of  their 
respective  States.  The  State  is  left  to  determine  for  itself  whether  they  shall 
be  appointed  by  popular  election,  at  which  all  the  qualified  voters  in  the  State 
shall  have  a  voice,  or  whether  it  will  appoint  them  in  some  other  manner. 
The  State  has  a  perfect  right  to  appoint  them  in  any  manner  directed  by  its 
Legislature.  Prior  to  the  late  war  the  State  of  South  Carolina  appointed  its 
electors  by  its  Legislature.  The  State  of  Florida  in  the  election  of  1868 
appointed  it*  electors  by  the  Legislature  and  not  by  popular  vote.  The  State 
of  Colorado  in  the  present  election  appointed  its  electors  by  its  Legislature, 
and  not  by  the  popular  vote. 

"  The  electors  are,  therefore,  unquestionably  the  representatives  or  otficers 
of  the  State.  They  are  appointed  by  the  State  to  represent  the  State  in 
casting  the  vote  of  the  State.  They  are  compelled  to  meet  in  the  State,  and 
they  are  paid  by  the  State,  and  they  are  therefore  officers  of  the  State. 

"  To  show  more  clearly  the  distinction  between  State  and  Federal  officers,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  say  that  such  provisions  are  made  by  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  as  to  secure  the  appointment  of  all  Federal  officers  independ 
ently  of  the  action  or  non-action  of  the  respective  States.  But  if  a  State 
should  not  choose  to  vote  for  President  and  Vice-President  and  should  pass 
no  law  providing  for  the  appointment  of  electors,  and  should  make  no  such 
appointment,  no  power  exists  in  the  Federal  Government  to  make  any  such 


.      GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  ARGUMENT.  511 

appointment.  If  the  electors  were  officers  of  the  Federal  Government,  it 
would  not  be  in  the  power  of  the  State  to  prevent  their  appointment;  but 
being  officers  of  the  State  Government,  it  is  left  with  each  State  to  appoint 
them  or  not,  as  she  may  think  proper.  Her  failure  to  make  the  appoint 
ment  simply  deprives  her  of  her  vote  in  the  election  of  President  and  Vice- 
President.  •  And  she  can  exercise  such  right  or  refuse  to  exercise  it  at  her 
discretion,  independently,  and  without  accountability  to  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  or  any  other  power,  which  is 

WHOLLY  INCOMPATIBLE 

with  the  idea  that  the  electors  are  Federal  officers  or  Representatives  of  the 
Federal  Government. 

"  By  reference  to  the  act  pnssed  by  the  Legislature  of  Florida  in  1846,  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  Governor,  sixty  days  prior  to  the  time  provided  by  said 
act  for  the  election  of  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  was  required,  by  proclamation  to  be  inserted  in  at  least  one  newspaper 
published  at  the  seat  of  government,  and  such  other  papers  printed  in  the 
State  as  he  might  see  fit,  to  give  notice  of  the  time  of  such  election,  and  of 
the  number  of  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  to  be  chosen.  And 
the  persons  qualified  to  vote  for  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  (who  were  at  that  time  confined  exclusively 
to  the  white  race),  on  the  thirty-fourth  day  preceding  the  first  Wednesday  in 
December,  unless  it  should  be  on  Saturday  or  Sunday,  and  in  that  event  on 
the  succeeding  Monday,  in  the  year  1848,  and  in  every  fourth  succeeding 
year,  were  to  assemble  at  the  place  designated  for  holding  elections,  and  were 
to  proceed  to  elect  a  number  of  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President 
equal  to  the  number  of  Senators  and  Representatives  the  State  might  be  en 
titled  to  in  Congress,  etc. 

"  And  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  inspectors  of  elections  at  the  different 
precincts  in  each  county  to  hold  the  elections  in  the  manner  prescribed,  and 
to  seal  up  the  poll-book  of  the  election,  which  was  to  be  carried  within  two 
days  after  the  election  to  the  sheriff  of  the  county,  who  was  required  to 
attend  two  days  succeeding  the  election  at  the  court-house  for  the  purpose  of 
receiving  the  poll-books. 

"  The  sheriff  upon  receiving  the  poll-books  was  to  administer  an  oath  or 
affirmation  to  each  inspector  who  delivered  said  poll-book,  and  receipt  for  the 
same.  And  it  was  the  duty  of  the  sheriff  to  deliver,  or  cause  the  same  to  be 
delivered,  to  the  secretary  of  state  at  his  office  within  twenty-five  days  after 
the  election. 

THE  RETURNING  BOARDS. 

'*  The  poll-books,  on  the  26th  day,  unless  it  was  Sunday,  and  in  that  event  on 
the  27th  day  after  the  election,  as  the  statute  provides,  shall  be  opened  by  the 
secretary  of  state  in  the  presence  of  the  comptroller-general  and  the  treasurer 
of  the  State,  and  such  sheriffs  as  may  choose  to  attend ;  the  secretary  of 


512  GOVERNOR  BROWN'S  ARGUMENT. 

state  shall  cause  the  poll-books  as  they  are  opened  to  be  read  aloud,  and  shall 
make  out  a  fair  abstract  of  the  names  of  the  persons  voted  for,  and  the  num 
ber  of  the  votes  given  to  each.  He  shall  make  out  and  sign  a  certificate 
containing  in  figures  and  words  written  at  full  length  the  number  of  votes  given 
in  the  State  for  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States ; 
the  names  of  the  persons  for  whom  such  votes  were  given,  and  the  number 
of  votes  to  each,  which  certificate  shall  be  recorded  by  the  secretary  in  his 
office,  and  published  in  one  or  more  of  the  newspapers  printed  in  the  State 
for  the  information  of  the  public;  and  the  Governor  shall  forthwith  make  out 
for  the  number  of  persons  to  be  elected,  and  who  have  the  greatest  number 
of  votes,  certificates  of  their  being  duly  elected  electors  of  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  and  transmit  by  special  messenger  or 
other  safe  conveyance  the  proper  certificate  to  each  person  so  elected.  Pro 
vision  is  then  made  for  the  election  in  case  of  a  tie,  by  lot,  arid  the  balance  of 
the  statute  provides  for  the  mode  of  filling  vacancies  in  case  of  the  absence 
of  any  elector,  and  for  the  manner  of  casting  the  vote,  etc  ,  and  also  for 
the  election  of  electors  in  case  of  a  vacancy  in  the  offices  of  President  and 
Vice-President. 

"  As  will  subsequently  appear,  the  whole  election  system  of  this  State  has 
been  changed  since  the  act  of  1846,  and  the  present  plan  is  so  much  in  con 
flict  with  said  act  that  no  portion  of  it  probably  can  be  said  to  be  still  of 
force.  But  if  the  provision  of  said  act  in  reference  to  the  canvass  of  the 
electoral  vote  be  still  in  force,  then  it  is  very  clear  that  the  power  of  canvass 
ing  is  not  given  by  said  act  to  the  Governor,  but  to  the  secretary  of  state, 
who  was  to  make  the  canvass  in  the  presence  of  the  comptroller-general  and 
treasurer,  and  such  sheriffs  whose  duty  it  was  to  bring  up  the  poll-books  from 
the  different  counties  as  might  choose  to  be  present.  And  upon  the  fact 
being  ascertained  who  was  elected,  when  the  vote  was  canvassed  by  the  secre 
tary  of  state,  it  was  made  his  duty  to  make  out  and  si^n  a  certificate  show 
ing  who  was  so  elected,  to  record  the  same  in  his  office,  and  to  publish  the 
result  in  one  or  more  of  the  newspapers  printed  in  the  State,  for  the  informa 
tion  of  the  public;  and  it  was  then  made  the  duty  of  the  Governor,  upon  such 
canvass  and  publication  made  by  the  secretary  of  stare,  to  give  the  certifi 
cates  as  is  required  by  the  Act  of  Congress  and  the  statute  of  the  State  to 
the  persons  elected,  not  upon  his  own  canvass  of  the  votes  nor  upon  a  can 
vass  of  votes  made  in  his  presence,  but  upon  that  made  by  the  secretary  of 
state  in  the  presence  of  the  officers  above  mentioned. 

THE  GOVERNOR'S  DUTIES. 

"It  is  further  to  be  noted  that,  under  the  Act  of  1846,  the  Governor  was 
required  to  give  sixty  days'  notice  preceding  the  election,  which  it  is  not  pre 
tended  was  done  by  him  in  this  case.  In  other  words,  neither  the  Governor 
nor  the  State  House  officers  are  now  acting  under  the  act  of  1846,  but  under 
the  acts  passed  in  1868  and  in  1872  respectively. 


ARGUMENT  IN  FLORIDA.  513 

"  The  act  of  1872  in  its  whole  machinery  differs  from  the  act  of  1846  up 
on  which  we  are  informed  those  who  claim  jurisdiction  over  this  question 
for  the  governor  predicate,  at  least  in  part,  their  argument. 

"  In  the  first  place,  the  electors  are  riot  the  same.  Then  only  free  white 
men  were  electors;  now  the  colored  race  as  well  as  the  white  race  are  elec 
tors.  Then  the  sixty  days'  notice  was  required  to  be  published  by  the  gov 
ernor  ;  now  it  is  the  duty  of  the  secretary  of  state  to  make  it  out  and  deliver  it 
to  the  slier. ff  of  each  county,  stating  in  said  notice  what  offices  and  vacancies 
are  to  be  filled  at  such  general  election  in  the  State,  county,  or  district  and 
to  cause  a  copy  to  be  published  at  least  sixty  days. 

"  Then  the  inspectors  of  election  could  only  be  free  white  men,  now  they 
may  be  white  or  colored.  Then  they  were  appointed  by  the  governor,  now 
they  are  appointed  by  the  county  commissioners  who  are  appointed  by  the 
governor.  Then  the  inspectors  of  election  at  the  different  precincts  or 
polling  places  returned  the  result  to  the  sheriff  not  appointed  by  the 
governor,  at  the  county  site,  within  two  days  after  the  election ;  now 
they  are  given  six  days  to  return  it,  not  to  the  sheriff,  who  is  now  ap 
pointed  by  the  governor,  but  to  the  county  judge,  the  clerk  of  the 
district  court,  and  a  justice  of  the  peace,  all  appointed  by  the  governor. 
Then  the  sheriff  had  twenty-five  days  within  which  to  deliver  the  poll-book 
to  the  secretary  of  state,  under  penalty  of  one  thousand  dollars.  Now 
thirty-five  days  are  allowed  for  the  returns  to  reach  the  office  of  secretary 
of  state  and  governor.  We  might  give  numerous  other  particulars,  in 
which  the  act  of  1808  differs  from  and  is  inconsistent  with  that  of  1846;  but 
as  the  act  of  1846  gave  the  canvass  to  the  secretary  of  state,  and  not  to  the 
governor,  we  think  it  unnecessary.  We  will  next  notice  the 

CHANGES  MADE  IN  THE  CANVASSING  BOARD 

by  the  act  of  1868.  As  already  shown,  the  act  of  1846  gave  the  secretary  of 
state  power,  in  the  presence  of  the  officers  already  mentioned,  to  canvass  the 
vote.  The  28ih  section  of  the  act  of  1808  provides  that,  on  the  first  Tues 
day  next  after  the  fourth  Monday  in  November,  next  after  any  general  elec 
tion,  or  sooner  if  the  returns  shall  have  been  received  from  the  several 
counties,  the  secretary  of  state,  attorney-general,  and  comptroller,  or  any 
two  of  them,  shall  meet  at  the  office  of  secretary  of  state  pursuant  to  notice 
to  be  given  by  the  secretary  of  state  (or  in  his  absence  or  inability  to 
attend,  by  the  governor,)  and  proceed  to  canvass  the  returns  of  such  election 
and  declare  who  shall  have  been  elected  by  the  highest  number  of  votes  to 
any  office  as  shown  by  said  returns. 

"  Section  30  declares,  *  When  any  person  shall  be  elected  to  the  office  of 
elector  of  president  or  vice-president,  or  representative  in  Congress,  the 
governor  shall  make  out,  sign  and  cause  to  be  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the 
State,  and  transmit  to  such  person  a  certificate  of  such  election.' 

44  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  act  of  1868  substitutes  the  secretary  of 
33 


514  ARGUMENT  IN  FLORIDA. 

state,  attorney-general,  and  comptroller  as  the  canvassing  board,  in  place  of 
the  secretary  of  state  in  the  act  of  1846,  and  requires  a  certificate  from  them 
of  the  election,  similar  to  that  made  by  the  secretary  of  state  under  the  act 
of  1846. 

"  And  by  section  30,  of  the  act  of  1868,  it  is  made  the  duty  of  the  governor 
to  make  out  and  sign,  and  cause  to  be  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the  State,  and 
transmit  to  the  person  elected  a  certificate  of  his  election,  just  as  he  was  re 
quired  to  do  under  the  act  of  1846,  under  the  canvass  made  by  the  secretary 
of  state  in  presence  of  his  associate  officers.  Under  that  statute,  the  secre 
tary  of  state  made  the  canvass  in  presence  of  the  treasurer  and  comptroller- 
general  ;  under  the  act  of  1868  the  secretary  of  state,  comptroller,  and  attor 
ney-general  make  the  canvass,  and  the  governor  in  each  case  issues  the 
certificate,  upon  the  canvass  as  made  and  certified  by  them.  The  acts  of 
1846  and  1868  are,  therefore,  in  complete  harmony  on  this  point. 

THE  ACT  OF  1871 

repeals  the  28th  section  of  the  act  of  1868,  above  quoted,  and  re-enacts  it, 
substantially  changing  the  canvassing  board  by  substituting  the  clerk  of 
the  supreme  court  for  the  comptroller,  and  making  the  three  officers,  or  any 
two  of  them  with  any  other  member  of  the  Cabinet  whom  they  may  desig 
nate,  the  canvassing  board,  and  with  the  further  change,  that  the  canvass 
shall  be  on  the  35th  day  after  the  holding  of  any  election,  general  or 
special,  that  may  hereafter  be  held  for  any  State  officer,  member  of  the  Leg 
islature  or  representative  in  Congress,  or  sooner  if  the  returns  shall  have 
been  received  from  the  several  counties  wherein  elections  have  been  held. 
The  third  section  of 

THE  ACT  OF  1872 

repeals  the  act  of  1871  above  referred  to.  The  first,  second  and  fourth  sec 
tions  are  still  of  force,  and  are  the  last  acts  passed  by  the  Legislature  upon 
that  subject.  Section  one  enacts  as  follows  : — 

" '  The  first  section  of  an  act  to  provide  for  the  registration  of  electors  and 
the  holding  of  elections,  approved  August  6,  1868,  is  hereby  amended  so  as 
to  read  as  follows :  A  general  election  shall  be  held  in  the  several  counties 
in  this  State  on  Tuesday  next  succeeding  the  first  Monday  in  November, 
in  each  year,  in  which  elections  are  required  to  be  held  for  an  election  of 
such  of  the  following  officers  and  representatives  as  are  to  be  elected,  that 
is  to  say :  a  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  representative  in  Congress, 
electors  of  president  and  vice-president,  State  senators  and  members  of  the 
Assembly  arid  such  county  officers  as  are  to  be  elected  as  provided  by  Con 
stitution  and  laws.' 

"  SEC.  2.  The  second  section  of  said  act  is  hereby  amended  so  as  to  read  as 
follows  :  *  a  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  and  electors  of  president  and  vice- 
president  shall  be  elected  in  the  year  1872  and  every  fourth  year  thereafter ; 
senators  in  the  districts  designated  by  odd  numbers  in  the  year  1872  and 


ARGUMENT  IN  FLORIDA.  515 

every  fourth  year  thereafter  ;  senators  in  the  districts  designated  by  even 
numbers,  in  the  year  1871  and  every  four  years  thereafter  ;  a  representative 
in  Cougress  and  members  of  the  General  Assembly,  in  the  year  1872  and  ev 
ery  two  years  thereafter;  constables  and  such  other  county  officers,  as  are  to 
be  elected  in  the  year  1872  and  every  two  years  thereafter/ 

" «  SEC.  4.  On  the  35th  day  after  the  holding  of  any  general  or  special  elec 
tion  for  any  State  otficer,  member  of  Legislature,  or  representative  in  Con 
gress,  or  sooner,  if  the  returns  shall  have  been  received  from  the  several  coun 
ties  wherein  elections  shall  have  been  held,  the  secretary  of  state,  attorney- 
general,  aud  comptroller  of  public  accounts,  or  any  of  them  together  with 
any  other  member  of  the  Cabinet  who  may  be  designated  by  them,  shall 
meet  at  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state,  pursuant  to  a  notice  to  be  given 
by  the  secretary  of  state,  and  form  a  board  of  State  canvassers  and  proceed 
to  canvass  the  returns  of  said  election,  and  determine  and  declare  who  shall 
have  been  elected  to  any  such  office,  or  as  such  member  as  shown  by  such  re 
turns.  If  any  such  returns  shall  be  shown,  or  shall  appear  to  be  so  irregular, 
false,  or  fraudulent  that  the  board  shall  be  unable  to  determine  the  true  vote 
for  such  officer  or  member,  they  shall  so  certify,  and  shall  not  include  such 
return  in  their  determination  and  declaration  ;  and  the  secretary  of  state 
shall  preserve  and  file  in  his  office  all  such  returns,  together  with  such  other 
documents  and  papers  as  may  have  been  received  by  him  or  any  of  said 
board  of  canvassers.  The  said  board  shall  make  and  sign  a  certificate  con 
taining  in  words  written  in  full  length  the  whole  number  of  votes  given  for 
each  officer,  the  number  of  votes  given  for  each  person,  for  each  office,  and 
for  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  therein  declare  the  result;  which  certifi 
cate  shall  be  recorded  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state,  in  a  book  to  be 
kept  for  that  purpose,  and  the  secretary  of  state  shall  cause  a  certified  copy 
of  such  certificate  to  be  published  once  in  one  or  more  newspapers  printed 
at  the  seat  of  government.' 

THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  STATUTE. 

"  Now  we  understand  that  the  advocates  of  the  assumption  of  jurisdiction 
by  the  governor  put  much  stress  upon  the  language  of  section  four  just 
quoted,  which  gives  the  board  of  canvassers  jurisdiction  in  case  of  any  State 
officer,  member  of  the  Legislature,  or  representative  in  Congress.  It  is  claimed 
that  this  does  not  give  the  board  jurisdiction  in  the  case  of  electors  of  presi 
dent  and  vice-president,  because  they  are  not  again  mentioned.  They  are 
mentioned  in  the  first  and  second  sections  of  the  act  of  1872  just  quoted,  to 
gether  with  the  other  State  officers.  In  the  fourth  section  they  are  not  ex 
pressly  mentioned,  nor  is  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  constable,  or  other 
county  officers,  which  are  all  mentioned  in  sections  one  and  two.  The  office 
of  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  elector  of  president  and  vice-president,  con 
stable  and  county  officer,  which  are  all  embraced  in  sections  one  and  two, 


516  AKGUMENT  IN  FLORIDA. 

are  included  in  section  four  under  the  general  designation  of  '  State  officer/ 
As  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  county  officer,  constable,  etc.,  are  all 
omitted  by  name  in  the  fourth  section,  and  are  all  included  under  the  gen 
eral  term  '  State  officer,'  so  is  elector  of  president  and  vice-president,  which 
is  repeated  with  them  in  each  of  the  previous  sections  also  omitted  because 
included  under  said  general  designation. 

"  As  we  think  we  have  clearly  shown  in  the  commencement  of  this  argu 
ment  that  a  presidential  elector  is  a  State  officer,  we  see  no  room  for  any 
doubt  that  the  term  '  State  officer,'  in  the  fourth  section  gives  express  juris 
diction  in  case  of  presidential  elector  to  the  canvassing  board.  Indeed,  we 
think  that  part  of  the  case  too  plain  to  require  further  argument. 

"  We  understand  the  assumption  of  jurisdiction  by  the  governor  in  this 
case  is  also  claimed  on  the  ground  of  necessity.  Pardon  us  for  saying  that 
this  is  the  plea  by  which  usurpation  is  always  attempted  to  be  justified,  and 
we  trust  your  honor  will  not  find  it  necessary  to  countenance  it  in  this  case. 
The  claim  set  up  for  the  governor,  as  we  understand  it,  is  that  the  act  of 
1872  gives  to  the  canvassing  board  thirty-five  days  within  which  to  complete 
the  canvass,  unless  the  returns  from  the  several  counties  which  held  the  elec 
tions  are  sooner  in.  And  it  is  argued,  as  the  thirty-five  days  may  extend  be 
yond  the  first  Wednesday  in  December,  the  time  fixed  for  the  electoral  col 
lege  to  meet,  that  the  State  may  lose  her  vote  unless  the  governor  assume 
the  jurisdiction.  This  cannot  be  true,  for  the  reason  that  the  canvassing 
board  is  authorized  to  proceed  as  soon  as  the  returns  are  in  from  the  several 
counties  where  the  elections  were  held,  and  if 

THE  GOVERNOR  ASSUMES  THE  JURISDICTION 

he  will  not  be  authorized  to  proceed  and  issue  the  certificate  upon  the  returns 
from  only  a  part  of  the  counties  of  the  State.  There  is  no  reason  why  the 
canvassing  board  cannot  take  up  the  returns,  canvass  them  and  declare  the 
result  at  as  early  a  day  as  the  governor  can  properly  do  it.  There  is,  there 
fore,  no  danger  that  the  vote  of  the  State  will  be  lost,  unless  the  inspectors 
of  the  election  in  some  of  the  counties,  selected  by  the  county  canvassers,  ap 
pointed  by  the  governor,  have  failed  to  do  their  duty  in  sending  up  the  re 
turns  to  the  county  canvassing  board ;  or  unless  the  county  canvassing  board, 
all  of  whom  were  appointed  by  the  governor,  fail  to  do  their  duty  in  sending 
up  the  returns  to  the  secretary  of  state's  office.  As  the  law  presumes  that 
these  officers  will  do  'their  duty,  and  as  the  Democratic  party  is  doing  all  in 
its  power  to  urge  them  to  send  up  the  returns  as  early  as  possible,  and  is 
anxious  for  a  fair  canvass  of  the  returns  at  the  earliest  day,  when  it  can  be 
done,  there  is,  we  trust,  nothing  to  apprehend  on  the  score  of  a  loss  of  the 
vote  of  the  State.  There  certainly  cannot  be  if  the  governor's  appointees 
discharge  the  duties  imposed  upon  them  by  the  statute,  and  their  failure  to 
discharge  it  would  be  no  reason  why  he  should  assume  authority  not  conferred 
upon  him  either  by  the  act  of  1846,  or  any  other  statute  of  the  State. 


ARGUMENT  IN  FLORIDA. 

"  We  beg  to  submit  for  the  consideration  of  your  Honor,  one  other  view 
of  the  question  which  seems  to  us  to  be  conclusive  why  the  governor  should 
neither  consent,  nor  be  permitted  to  exercise  even  a  doubtful  jurisdiction  in 
this  case.  As  already  stated,  the  governor  appoints  all  the  county  commis 
sioners  in  every  county  in  Florida,  and  has  the  power  to  fill  all  vacancies. 
The  county  commissioners  appoint  each  board  of  election  inspectors  at  each 
precinct  in  each  county  in  this  State.  These  inspectors  are  the  managers  of 
election  at  the  precincts  or  polling  places.  They  are  virtually  his  appointees, 
because  they  are  appointed  by  the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  governor. 
They  make  the  returns  to  the  county  canvassing  board  composed,  as  already 
stated,  of  the  county  judge,  the  clerk  of  the  district  court  of  the  county,  and 
one  justice  of  the  peace  called  in  by  them.  The  governor  appoints  each  of 
these  officers  with  the  power  of  removal  and  of  filling  vacancies.  He  has 
the  power  to  remove  the  justice  of  the  peace  at  his  mere  caprice,  at  any  time, 
and  fill  his  vacancy.  If  a  justice  of  the  peace  should  be  called  in  and  should 
refuse  to  make  such  certificate  as  would  be  agreeable  to  him,  his  commission 
would  be  in  the  governor's  power  if  he  chose  to  revoke  it.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  not  unnatural  to  suppose  that  he  bad  greatly  the  advan 
tage  of  his  democratic  opponents  in  conducting  the  election  in  the  different 
counties,  and  that  he  has  a  control  over  the  elections  and  returns  that  no 
Democrat  can  have. 

THE  GOVERNOR'S  POWER. 

"  The  governor  is  also  himself  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  re-election  to 
the  office  of  governor  which  he  now  holds,  and  if  he  assumes  jurisdiction  to 
canvass  the  votes  by  opening  all  the  returns  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
who  are  elected  electors  of  president  and  vice-president,  his  decision  would 
naturally  have  an  undue  weight  with  the  State  canvassing  board  who  are  to 
canvass  the  returns  of  his  own  election.  The  State  canvassing  board  is  also 
composed  of  the  appointees  of  the  governor  of  the  State.  One  of  them  voted 
for  Governor  Tilden  for  president.  The  other  two  warmly  supported  Gov 
ernor  Hayes,  and  are  not  only  appointees  of  the  executive  of  this  State,  but 
the  political  and  personal  friends  of  the  governor  himself.  They  constitute 
a  majority  of  the  canvassing  board  in  the  governor's  election  ;  and  if  any 
fraudulent  or  improper  returns  should  be  counted  by  him,  by  mistake  or 
otherwise,  in  determining  who  are  elected  ejectors  of  president  and  vice- 
president,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  presumed  that  his  political  friends  on  the  State 
canvassing  board,  who  have  great  respect  for  his  opinions,  when  they  come 
to  canvass  the  governor's  election,  would  overrule  his  decision  in  reference 
to  the  returns  upon  which  he  had  already  passed.  Again,  it  gives  him  the 
advantage  of  opening  all  the  returns ;  and  while  he  is  canvassing  the  votes 
for  elector  of  president  and  vice-president,  he  can  look  into  the  question  as 
to  how  the  vote  stands  between  him  and  the  democratic  candidate  for  gov 
ernor  ;  while  the  latter  would  have  no  such  access  to  that  part  of  the  returns 


518  ARGUMENT  IN  FLORIDA. 

and  would  not  likely  be  permitted  to  inspect  them.  This  would  give  the 
governor  an  undue  and  unjust  advantage  in  any  matter  connected  with  a 
contest,  as  to  the  returns  in  any  county,  as  he  would  know  in  advance  the 
exact  state  of  the  returns  sent  up  to  his  office,  while  his  opponent  would  not 
have  that  knowledge.  For  these  reasons  we  trust,  even  if  your  Honor  should 
consider  the  question  a  doubtful  one  as  to  the  power  of  the  governor,  that 
you  will  give  the  benefit  of  your  doubt  in  favor  of  the  State  canvassing 
board,  where  the  Democrats  have  one  representative  and  the  Republicans 
two,  and  refuse  to  permit  the  governor  to  assume  a  jurisdiction  which  it 
seems  to  us  it  would  be  most  unfair  and  unjust  under  the  circumstances  for 
him  to  exercise. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  A  FAIR  COUNT. 

"It  is  not  impossible,  it  is  even  probable,  that  the  result  of  the  presidential 
election  may  turn  upon  the  vote  of  this  State.  The  whole  people  of  the 
United  States  are  therefore  interested  in  a  correct  canvass  of  the  vote  of 
the  State.  As  already  stated,  the  Democratic  party  have  one  member  of  the 
canvassing  board,  the  Republicans  have  two.  It  would  seem  to  be  nothing 
but  just  and  fair  to  the  great  Democratic  party  of  the  Union,  which  the 
result  shows  is  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  the  United 
States,  that  they  should  not  be  deprived  of  at  least  one  member  of  the  board 
that  is  to  determine  so  important  a  result.  If  you  should,  upon  a  doubtful 
construction  of  the  law,  (and  we  deny  that  there  is  room  for  a  reasonable 
doubt  in  favor  of  the  governor's  jurisdiction,)  permit  him  to  set  aside  the 
board  and  take  upon  himself  the  canvass  of  the  returns,  when  he  is  known 
to  be  the  Republican  candidate  for  governor,  with  the  whole  election 
machinery  of  the  State  in  his  hands,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  such  a 
course  would  contribute  to  the  cause  of  peace,  or  would  allay  excitement  or 
suspicion  of  unfairness,  when  his  decision  in  favor  of  his  own  candidate  for 
the  presidency  should  be  announced.  The  rights,  and  possibly  the  peace  and 
prosperity,  of  more  than  forty  millions  of  people  may  hang  upon  the  result ; 
and  we  ask  you,  in  the  name  of  justice  and  fair  dealing,  to  leave  the  canvass 
in  the  hands  of  those  where  the  law  has  placed  it,  and  not  to  permit  the 
governor  to  usurp  a  jurisdiction  which  would  at  least  cause  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  voters  of  the  United  States  to  believe,  whether  true  or  not, 
that  it  was  done  for  a  definite  object  and  with  intent  to  produce  a  result 
which  could  not  be  produced  upon  a  fair  count  before  the  board  legally 
appointed  to  discharge  that  duty. 

IN  CONCLUSION, 

permit  me  to  make  a  single  suggestion  in  reference  to  the  equity  which  these 
complainants  have  in  their  favor,  in  their  application  for  mandamus  against 
the  State  canvassing  board.  The  law  gives  the  board  thirty-five  days  after 
the  election  within  which  to  make  the  canvass,  unless  the  returns  from  the 
several  counties  which  held  elections  are  sooner  in.  It  is  contended  by  the 


ARGUMENT  IN  FLORIDA.  519 

learned  counsel  for  the  defence  that  this  is  a  discretion  left  with  the  board, 
and  that  they  can  take  till  the  last  day,  if  they  think  proper,  before  they 
commence  the  canvass;  that  is,  they  may  wait  till  the  last  return  is  in,  if 
all  should  come  in,  before  the  end  of  the  thirty-five  days;  and  if  not,  until 
the  last  day  of  the  thirty-five. 

"Xow,  what  are  the  facts  in  this  case?  Outrageous  frauds  are  charged  in 
the  elections  in  one  or  more  of  the  counties,  and  their  character  is  such  that 
the  complainants  who  allege  the  fraud  will  have  to  produce  evidence  and 
possibly  send  for  witnesses  to  make  good  their  allegation.  The  other  side 
will  then  most  probably  desire  to  be  heard  by  evidence.  Such  an  investi 
gation  in  the  case  of  a  single  county  might  take  the  greater  part  of  the  week 
if  fairly  and  patiently  heard.  Where  there  may  be  several  such  cases  to 
hear,  a  considerable  length  of  time  must  be  consumed  by  each,  if  there  is  a 
fair  investigation.  What  the  complainants  in  this  case  desire  is,  that  your 
Honor  will  direct  by  mandamus  that  the  board  proceed  with  the  canvass. 
This  will  give  them  time  to  hear  evidence,  and  deliberate  and  decide  justly 
in  each  ca*e  where  there  is  a  contest  about  the  fairness  of  the  election.  And 
in  case  of  any  irregularities  in  the  returns,  when  they  are  opened,  would 
give  time  to  send  couriers  to  the  counties  from  which  such  defective  returns 
might  be  sent  up,  and,  if  possible,  have  the  proper  correction  made. 

"But  if  they  exercise  their  extreme  discretion  and  do  not  commence  till 
the  last  day,  or  till  within  the  last  two  or  three  days,  it  will  amount  to  a 
practical  denial  of  justice,  as  it  will  be  an  impossibility  to  hear  the-evidence 
and  determine  the  questions  of  fraud  that  are  to  be  raised  within  the  time 
that  will  then  be  allowed  bylaw  for  the  Board  to  sit.  The  refusal,  therefore, 
to  commence  the  canvass  in  time  to  allow  a  fair  investigation,  is 

A  PRACTICAL  DENIAL 

of  justice,  and  a  great  abuse  of  the  discretion  vested  in  the  Board  of  Canvassers, 
and,  as  I  understand  it,  this  court  has  the  power  and  it  is  its  duty  to  control 
any  person  or  officer  over  whom  it  has  jurisdiction  in  the  exercise  of  a  dis 
cretion  when  that  discretion  is  being  abused,  and  the  abuse  of  the  discretion 
without  the  intervention  of  the  court  will  work  irreparable  mischief.  Such 
must  be  the  case  if  the  discretion  of  the  Board  is  not  controlled  in  this  in 
stance,  or  if  they  do  not  consent  without  the  control  of  your  Honor  to  pro 
ceed  with  the  canvass.  If  the  Governor  were  to  renounce  all  jurisdiction 
over  the  subject  matter,  and  the  balance  of  the  Returning  Board  will  consent, 
as  the  attorney-general  has  consented,  to  proceed  with  the  canvass,  giving 
time  for  a  full  examination  of  the  evidence,  and  a  just  and  fair  decision  in 
the  case  of  each  county  where  there  is  a  contest,  then  there  would  be  no  rea 
son  for  the  interposition  of  the  order  of  your  Honor  in  the  premises.  Jf  they 
should  continue  to  refuse  to  proceed,  and  your  Honor  should  not  compel 
them,  there  is,  as  we  think,  irreparable  mischief  resulting  to  the  great  detri 
ment  of  the  whole  American  people." 


520  PKESIDEXT  OF  COTTON  EXPOSITION. 

The  attention  of  the  whole  country  was  directed  to  this 
strange  trial,  in  which  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  Re 
public  pivoted  upon  the  fair  vote  and  the  just  count  of 
this  little  State  of  Florida ;  and  the  central  figure  was 
our  strong  clear-headed  Georgian,  who  thus  bore  upon 
his  shoulders  the  cause  of  a  nation. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  effort  that  was  made  by  Gov 
ernor  Brown  and  the  other  distinguished  gentlemen  act 
ing  together,  and  the  clear  demonstration  of  the  right, 
the  two  Republican  members  of  the  returning  board  to 
whom  the  issue  was  referred,  having  a  majority,  outvoted 
the  single  Democrat  and  gave  the  result  in  favor  of  the 
Hayes  electors  while  every  one  knew  the  Tilden  electors 
had  won  the  election. 

Through  the  long  years  of  the  decade  from  1870  to 
1880,  Governor  Brown  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way,  steadily  correcting  political  misconception  of  his 
course  upon  reconstruction,  by  his  life  of  consistent  purity 
and  integrity;  and  impressing  upon  the  great  public  heart 
the  sincerity  of  his  motives,  and  the  courage  of  his  con 
duct.  More  than  this,  there  began  to  grow  an  all-pervad 
ing  desire  to  utilise  for  the  public  service  the  phenomenal 
abilities  of  this  powerful  statesman.  The  public  appreci 
ation  of  him  manifested  itself  in  spontaneously  calling 
him  to  lead  all  great  movements  of  a  practical  character. 
He  has  been  for  years  and  is  still  the  president  of  the 
board  of  education  of  the  city  of  Atlanta,  that  governs 
the  finest  free  school  system  in  the  South.  He  was 
elected  the  first  president  of  the  International  Cotton  Ex 
position,  and  finally  resigned  the  position  on  account  of 
pressure  of  other  matters,  to  the  regret  of  the  Exposition 
directors.  In  May,  1880,  General  John  B.  Gordon, 
United  States  senator  from  Georgia,  resigned  his  high 


SENATOR  GORDON'S  RESIGNATION.  521 

place  to  which  he  had  just  been  re-elected  for  a  second 
term  of  six  years.  He  had  been  desiring  to  leave  public 
life  with  its  meager  emoluments,  and  push  his  private  fort 
unes.  He  was  tendered  a  valuable  opening  in  a  railroad 
enterprise  in  Oregon,  which  he  was  compelled  to  accept 
immediately.  He  resigned  from  the  Senate  therefore  in 
obedience  to  the  necessity,  though  the  session  was  in  a 
few  weeks  of  its  end.  He  privately  notified  Governor 
Colquitt  of  his  purpose,  and  had  some  correspondence  by 
letter  and  telegraph  in  regard  to  the  matter,  the  object 
of  which  on  the  part  of  Governor  Colquitt  was  to  dissuade 
General  Gordon  from  the  resignation.  This  proved  un 
availing,  and  Governor  Colquitt  gave  an  earnest  reflection 
to  the  choice  of  a  proper  person  to  appoint  in  his  place. 
In  this  delicate  duty  the  Governor  gave  a  thoughtful  con 
sideration  to  the  public  interest  and  especially  to  the  ad 
vancement  of  a  correct  public  sentiment  in  connection 
with  the  relations  of  the  sections.  Realizing  that  the 
cause  of  constitutional  government  had  suffered  from  the 
prevailing  misapprehensions  North  as  to  Southern  opinion 
affected  by  the  late  civil  war,  Governor  Colcfuitt  deemed 
that  an  earnest  and  practical  effort  should  be  made  by 
Southern  leaders  and  men  in  authority  to  give  such  a  di 
rection  to  affairs  as  would  restore  the  normal  relations 
between  the  once-divided  sections. 

This  question  was  so  closely  connected  with  the  mate 
rial  prosperity  of  the  South,  with  the  very  scheme  of  our 
society,  the  security  of  property  and  the  supremacy  of  cor 
rect  political  principles,  that  in  the  thoughtful  judgment 
of  our  wisest  men  it  was  necessary  to  subserve  this  end. 
Governor  Colquitt  deemed  that  the  appointment  of  such 
a  man  as  Governor  Brown,  who  had  differed  with  the  pre 
vailing  Southern  policy  on  reconstruction,  yet  who  was 


522  TENDERED  THE  SENATORSHIP. 

in  hearty  accord  with  Southern  sentiment  now,  would  be  on 
the  line  of  a  liberal  policy  that  would  have  its  beneficial 
effect.  Governor  Brown  was  the  most  illustrious  expo 
nent  of  that  class  of  public  men  who  bravely  incurred 
public  odium  for  the  public  welfare  ;  and  his  appointment 
by  a  representative  Democratic  Southern  Administration 
would  be  the  most  practical  demonstration  that  the  preju 
dices  of  sectional  strife  were  allayed. 

Superadded  to  this  statesmanlike  consideration,  it  was 
conceded  that  Governor  Brown  possessed  pre-eminent 
ability  for  the  distinguished  trust ;  of  all  the  men  in  the 
State  no  one  was  more  fitted  by  capacity,  experience, 
reputation,  wealth  and  service  for  being  United  States 
senator.  Even  his  opponents  admitted  his  superlative 
qualifications  for  the  place. 

But  this  was  not  all.  There  were  urgent  reasons  of 
domestic  State  policy  at  that  time  for  such  an  appoint 
ment.  The  supremacy  and  unity  of  the  Democratic  party 
were  seriously  threatened  by  a  growing  spirit  of  independ- 
entism,  that  had  captured  two  of  the  white  congressional 
districts,  and  was  menacing  others.  The  hardy  yeomanry 
of  the  mountains  were  the  men  most  disaffected,  and  they 
were  friends  to  Governor  Brown  and  to  be  conciliated  by 
his  appointment. 

Under  these  most  potential  inducements  Governor  Col- 
quitt  tendered  the  trust  to  Governor  Brown.  It  was 
necessary  to  have  Georgia  represented  for  the  brief  re 
mainder  of  the  session..  Governor  Brown  had  a  lengthy 
conference  with  Governor  Colquitt,  in  which  the  whole 
matter  was  fully  discussed,  and  the  responsibility  pressed 
upon  him,  but  he  declined  the  trust,  stating  that  he  could 
not  accept  it.  Governor  Colquitt  urged  him  to  consider  it 
and  so  the  tender  was  held  in  abeyance.  Governor 


POLITICAL  TUKMOIL.  523 

Brown  went  to  Nashville,  and  while  he  was  there,  Gen 
eral  Gordon's  resignation  was  made  final,  and  Governor 
Colquitt  telegraphed  him  his  appointment,  and  urgently 
pressed  him  not  to  decline,  and  Governor  Brown  sent 
back  by  telegraph  his  acceptance. 

The  publication  of  the  matter  was  the  signal  for  an 
almost  unparalleled  public  agitation.  The  enemies  of  the 
three  gentlemen,  Governor  Colquitt,  Governor  Brown  and 
Senator  Gordon,  seized  promptly  upon  the  incident  to 
make  an  assault  upon  the  three  that  intended  their  politi 
cal  annihilation.  The  most  absurd  and  groundless  charges 
were  made  against  them.  In  view  of  the  facts,  the  storm 
of  crimination  that  raged  was  a  literal  tempest  in  a  teapot. 
It  was  the  only  time  in  Governor  Colquitt's  eventful  ad 
ministration  that  he  felt  distrust  of  public  opinion.  The 
howl  was  so  furious  and  the  misrepresentation  so  impla 
cable,  that  he  feared  for  once  that  his  opponents  would 
succeed  in  poisoning  public  sentiment.  In  the  counties 
of  Pike- and  Muscogee  public  meetings  were  held  and  the 
matter  denounced.  Ridiculous  accusations  flooded  the 
State  of  a  trade  in  which  it  was  boldly  and  distinctly 
affirmed  that  General  Gordon  as  the  price  of  resigning 
was  to  get  the  presidency  of  the  State  Road,  for  which 
Governor  Brown  was  to  be  made  senator,  while  by  this 
bargain  Governor  Colquitt  obtained  the  powerful  support 
of  Governor  Brown  in  his  future  struggles. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  conceive  a  sillier  suspicion. 
The  very  character  of  these  gentlemen  should  have  pro 
tected  them  from  even  an  intimation  that  they  could  be 
capable  of  a  bargain  over  a  high  public  trust.  The  accu 
sation  was  falsified  by  every  specification  of  the  indict 
ment  itself.  General  Gordon  was  not  made  president  of 
the  State  Road.  Governor  Brown  was  already  a  sup- 


524  BROWN  AS  SENATOR. 

i 

porter  of  Governor  Colquitt.  Governor  Colquitt  tried 
hard  to  induce  General  Gordon  not  to  resign,  and  surprised 
General  Gordon  as  much  as  any  one  else  by  his  choice. 
Looking  back  at  the  storm  in  the  cool  light  of  after  days, 
the  flurry  has  the  aspect  of  the  farcical,  and  men  wonder 
that  such  a  fuss  could  be  made  for  so  long  a  time  on  so 
flimsy  a  basis.  The  incident  illustrates  what  violent  freaks 
mark  the  current  of  politics. 

Senator  Brown  was  sworn  in  under  his  appointment 
as  United  States  senator  on  the  26th  day  of  May,  1880, 
and  the  adjournment  of  Congress  took  place  on  the  16th 
of  June.  His  senatorial  service  lasted  three  weeks  only, 
but  he  became  in  the  short  time  an  admitted  leader 
in  the  illustrious  body,  requiring  no  novitiate,  but  at 
once  overstepping  all  probation  and  experience  in  this 
greatest  deliberative  assembly  of  the  country,  and  assum 
ing  a  foremost  place.  It  was  a  daring  intellectual  en 
deavor,  but  it  demonstrated  the  marvellous  adaptability 
of  his  uncommon  brain  power.  His  long  training  in  im 
portant  public  affairs,  both  as  legislator  and  executive, 
had  fitted  him  for  any  arena  of  statesmanship.  The  way 
in  which  he  impressed  himself  upon  national  legislation 
and  the  public  thought  in  his  three  weeks  of  senatorial 
duty  was  a  conclusive  vindication  of  Governor  Colquitt's 
wisdom  in  the  appointment. 

Senator  Brown  delivered  three  speeches  in  this  time 
that  placed  him  among  the  recognized  leaders  of  debate. 
They  were  peculiarly  seasonable  efforts,  and  marked  by 
that  blending  of  boldness  and  practicality  that  character 
ize  the  public  utterances  of  this  gentleman,  and  that 
always  command  the  popular  consideration,  making  his 
influence  so  potential. 

The  leading  speech  was  made  on  the   12th  of  June, 


A  POWERFUL  SPEECH.  525 

1880,  upon  the  Mexican  pension  bill.  He  wove  into  this 
effort  the  most  effective  rebuke  that  has  been  given  since 
the  war,  to  what  has  been  popularly  called  the  "  bloody 
shirt"  business  of  ingeniously  making  war  prejudices 
against  the  South  the  weapon  of  political  victory  by  the 
Republican  party.  An  amendment  to  exclude  Confeder 
ate  soldiers  from  Mexican  or  Indian  war  pensions  afforded 
the  ready  senator  the  opportunity  which  he  used  with 
masterly  tacjb.  Frequently  before  in  debate  our  Southern 
members  in  Congress  had  tried  to  quiet  this  troublesome 
issue,  but  had  as  a  general  thing  made  matters  worse 
under  the  adroit  retorts  of  the  Republican  debaters.  But 
Senator  Brown  met  the  issue  successfully,  and  it  was  a  rare 
controversial  triumph,  as  well  as  turning  the  tables  in  a 
contest  that  had  gone  uniformly  against  us  of  the  South. 
Senator  Brown  argued  against  excluding  the  Southern 
soldiers,  and  was  subjected  to  a  volley  of  the  customary 
and  hitherto  effective  queries  by  such  men  as  Senators 
Conkling,  Blaine,  Kirkwood,  Teller  and  Ingalls,  who  kept 
the  debate  lively  with  thrusts  about  disunion  and  seces 
sion.  Senator  Brown  responded  with  prompt  felicity, 
retorting  in  every  case  in  such  a  manner  as  to  silence  his 
questioner  and  leaving  the  advantage  unanswerably  with 
him.  He  not  only  carried  his  point,  but  he  demonstrated 
his  ability  to  cope  in  hand  to  hand  discussion  and  van 
quish  the  strongest  debaters  of  the  Senate,  and  he  took 
immediate  rank,  both  over  the  country  and  in  the  Senate, 
among  the  leaders  of  the  body,  the  most  intellectual  and 
influential  Senators  of  long  experience.  This  and  other 
speeches  of  Senator  Brown  are  given  in  full  in  the  appen 
dix  of  this  volume. 

Another  speech  made  at  this  session  was  in  advocacy 
of  enlarging  the  appropriations  to  our  Southern  harbors. 


526  THE  CENSUS  ERROR. 

It  is  always  a  difficult  thing  to  increase  appropriations 
over  the  report  of  the  committee.  His  practical  speech 
on  this  subject  obtained  an  additional  $10,000  for  Bruns 
wick.  He  made  a  strong  effort  to  get  $65,000  more  for 
Savannah,  and  nearly  succeeded.  Many  senators  of 
both  political  parties,  Mr.  Blaine,  Voorhees,  Bayard, 
Thurman,  Davis  and  Vance  commended  in  warm  terms 
the  ability  of  his  effort,  while  Senator  Blaine  put  his 
praise  in  a  humorous  expression  that  was  heartily  appre 
ciated  for  its  witty  good  feeling — he  had  never  heard 
so  fine  a  speech  from  so  young  a  senator. 

A  very  important  service  of  his,  so  far  as  Georgia  was 
concerned,  was  the  detection  and  defeat  of  a  serious  pro 
vision  in  the  census  bill  that  if  passed  would  have  oper 
ated  to  deprive  Georgia  of  the  number  of  representatives 
in  Congress  to  which  she  was  entitled  upon  the  basis  of 
population.  Georgia  has  a  law  that  disqualifies  a  man 
from  voting  who  has  not  paid  his  taxes,  and  there  were 
thousands  of  such  disqualified  voters  in  the  State  when 
the  census  was  taken.  The  objectionable  provision  re 
quired  the  census  enumerators  to  report  such  voters  and 
deduct  them  from  the  number  of  people  that  were  to  be 
counted  in  apportioning  representation  in  Congress. 
Georgia  under  this  unjust  rule  would  have  lost  at  least 
one  representative  to  which  her  inhabitants  entitled  her ; 
Governor  Brown  saw  and  stopped  this  injustice. 

Senator  Brown's  phenomenal  service  in  his  little  three 
weeks'  term  conclusively  established  his  fitness  for  the 
great  trust  that  had  been  unsolicitedly  tendered  him  by 
Governor  Colquitt.  This  appointment  was  made  the 
main  issue  in  the  gubernatorial  campaign,  and  it  can  be 
readily  understood  that  Senator  Brown  threw  himself 
into  this  heated  contest  with  all  the  fervor  of  his  deter- 


CONTEST  FOR,  SENATOR.  527 

mined  nature,  aided  by  all  of  his  marvellous  and  expe 
rienced  skill.  It  was  understood  to  be  Brown,  Gordon 
and  Colquitt  against  the  field.  The  issue  was  clearly 
defined.  There  never  was  in  our  State  politics  a  sharper 
contest.  Usually  the  convention  settles  conflicts  in  the 
party.  In  this  case  the  convention  merely  defined  the 
antagonism  in  the  party  organization  the  more  clearly, 
and  the  election  was  an  aggressive  continuation  of  the 
undetermined  struggle.  In  the  convention  it  was  any 
body  to  beat  Colquitt,  and  in  the  election  the  opposition 
rallied  to  Mr.  Thomas  N.  Norwood.  After  the  most 
animated  campaign  in  half  a  century,  Governor  Col 
quitt,  aided  by  Senator  Brown,  was  re-elected  by  almost 
a  two- thirds  majority. 

But  in  the  gubernatorial  campaign  was  blended  an 
issue  vital  to  Senator  Brown.  His  appointment  as 
United  States  Senator  by  Governor  Colquitt  unless  rati 
fied  by  the  people  was  an  empty  compliment,  so  far  as 
the  public  will  was  concerned.  The  same  election  that 
decided  who  was  to  be  governor  was  also  to  choose  a 
Legislature  that  had  the  selection  of  a  successor  to  Sena 
tor  Brown.  His  own  election,  therefore,  as  a  sequence 
to  his  appointment  was  at  stake.  •  There  were  peculiar 
considerations  involved  in  this  contest.  Years  before 
Senator  Brown  had  met  the  only  political  defeat  of  his 
life  under  circumstances  of  unparalleled  public  miscon 
ception  of  his  motives  and  conduct,  in  a  conflict  for  this 
very  trust.  Certainly  a  less  positive  and  stern-willed  per 
son  than  he  would  have  felt  the  inspiration  of  reversing 
that  defeat.  But  with  his  combative  nature  and  intense 
individuality  the  occasion  was  perhaps  the  supreme  crisis 
of  his  life,  involving  a  concentration  of  all  vital  issues, 
concerning  alike  the  compensation  of  unmerited  obloquy 


528  GENERAL  A.  R.  LAWTON. 

and  the  redemption  of  his  career  from  the  most  cruel  in 
justice  a  public  man  ever  suffered.  His  and  Governor 
Colquitt's  opponents  made  his  appointment  and  election 
the  main  issue  of  the  campaign.  Senator  Brown  accepted 
it  joyfully,  and  bent  his  powerful  energies  and  great 
abilities  to  the  contest.  Had  the  issue  not  have  been 
tendered  him,  he  would  have  offered  it.  He  was  re 
solved  to  have  a  crucial  test  of  public  sentiment  upon 
his  course,  under  the  light  of  reason  and  justice. 

His  opponent  in  this  race  was  General  Alexander  R. 
Lawton,  a  worthy  rival  in  every  respect,  a  gentleman  of 
unblemished  character  and  ackowledged  abilities.  He 
had  held  many  important  positions  involving  responsible 
public  trusts.  He  was  State  senator  in  1859,  president 
of  the  State  Democratic  convention  of  1860,  colonel  of 
the  first  regiment  of  Georgia  volunteers  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  and  conducted  the  seizure  of  Fort  Pulaski 
under  Governor  Brown's  orders,  brigadier-general  in  the 
Confederate  army,  quartermaster-general  of  the  Confed 
erate  Government,  elector  for  Tilden  and  Hendricks  and 
president  of  the  electoral  college,  member  of  the  consti 
tutional  convention  of  1877,  delegate  to  the  National 
Democratic  convention  in  Cincinnati  in  1880,  and  chair 
man  of  the  Georgia  delegation.  In  all  of  these  trusts 
he  had  sustained  himself  so  as  to  carry  the  growing 
confidence  and  respect  of  the  people.  He  came  from  a 
section  of  Georgia,  too,  that  had  strong  claims  for  a  sena 
tor  on  account  of  its  wealth  and  intelligence.  General 
Lawton  took  part  actively  in  the  canvass  for  Governor, 
making  several  strong  speeches  against  Governor  Col 
quitt's  re-election.  He  was  presented  to  the  State  in  com 
plimentary  terms  as  the  candidate  of  Chatham  county 
for  the  United  States  Senate. 


A  TIVOTAL  OCCASION.  529 

The  election  resulted  in  the  overwhelming  success  of 
Governor  Colquitt,  and  the  choice  of  a  large  majority  of 
members  of  the  Legislature  favorable  to  Governor  Brown 
for  senator.  Notwithstanding  this  fact,  the  canvass  for 
senator  still  continued.  General  Lawton  wrote  a  letter 
on  the  subject.  Governor  Brown,  on  the  night  before 
the  election,  made  a  public  address  in  De  Gives'  Opera 
House.  The  building  was  packed  from  pit  to  dome  with 
ladies  and  gentlemen  and  the  entire  General  Assembly. 
The  desire  to  hear  this  citizen  was  eager  and  universal. 
Hundreds  were  unable  to  gain  admission  to  the  building. 
General  Lawton  himself  stood  in  the  gallery,  listening  to 
his  powerful  opponent.  It  was  such  an  occasion  as  occurs 
in  the  lives  of  few  men.  It  was  the  turning-point  of  a 
rare  career,  the  pivot  of  a  life  whose  eventfulness  has  had 
few  parallels.  It  was  less  the  great  office  that  seemed  in 
his  grasp,  for  he  was  too  much  used  to  great  trusts,  and 
of  too  philosophical  a  temperament  to  experience  undue 
elation  at  the  honor,  than  it  was  that  at  last  the  majestic 
tribunal  of  public  opinion,  after  a  long  and  cruel  miscon 
ception  of  his  public  course,  was  about  to  correct  its  erro 
neous  verdict  and  redeem  its  injustice.  He  had  suffered 
as  few  do.  There  had  been  a  crucifixion  by  public  senti 
ment  such  as  it  is  rare  for  any  man  to  survive,  much  less 
to  conquer.  He  had  lived  to  witness  the  complete  re 
demption  of  his  name  and  fame.  There  clustered  around 
his  slender  figure  and  calm  face,  with  its  gray  beard  that 
attested  the  meridian  of  life  past,  memories  vital  with 
momentous  history  ;  and  there  loomed  before  him  a  vista 
of  illustrious  public  usefulness  and  private  distinction, 
hinging  upon  this  pivotal  occasion.  Well  might  the 
great  popular  heart  throb  in  unison  with  the  dramatic 
suggestions  of  this  occurrence  and  this  historic  figure. 

34 


530  LEE  AND  JACKSON. 

The  people  as  well  as  he  felt  the  lesson  of  the  crisis,  and 
gave  a  hearty  sympathy  in  the  wonderful  triumph. 

His  speech  was  the  best  of  his  life.  It  was  an  effort 
of  supreme  audacity  and  power.  It  was  exceedingly 
calm,  philosophical,  and  argumentative,  and  yet  it  was 
the  most  daring  and  absolute  adhesion  to  the  logic  of  his 
political  conduct.  There  was  no  trimming  in  it,  no  court 
ing  favor,  no  apologies  for  the  past,  no  concession  to 
prejudice  or  sentiment;  but  instead  an  unflinching  justi 
fication  of  motive,  and  act,  a  resolute  grounding  of  him 
self,  as  it  were,  upon  the  integrity  and  wisdom  of  his  past, 
and  a  fearless  enunciation  of  what  he  conceived  to  be 
the  liberal  statesmanship  for  the  Southern  future.  A 
more  timid  man  would  have  hesitated  as  a  piece  of  politic 
diplomacy  at  his  declaration  of  -views  so  far  in  advance 
of  public  sentiment.  The  vote  had  yet  to  be  taken,  and 
the  voters  were  before  him.  He  never  faltered  in  the 
candid  statement  of  progressive  ideas  far  beyond  the 
present.  He  planted  himself  upon  his  convictions,  and 
spoke  the  truth  as  he  saw  it,  regardless  of  consequences. 

There  were  two  striking  episodes  in  his  speech  that 
impressed  the  public  with  tremendous  effect,  and  carried 
a  magical  weight.  When  he  read  the  letter  from  General 
Robert  E.  Lee,  written  in  1867  contemporaneously  with 
his  own  utterances,  counselling  the  same  acquiescence  in 
reconstruction  that  he  had  done,  for  the  same  reasons, 
the  effect  upon  the  audience  was  indescribable.  Such 
an  indorsement  from  such  a  source  almost  had  the  start 
ling  authority  of  a  miracle.  Again,  at  the  conclusion  of 
his  speech,  a  telegram  was  handed  to  him  from  General 
Henry  R.  Jackson,  bearing  testimony  to  the  fact  that 
before  he  took  his  unpopular  position  upon  reconstruc 
tion  they  had  conversed  upon  the  subject,  and  Governor 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.         531 

Brown  had  communicated  to  him  his  disinterested  motive 
for  the  public  good,  and  his  voluntary  acceptance  of  pop 
ular  obloquy  in  the  furtherance  of  his  patriotic  mission. 
It  was  a  brace  of  peerless  witnesses  that  he  thus  pre 
sented  in  proof  of  his  sincerity  and  honor.  The  dead  and 
the  living  in  their  most  chivalrous  types  were  offered  in 
evidence  of  an  integrity  and  patriotism  that  had  been  ?o 
harshly  misjudged.  The  two  blended  a  singularly  poten 
tial  vindication, — the  great  and  revered  Lee,  of  his  pol 
icy  ;  the  stainless  and  truthful  Jackson,  of  his  integrity. 
No  man  dare  doubt  the  wise  patriotism  of  the  one  or  the 
crystal  truth  of  the  other.  These  spontaneous  and  im 
pregnable  confirmations  of  Governor  Brown  came  and 
wrought  their  irresistible  spell  of  conviction,  and  de 
stroyed  the  last  possibility  of  denial,  setting  forever  at 
rest  the  long  existing  and  merciless  shadow  upon  a  good 
man's  fame  and  usefulness. 

This  extraordinary  and  powerful  speech  is  given  in 
full,  as  it  was  delivered  on  the  night  of  the  fifteenth  day 
of  November,  1880. 

"Gentlemen  of  the  General  Assembly,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  —  I  appear 
before  you  as  a  candidate  for  the  high  office  of  United  States  senator  from 
our  proud  old  Commonwealth.  I  had  not  intended  to  make  any  public 
address  pending  this  canvass.  But  as  my  honorable  opponent,  General 
Lawton,  has  thought  pr-oper  to  appear  before  you  and  deliver  a  lengthy 
address,  the  burden  of  which  has  been  an  assault  upon  my  political  character 
and  record,  I  trust  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it  is  proper  that  I  should  be 
heard  in  reply. 

"  When  I  learned  that  my  opponent  intended  to  address  you,  I  naturally 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  would  lay  down  some  platform,  or  announce 
gome  great  line  of  policy  that  he  intended  to  pursue  for  the  promotion  of 
the  best  interests  of  the  State  and  of  the  whole  country,  if  he  should  be 
called  to  the  high  position  to  which  he  aspires.  But  I  was  greatly  disap 
pointed  when  I  read  a  synopsis  of  his  speech,  to  find  that  he  had  not  thought 
it  necessary  to  favor  us  with  his  platform,  or  an  outline  of  the  policy  in 
tended  to  be  pursued  by  him.  Instead  of  this,  he  turns  back  to  the  past, 


532          GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

and  drags  from  their  grave  the  carcasses  of  the  dead  issues  which  divided 
and  embittered  our  people  in  years  gone  by.  And  he  seeks  your  suffrage 
not  upon  anything  that  he  promises  in  the  future.  Indeed,  I  was  forced  to 
the  conclusion,  after  learning  the  points  in  his  speech,  that  he  sought  to  rise 
by  his  assaults  upon  my  record  rather  than  upon  his  own  merits. 

"  And  just  here  permit  me  to  say,  that,  while  I  greatly  regret  the  necessity 
of  recurring  to  these  old,  dead  issues,  I  do  not  shrink  from  a  comparison  of 
records  with  General  Lawton.  I  am  not  afraid  to  discuss  the  issues  involved 
in  the  reconstruction  period,  as  I  think  it  is  easy  to  demonstrate  that  the 
advice  I  then  gave,  if  it  had  been  heeded,  and  the  course  I  then  took,  if  it 
had  been  followed,  would  have  been  the  best  for  Georgia  and  the  whole 
South;  still,  I  know  there  are  honest  differences  of  opinion  upon  this  ques 
tion.  And  I  know  that  able  and  patriotic  statesmen  took  a  different  view 
of  it  at  the  time ;  and  the  questions  were  discussed  earnestly,  ably,  and  in 
some  instances  bitterly.  Much  was  said  on  each  side  that  it  were  better  it 
had  not  been  said.  It  was  a  time  of  passion  and  prejudice,  when  the  worst 
feelings  of  our  nature  were  aroused  and  brought  into  active  play.  We  had 
just  lost  our  cause.  From  being  a  proud  and  wealthy  people,  we  had  been 
reduced  to  poverty.  Every  family  had  lost  a  father,  a  brother,  a  husband, 
or  a  friend.  Our  conquerors  had  dictated  terms  that  seemed  to  us  to  be 
hard  and  even  unreasonable.  And  probably  the  most  unpalatable  part  of 
the  whole  batch  of  measures  was  the  provision  in  the  fourteenth  constitu 
tional  amendment  that  disfranchised  our  leaders  from  holding  office.  Labor 
ing  under  these  provoking  circumstances,  and  in  the  midst  of  this  high 
excitement,  it  was  not  strange  that  we  had  divisions,  and  that  bitterness  and 
even  vituperation  were  brought  into  the  campaign.  But  this  period  of  bit 
terness  has  passed ;  the  public  mind  has  been  quieted ;  our  passions  have 
subsided ;  we  have  gone  actively  to  work ;  we  have  learned  lessons  of  econ 
omy  ;  we  have  entered  again  upon  a  state  of  prosperity  ;  and  patriotic  men 
on  both  sides  had  hoped  that  the  dead  issues  would  remain  buried  out  of 
sight,  and  that  we  should  no  longer  be  divided  or  disturbed  by  them.  The 
times  now  seem  to  require  that  all  patriotic  citizens  of  Georgia  and  the 
South  should  stand  together,  hand  in  hand,  and  labor  earnestly  and  faith 
fully  to  promote  union,  harmony,  and  the  public  good. 

"  What  public  service,  then,  could  my  honorable  opponent  think  he  was 
rendering  to  the  country  by  tearing  the  scabs  off  the  healing  wounds  and 
seeking  again  to  arouse  the  bitter  prejudices  and  passions  of  twelve  years 
ago?  Why  did  he  not  think  proper  to  do  this  at  any  time  within  the  last 
five  or  six  years,  when  he  was  npt  a  candidate  for  United  States  senator? 
Why  -did  he  wait  until  he  made  up  his  mind  to  enter  the  lists  as  a  competi 
tor  for  this  distinguished  position  before  he  opened  his  batteries  upon  those 
who  differed  with  him  during  the  reconstruction  period  ?  Have  we  not  had 
enough  bitterness?  Is  it  for  the  public  good  that  strife  and  wrangling 
should  continue  perpetually  ?  Cannot  my  opponent  and  those  with  whom 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.         533 

he  acts  realize  the  fact  that  we  live  in  a  new  era,  that  war  has  produced 
almost  a  revolution  in  our  labor  system  and  lias  engrafted  new  provisions  on 
the  political  system?  Is  it  impossible  for  him  to  conform  to  the  present 
system  under  which  we  live,  and  to  unite  with  those  who  labor  to  make  the 
best  out  of  it  in  future? 

"Why  does  my  opponent  arraign  me  for  infidelity  to  Georgia  and  the 
South  because  I  differed  with  him  and  the  school  of  politicians  to  which  he 
belongs  on  the  reconstruction  question  and  acted  with  the  reconstruction 
party  ?  Is  a  man  a  traitor  for  not  going  with  the  party  he  has  formerly 
acted  with,  if  that  party  abandon  the  platform  it  has  always  stood  upon, 
plants  itself  upon  a  new  platform  which  his  judgment  tells'  him  is  impracti 
cable  and  impossible  to  be  carried  into  execution  ? 

"  The  platform  of  the  Democratic  party,  so  called  in  1868,  was  not  the 
platform  upon  which  that  party  stood  prior  to  that  time.  Take  General 
Blair's  Broadhead  letter,  which  secured  his  nomination  to  the  office  of  vice- 
president,  arid  the  platform  which  together  declared  the  reconstruction  acts 
revolutionary,  unconstitutional,  null  and  void;  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States  to  so  declare  them,  and  to  refuse  to  exe 
cute  them,  and  to  disband  the  governments  established  in  the  Southern 
States  under  the  reconstruction  acts  by  force.  This  would  have  been  another 
revolution,  ending  in  the  further  effusion  of  blood.  There  was  no  possible 
chance  of  success  on  that  platform.  No  principle  of  Democracy  required  me 
to  stand  upon  it.  Democrats  and  the  former  opponents  of  Democracy  divided 
upon  it  according  to  their  own  judgment.  I  refused  to  stand  upon  it  because 
I  knew  it  could  result  in  no  good,  and  must,  if  carried  out  to  its  legitimate 
results,  end  in  revolution  and  blood.  Other  patriotic  statesmen  thought 
they  saw  in  it  a  mode  of  escape  from  the  awkward  dilemma  in  which  we 
were  placed ;  and  with  as  much  honesty  of  purpose  as  I  claim  for  myself 
they  espoused  the  cause  of  opposition  to  it  earnestly  and  actively.  Were 
they  traitors  to  the  old  Democratic  platform  because  they  planted  the  party 
upon  a  new  platform  that  turned  out  not  practicable?  They  were  honest; 
they  were  earnest;  they  were  patriotic.  Was  I  a  traitor,  then,  because  I 
refused  to  stand  upon  a  platform  that  I  believed  would  result  in  utter  failure 
and  do  harm  ?  Did  I  go  over  to  the  enemy,  as  my  opponent  charges,  when 
I  acted  with  the  party  that  sustained  the  reconstruction  measures?  If  so, 
the  whole  Democratic  party  and  the  whole  people  of  the  South  have  since 
gone  over  to  the  enemy,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  Bourbons  who  can  never 
accept  the  situation.  When  Messrs.  Stephens  and  Toombs  and  other  great 
Whig  leaders  of  the  South  abandoned  the  Whig  party,  and  aioled  in  disband 
ing  it,  and  came  over  to  the  old  Democratic  party,  were  they  traitors  because 
they  acted  with  the  Democracy  whom  they  had  so  long  fought?  Did  we 
treat  them  as  such  and  refuse  to  give  them  office?  And  would  it  be  consid 
ered  a  proper  issue  in  this  campaign,  for  me  to  take  up  their  records,  and 
discuss  what  might  appear  to  be  seeming  inconsistencies  in  their  course  in 


534         GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

that  regard?  What  would  it  have  to  do  with  the  present  or  the  future  wel 
fare  of  the  country?  Are  we  to  pursue  each  other  with  relentless  fury  011 
account  of  past  differences  and  never  unite  for  the  public  good?  In  1860 
some  of  us  were  ardent  secessionists;  others  were  Union  men:  shall  we 
declare  perpetual  war  against  one  another  because  we  differed  twenty  years 
ago?  Shall  a  Union  man  now  say  the  secessionist  was  a  traitor  because  he 
left  the  Union  ranks  and  went  with  the  secessionists?  Or  shall  a  seces 
sionist  say  that  a  Union  man  is  a  traitor  because  he  acted  with  the  Union 
party  and  did  not  go  with  the  secessionists?  If  an  original  Union  man  were 
now  a  candidate  for  senator,  would  it  be  proper  for  me  as  an  original  seces 
sionist  to  make  war  upon  him,  and  arraign  him  upon  his  record,  and  place 
my  claim  to  election  to  the  United  States  senate  upon  the  inconsistencies  of 
that  record?  It  would  be  as  just  as  the  war  that  my  opponent  makes 
upon  me. 

"  But  he  refers  to  my  honored  colleague  in  the  Senate,  and  says  that  I  said 
Mr.  Hill  is  the  grandest  orator  in  the  Senate.  I  did  say  so,  and  I  here 
repeat  it.  But  he  says  that  Hill  almost  exhausted  that  oratory  in  his  denun 
ciation  of  me  during  the  reconstruction  campaign.  That  may  be  true.  Mr. 
Hill  is  an  ardent,  earnest,  patriotic  man.  He  believed  he  was  right.  He 
hoped  that  we  might  get  rid  of  the  reconstruction  measures  through  the 
agency  of  the  Democratic  party ;  and  though  he  had  never  been  a  Democrat 
in  his  life,  he  came  with  the  Democrats,  and  acted  with  them,  and  was  one 
of  their  ablest  leaders  in  Georgia.  Was  he  a  traitor  to  the  old  Whig  or 
American  party,  because  he  came  over  to  the  Democracy  on  that  occasion, 
and  acted  with  them  in  opposition  to  the  reconstruction  measures  ?  Clearly 
not.  But  there  is  this  striking  difference  between  Mr.  Hill  and  my  opponent : 
Two  years  later  Mr.  Hill  saw  that  the  hopes  of  getting  rid  of  the  reconstruc 
tion  measures,  for  which  he  had  so  earnestly  and  honestly  labored,  was  delu 
sive;  and  he  had  the  magnanimity  and  the  honesty  to  come  out  and  publish 
his  views  to  the  world,  and  advise  acquiescence  and  the  recognition  of  the 
rights  of  the  colored  race. 

"  And  from  that  day  to  this  Mr.  Hill  has  advised  peace  and  harmony.  He 
has  never  gone  back  and  torn  open  the  old  wounds,  nor  sought  to  do  it,  as 
my  opponent  now  seeks  to  do.  He  fought  the  reconstruction  measures  as 
long  as  he  saw  any  chance  to  succeed,  and  when  there  was  no  hope  of  suc 
cess  he  abandoned  the  platform,  as  did  the  Democratic  party,  and  planted 
himself  upon  the  reconstruction  measures.  Was  he  a  traitor  to  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  when,  in  187*),  he  advised  the  acceptance  of  the  reconstruction 
measures  and  the  recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  colored  race  ?  And  must 
he  in  future  be  arraigned  for  this  patriotic  act?  If  not,  how  was  I  a  traitor 
for  doing  the  same  thing  two  ye;>rs  sooner? 

"  If  the  attack  made  upon  me  by  my  opponent  is  just,  then  he  is  the  proper 
subject  of  arraignment.  Mr.  Hill  is  able  to  recognize  an  accomplished  fact, 
and  he  is  a  man  of  mould  large  enough  to  advise  the  people  to  bury  the 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          535 

bitterness  of  the  past,  and  to  act  in  harmony  upon  the  reconstruction  plat 
form  in  future.  In  this  he  is  ten  years  ahead  of  General  Lawton. 

"In  his  letter  of  1870,  December  8th,  two  years  before  the  Democratic 
party  had  abandoned  the  platform  of  1868,  Mr.  Hill  says :  « I  have  been 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  these  three  amendments  are  in  fact,  and  will  be 
held  in  law,  fixed  principles  of  the  Constitution,  as  binding  upon  the  States 

and  people  as  the  original  provisions  of  that  instrument It  is  the  duty 

of  every  good  citizen  to  abide  by  and  obey  the  Constitution  and  laws  as  they 
exist,  precisely  as  if  he  had  .co-operated  in  establishing  and  enacting  them.' 
Again  he  says :  » I  respectfully  suggest  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  duty 
does  not  require  nor  interest  seek  a  continuance  of  the  divisions  on  the  prin 
ciples  and  events  which  have  led  to  our  present  condition.' 

"And  in  his  speech  in  Atlanta,  in  1872,  he  says:  4 1  confess  before  this 
audience  to-night,  that  while  my  heart  has  ever  been  right,  while  I  have  ever 
advocated  that  which  I  believed  to  be  true  at  the  time,  yet  in  the  midst  of 
party  contest  I  have  often  indulgeoTin  personal  allusions  and  personal  depre 
ciations,  which  I  regret  and  would  gladly  recall.'  Again  he  says,  in  refer 
ence  to  the  notes  on  the  situation:  'There  are  some  personal  allusions  of  a 
very  severe  character  which  I  regret  and  would  recall.'  Again  he  adds:  'I 
am  free  to  say  that  I  am  in  favor  of  universal  political  amnesty,  state  and 
federal.'  How  striking  the  contrast  between  these  utterances  of  the  great 
orator,  and  the  intolerant  course  of  my  opponent! 

"When  did  my  honorable  opponent  give  this  good  advice?  For  twelve 
years  has  he  nursed  his  wrath,  and  still  abates  nothing  of  his  animosity 
against  those  who  differ  with  him. 

"But  my  opponent  thinks  we  should  not  have  accepted  so  early,  while  the 
graves  of  our  dead  heroes  were  yet  fresh.  What  length  of  time  was  it  neces 
sary  to  give  for  the  grass  to  spread  over  the  graves  of  our  lamented  heroes 
who  fell  in  our  glorious  cause,  before  we  could  accept  the  reconstruction 
measures  without  disrespect  to  them  ? 

"  As  the  Democracy  has  been  planted  upon  the  reconstruction  platform 
ever  since  1872,  my  opponent  must  admit  that  it  was  no  disrespect  to  their 
memories  to  accept  those  measures  in  1872.  Why  did  he  not  tell  us  the 
exact  time  between  1868  and  1872  when  it  ceased  to  be  disrespectful  to  them 
for  us  to  acquiesce  in  the  inevitable?  His  views  and  mine  of  the  reverence 
and  respect  we  owe  to  their  memories  may  be  widely  different.  I  feel  that 
that  respect  and  that  reverence  are  due  them  from  us  while  we  live,  and 
from  our  posterity  after  us.  I  had  two  brothers  who  fell  during  that 
struggle,  one  of  them  while  leading  his  regiment  in  the  charge  upon  a  Union 
battery  almost  in  sight  of  where  I  now  stand. 

"  Shall  I  cease  to  respect  their  memories,  or  do  I  dishonor  them  because  I 
accept  the  terms  dictated  by  our  conqueror  after  they  have  fallen  ?  General 
Lawton  may  think  that  we  could  cease  to  pay  reverence  to  the  memories  of 
our  heroes  after  1872.  I  say  that  respect  and  that  reverence  should  be  per- 


536         GOV.  BROWN'S  GKEAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

petual  in  the  future.  If  so,  taking  his  premises  and  carrying  them  out  to 
their  logical  sequence,  we  must  forever  fight  the  reconstruction  measures  or 
we  will  dishonor  them. 

"  But  I  was  not  alone  in  the  advice  I  gave  or  the  opinion  I  entertained  as 
to  the  propriety  of  accepting  the  reconstruction  measures.  What  was  that 
advice?  It  was  substantially  that  the  conquerors  had  dictated  the  terms, 
and  that  we  were  obliged  to  accept  them;  that  the  conventions  mentioned 
in  the  Sherman  bill  must  be  held ;  that  our  people  were  placed  in  a  position 
where  they  had  no  power  whatever  to  control  that  question.  And  I  advised 
them  to  acquiesce ;  to  go  to  the  polls  and  vote  for  the  best  men  who  were 
eligible;  that  they  might  go  to  the  convention  and  make  us  the  best  consti 
tution  we  could  get,  as  we  might  be  obliged  to  live  under  it  for  years  to 
come.  I  also  recommended  acquiescence  in  the  action  of  the  convention  of 
our  State,  and  advised  our  people  against  divisions  and  to  a  prompt  accept 
ance  of  the  terms  dictated  by  our  conqueror.  This  was  the  only  way  to  get 
representation  back  into  Congress  and  to  lift  the  hand  of  the  conqueror  from 
us.  All  remember  very  well  that  this  was  the  substance  of  my  advice. 

"  Now  I  desire  to  read  here  a  letter  from  a  distinguished  gentleman,  to 
show  that  others  whose  opinions  were  entitled  to  respect  entertained  the 
same  views  and  gave  like  advice.  As  I  consider  the  letter  an  important  one, 
I  beg  your  careful  attention  while  I  read  it.  It  is  as  follows  : 

"  lMy  dear  Major:  I  have  read  with  the  attention  the  subject  demanded 
the  article  enclosed  in  your  letter  of  the  23d  ult.  I  think  there  can  he  no 
doubt  in  the  minds  of  those  who  reflect,  that  conventions  must  be  held  in 
the  Southern  States  under  the  Sherman  bill,  that  the  people* are  placed  in  a 
position  where  no  choice  in  the  matter  is  left  them,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  all 
who  may  be  entitled  to  vote  to  attend  the  polls  and  endeavor  to  elect  the 
best  available  men  to  represent  them  and  act  for  the  interests  of  their  States. 
The  division  of  the  people  into  parties  is  greatly  to  be  reprehended,  and 
ought  to  be  avoided  by  the  willingness  on  the  part  of  every  one  to  yield 
minor  points,  in  order  to  secure  those  which  are  essential  to  the  general 
welfare.  Wisdom  dictates  that  the  decision  of  the  conventions  should  be 
cheerfully  submitted  to  by  the  .citizens  of  each  State,  who  should  unite  in 
carrying  out  its  decrees  in  good  faith  and  kind  feeling.' " 

[At  this  point  some  one  in  the  audience  cried  out,  "  That's  Joe  Brown's 
talk!  "  The  speaker  replied,  "It  is  very  much  like  it;  just  the  same  in  sub 
stance,  though  I  did  not  write  it."  He  then  resumed  the  reading  of  the 
letter,  as  follows :] 

"  'As  I  am  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  directing  how  to  act,  I  think  it 
is  fair  to  leave  to  those  who  have  to  bear  the  responsibility  the  decision  of 
the  questions  involved,  without  embarrassing  them  with  the  opinions  of 
those  who  do  not  feel  this  responsibility.  Under  these  circumstances,  and 
for  reasons  which  I  am  sure  you  will  understand,  I  have  great  reluctance  to 
obtrude  my  opinions  upon  the  public,  and  must  therefore  request  that  you 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          537 

will  not  publish  my  letter,  which  has  been  written  out  of  my  kind  regard  for 
yourself.' 

"This  letter,"  said  the  speaker,  "is  dated  Lexington,  Va.,  April  3,  1867, 
less  than  one  month  after  the  date  of  my  letter  advising  acquiescence  in  the 
reconstruction  measures.  It  was  dictated  by  the  brain  and  penned  by  the 
hand  of  that  immortal  hero,  Robert  E.  Lee!  I  hold  the  original  now  in  my 
hand,  in  the  handwriting  of  the  old  hero  himself." 

[At  this  point  the  demonstrations  of  applause  were  overwhelming,  and 
bouquets  of  flowers  were  thrown  from  every  part  of  the  audience  to  the 
stage  and  showered  down  upon  Governor  Brown  with  a  profusion  that  we 
have  seldom  witnessed.  After  bowing  and  returning  his  thanks  to  the  ladies, 
he  continued  as  follows  :] 

"I  have  not  given  the  name  of  the  gentleman  to  whom  the  letter  is 
addressed,  as  he  does  not  at  present  desire  his  name  made  public.  He  is  an 
able  man  ;  was  a  gallant  Confederate  officer,  who  did  valiant  service  under 
the  very  eye  of  General  Lee  himself,  and  had  the  confidence  of  that  great 
man  to  the  fullest  extent.  As  General  Lee  was  a  military  chieftain  then 
retired,  and  had  not  figured  as  a  statesman,  the  reasons  are  very  obvious 
why  he  should  not  desire  to  give  advice  to  the  public,  unless  it  was  asked 
for  in  some  authoritative  way.  It  was  but  natural,  therefore,  that  he  should 
have  requested  that  the  letter  be  not  published.  But  as  more  than  thirteen 
years  have  passed  since  the  letter  was  written,  and  as  time  has  demonstrated 
the  wisdom  of  the  advice  given  by  General  Lee,  and  lie  has  long  since  de 
parted  this  life,  certainly  no  injustice  can  be  done  to  his  memory  by  giving 
to  the  public  the  wise  and  noble  sentiments  then  expressed  by  him.  Another 
reason  why  it  should  be  published  is,  that  it  shows  that  the  old  hero  was  of 
good  judg-MENT."  [This  brought  down  the  house  with  great  applause.] 

"But  my  opponent  says  that  the  State  of  Georgia,  by  resisting  my  policy 
and  the  reconstruction  measures,  got  out  from  under  the  heel  of  the  op 
pressor  sooner  than  South  Carolina,  Florida,  and  Louisiana  who  took  my 
advice.  This  is  u  very  extraordinary  statement.  What  was  my  advice?  It 
was  the  same  given  by  General  Lee :  that  the  white  people  of  Georgia  and 
the  South  accept  the  reconstruction  measures  at  once;  that  they  all  go  to 
the  ballot-box  and  vote  for  delegates  to  the  convention  which  was  to  make 
the  Constitution  under  which  they  and  their  children  must  live ;  and  that 
they  try  to  get  as  good  a  ^Constitution  as  possible,  and  get  their  representa 
tives  back  into  Congress  in  both  branches  at  the  earliest  day  possible.  What 
was  the  advice  of  General  Lawton  on  that  occasion  ?  It  was  that  the  white 
people  of  the  South  fold  their  arms  in  dignified  silence  and  refuse  to  take 
any  part  whatever  in  the  election  to  be  held  for  members  of  the  convention 
to  form  a  Constitution  under  which  they  must  live  for  years  to  come,  but  to 
give  that  np  to  the  negroes,  the  carpet-baggers,  and  the  scalawags.  South 
Carolina,  Florida,  and  Louisiana  adopted  his  advice.  The  white  people 
folded  their  arms  in  great  dignity,  and  said,  '  We  will  touch  not,  taste  not, 


538         GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

handle  not  the  unclean  thing.'  They  refused  to  go  to  the  polls,  and  they 
gave  up  their  conventions  entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  classes  above  men 
tioned.  What  was  the  result  ?  The  negroes  and  the  carpet-baggers  framed 
their  constitutions;  tied  them  hand  and  foot;  filled  their  legislative  halls 
with  majorities  of  ignorant  colored  men,  and  crowded  their  jury  boxes  with 
ignorance ;  and  the  white  people  labored  under  this  curse  till  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1877.  For  nearly  ten  years  were  they  passing  through  this  ter 
rible  ordeal.  Not  so  in  Georgia.  It  was  .estimated  at  the  time  that  some 
thirty  thousand  white  men  in  Georgia  took  the  advice  given  by  those  of  us 
who  accepted  the  reconstruction  measures,  and  went  to  the  polls  and  voted 
for  good  men  as  delegates  to  the  convention.  We  sent  to  the  convention  the 
lamented  Judge  Parrott,  who  presided  over  it,  and  who  was  a  most  valuable 
power  in  securing  a  good  Constitution.  The  people  also  elected  as  members 
of  that  convention,  Dr.  Miller,  Colonel  Trammell,  Judge  McKay,  James  D. 
Waddell,  Colonel  Thomas  P.  Saffold,  of  Morgan  ;  Albert  Foster,  the  honored 
father  of  the  honorable  representative  from  Morgan  county  in  this  assembly; 
Madison  Bell, of  Banks;  Judge  Bigby,  of  Coweta,  now  United  States  district 
attorney;  Colonel  Marler,  since  solicitor-general  of  the  western  circuit;  Mr. 
Dews,  of  Baker,  who  has  since  been  a  member  of  the  Legislature  ;  Mr.  Field, 
of  Murray,  who  has  filled  the  same  place;  Mr.  Ford,  of  Floyd;  Dr.  Foster, 
of  Paulding;  Mr.  McWhorter,  of  Green;  the  Hon.  David  Jrwin,  of  Cobb; 
the  Hon.  A.  W.  Ilolcomb,  of  Milton  ;  the  Hon.  Wesley  Shropshire,  of  Chat- 
tooga;  the  Hon.  John  II.  Flynn,  of  this  city;  the  Hon.  Amos  T.  Akerman, 
who,  though  a  Northern  man,  has  spent  the  most  of  his  life  in  Georgia,  and 
who  also  rendered  valuable  services  in  the  convention.  Other  native  white 
men  were  elected 'who  had  devoted  their  lives  to  the  best  interests  of  Georgia. 
These  men  inside,  with  the  assistance  of  some  of  us  outside,  notwithstanding 
the  great  majority  of  radical  men  in  the  convention,  secured  for  the  people 
of  Georgia  a  constitution  under  which  they  were  soon  restored  to  the  line 
of  prosperity.  The  intelligence  of  Georgia  soon  had  control  of  the  Legis 
lature,  her  courts,  and  her  juries.  The  world  knows  the  result.  We  were 
through  with  the  reconstruction  period  much  sooner  than  any  one  of  the 
States  above  mentioned,  who  rejected  my  advice  and  took  the  advice  of  my 
opponent.  And  to-day,  while  the  credit  of  those  States  in  the  market  is 
unfortunately  at  a  low  point,  the  credit  of  Georgia  stands  as  high  in  the 
market  as  any  State's  in  the  Union.  She  floats  without  difficulty  a  four  per 
cent,  bond  when  she  needs  money  to  meet  her  engagements. 

"On  the  contrary,  if  South  Carolina,  Florida,  and  Louisiana  had  followed 
my  advice  in  1868,  and  sent  such  of  their  white  leaders  as  were  not  disfran 
chised  as  delegates  to  their  conventions,  they  would  have  secured  constitu 
tions  which  would  have  restored  them  to  Democratic  rule  within  four  years. 
And  in  1876,  instead  of  having  radical  returning  boards  at  their  command 
to  count  out  Mr.  Tilden,  who  was  legally  elected  president,  they  would  have 
elected  Democratic  electors,  and  there  would  have  been  no  question  about 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          539 

the  right  of  the  Democratic  candidate  to  his  seat  in  the  presidential  chair ; 
and  we  would  now  have  passed  through  four  years  of  Democratic  rule, 
whereas  we  are  just  entering  upon  four  more  years  of  Republican  rule. 
Judge  ye,  whether  the  advice  of  rny  opponent  as  taken  by  these  States  was 
better  than  mine. 

"But  my  opponent  says,  in  substance,  if  I  could  not  agree  with  him  and 
those  with  whom  he  acted  in  1368,  I  should  not  have  acted  with  the  recon 
struction  party ;  but  I  should  have  folded  my  arms  in  silence  and  waited 
until  they  had  made  the  experiment.  No,  I  could  not  have  done  this  prop 
erly.  The  people  of  Georgia  had  honored  me;  they  had  raised  me  from  an 
humble  position  and  placed  me  at  the  helm  of  state.  They  had  stood  by  me 
during  all  the  dark  periods  through  which  we  had  passed.  I  had  reached  a 
point,  at  the  end  of  the  struggle,  where  I  was  out  of  office,  and  I  was  a  pri 
vate  citizen  only;  and  if  I  had  been  simply  selfish  in  my  views,  I  might 
have  folded  my  arms  and  stood  still  and  given  no  advice,  and  retained  my 
popularity.  But  I  did  not  think  I  could  do  this  and  act  in  good  faith.  All 
that  I  was,  and  all  that  I  am,  I  owe  to  Georgia;  and  when  her  citizens 
called  on  me  for  advice  in  that  critical  period,  though  but  a  private  citizen, 
I  felt  that  it  was  my  bounden  duty  to  give  it.  I  knew  very  well  the  respon 
sibility  which  I  incurred.  I  thought  it  was  possible  they  might  follow  my 
advice  and  save  themselves  great  trouble  and  great  suffering.  But  I  feared 
also  at  the  time  that  the  probabilities  were  that  passion  and  prejudice  were 
running  too  high  for  reason  to  resume  her  sway.  Hence  I  stated  to  confi 
dential  friends  my  motives  in  taking  the  position  I  did,  that  it  was  to  try 
to  save  Georgia  from  very  great  suffering,  into  which  I  feared  she  was  about 
to  be  precipitated;  and  that,  if  our  people  failed  to  take 'my  advice,  from 
having  been  one  of  the  most  popular  men  in  the  State,  I  should  become  one 
of  the  most  unpopular  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande.  With  this 
great  hazard  fully  in  view,  forgetful  of  self-interest,  I  raised  the  note  of 
warning,  and  gave  them  honestly  my  opinion  as  to  the  course  it  was  best 
for  them  to  pursue.  My  opponent  folded  his  arms  at  the  time  and  did 
nothing,  and  advised  inaction.  I  leave  it  to  you  to  say  whether  his  censure 
is  well  founded  or  gratuitous. 

"But  my  opponent  in  substance  assumes  the  further  position,  that  if  we 
had  refused  to  submit  to  the  reconstruction  measures,  and  had  all  stood  out 
to  the  last,  foreign  powers  might  have  intervened  under  international  law 
and  saved  us  from  this  bitter  pill.  Now,  with  all  due  deference,  it  does  seem 
to  me  that  this  idea  is  perfectly  Utopian.  When  we  were  at  the  high  tide  of 
our  success  after  each  important  victory,  we  had  men  abroad  to  importune 
foreign  powers  to  recognize  us  even  as  belligerents,  and  they  declined  to  do 
so  because  their  treaty  obligations  to  the  Uniti-d  States  did  not  permit  them 
to  recognize  us  as  occupying  any  other  relation  than  that  of  rebels  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States;  and  whatever  sympathy  they  might  have 
felt  for  us,  they  declined  to  recognize  us  as  entitled  even  to  belligerent  rights. 


540          GOV.  BKOWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

If  then  foreign  powers  would  take  no  notice  of  us  during  the  struggle  when 
we  were  flushed  with  victory,  was  it  reasonable  to  suppose  after  we  had 
surrendered,  and  there  was  no  hanging,  no  slaughter,  no  bloodshed,  our 
president  imprisoned  but  his  life  not  imperilled,  that  they  would  then  come 
in  and  intermeddle  in  the  affairs  of  the  United  States,  and  say,  'You  shall 
not  dictate  terms  here  that  the  South  think  are  hard  and  unreasonable;  we 
will  interfere  with  our  sword  and  stop  it'?  What  sane  man  can  for  a 
moment  believe  that  there  was  even  the  remotest  probability  of  foreign 
intervention  to  save  us  from  the  evils  of  reconstruction  ?  It  does  seem  to 
me  that  my  honorable  opponent  is  hard  run  for  a  pretext  upon  which  to 
base  his  objections  to  me,  when  he  arraigns  me  for  supporting  the  recon 
struction  measures  on  the  ground  that  we  might  have  looked  for  foreign 
intervention  if  we  had  held  out.  I  do  not  at  least  think  he  would  venture  to 
offer  such  an  argument  before  the  country  from  the  high  arena  of  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  to  which  he  aspires. 

"But  he  makes  another  grave  charge,  that  while  I  was  an  ardent  original 
secessionist  and  did  all  I  could  to  advance  the  cause  of  secession,  I  took 
issue  during  the  war  with  President  Davis  on  certain  questions  where  I 
thought  there -were  great  principles  involved.  Doubtless  he  refers  to  the 
controversy  between  me  and  President  Davis  on  conscription.  We  went 
into  the  contest,  as  I  understood  it,  to  maintain  State  sovereignty  and 
slavery ;  and  I  think  I  demonstrated  during  that  controversy  that  the  Con 
script  Act  was  unconstitutional  and  subversive  of  the  very  principles  of 
State  sovereignty  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  our  political  fabric.  That 
discussion,  however,  was  on  questions  of  constitutional  law  and  principle, 
and  it  was  not  permitted  to  embarrass  Mr.  Davis  practically.  I  threw  no 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  execution  of  the  Conscript  Acts  by  his  officers  in 
Georgia,  where  they  showed  any  respect  to  law  or  the  rights  of  the  State. 
He  never  made  a  requisition  upon  me  during  the  whole  period  of  the  war  for 
troops  of  the  class  furnished  by  the  other  States,  that  I  did  not  promptly 
respond  with  a  larger  number  than  he  asked  for. 

"  And  when  Sherman's  army  invaded  the  soil  of  Xjeorgia,  I  called  out  even 
the  officers  of  the  State  and  organized  them  into  regiments  and  battalions 
and  turned  them  over  to  that  glorious  old  hero,  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  Confederate  armies,  where  they  did  efficient  and  valuable 
service,  recognized  by  him  in  flattering  terms.  I  carried  the  number  up  to 
nearly  ten  thousand  of  the  class  which  was  not  subject  to  conscription,  and 
for  which  the  President  had  no  right  to  call,  and  which  was  not  furnished 
by  the  other  States.  After  General  Johnston  had  been  unwisely  removed, 
I  continued  them  under  General  Hood.  And  when  the  secretary  of  war  of 
the  Confederate  States  made  requisition  upon  me  for  them — that  part  of 
them  report  to  General  Hood  and  part  of  them  to  the  commandant  at 
Charleston  while  they  were  in  the  trenches  at  Atlanta  defending  this  city, 
I  refused  to  send  them  away  or  to  turn  them  over  on  Confederate  requisition. 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          541 

They  belonged  to  the  State  :  they  were  a  class  of  our  citizens  including  her 
officers  and  the  old  men  up  to  55  and  the  boys  down  to  16  that  other  States 
did  not  send  to  the  field  and  that  the  President  had  no  right  under  any 
law  of  Congress  to  demand  of  me.  Nor  did  he  demand  that  class  by  requisi 
tion  made  upon  the  governor  of  any  other  State  in  the  Confederacy.  How 
then  did  I  obstruct  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy  ?  I  gave  it  all  the  troops 
it  called  for ;  all  it  was  entitled  to,  and  when  our  own  State  was  invaded  I  gave 
it  nearly  ten  thousand  of  a  class  that  it  had  no  right  under  its  own  laws  to 
call  for.  Ask  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  whether  I  was  untrue  to  the  Con 
federacy.  He  was  in  command  at  tHe  time,  and  he  will  tell  you  that  I  did 
all  that  any  governor  could  have  done  under  the  circumstances  to  aid  him. 

"  He  is  reported  to  have  .said  that  1  did  more  for  the  cause  than  all  the 
other  governors  of  the  Confederacy  combined. 

"  General  Lawton  seems  to  forget,  however,  while  attacking  me  on  this 
point,  that  he  attacks  the  great  commoner,  Mr.  Stephens,  who  was  vice-presi 
dent  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  General  Toombs,  the  ablest  advocate  of 
his  election  to  the  Senate,  who  fully  co-operated  with  me  in  my  controversy 
with  the  Confederate  States  authorities  on  this  question,  and  sustained  me 
on  every  point.  We  acted  in  perfect  harmony.  Were  Stephens  and 
Toombs  untrue  to  the  Confederate  cause?  The  same  evidence  that  would 
convict  me  of  this  charge  by  my  opponent,  convicts  them  also.  Perhaps 
this  argument  proves  a  little  too  much  for  him. 

"  But  it  would  seem  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Georgians  in  the  army 
who  met  the  enemy  in  the  field  of  battle,  and  who  endured  all  the  hardships 
of  the  camp,  were  the  best  judges  of  whether  their  governor  in  his  treat 
ment  to  them  and  in  his  responses  to  the  calls  of  the  Confederacy  had  been 
faithful.  In  1863  after  my  controversy  with  President  Davis,  when  I  was 
a  candidate  for  the  fourth  time  for  the  office  of  governor,  the  citizens  of 
Georgia  within  legal  age,  who  were  in  the  army,  were  authorized  to  vote 
wherever  they  might  be.  As  you  will  remember,  the  Hon.  Joshua  Hill, 
formerly  a  Union  man,  and  the  Hon.  Timothy  Furlow,  an  ardent  secession 
ist,  were  both  put  in  the  field  against  me.  As  the  Constitution  required 
that  the  successful  candidate  should  have  a  majority  over  all  the  other  can 
didates,  it  was  thought  I  would  be  defeated  in  this  way,  and  the  election 
thrown  into  the  General  Assembly.  And  the  home  vote  at  the  time  would 
have  come  near  defeating  me.  The  stay-at-home  men,  those  owning  fifteen 
negroes,  who  were  at  home  to  look  after  their  plantations,  and  those  in  the 
other  pursuits  of  life  that  remained  at  home,  voted  for  me  by  a  small  major 
ity.  But  when  the  army  vote  came  in  and  the  ballot  of  the  men  who  bore 
the  musket  in  the  frout  of  the  enemy  was  heard  from,  they  placed  me  over 
8000  ahead  of  both  my  competitors.  Did  the  army  deem  my  course  as  untrue 
to  the  Confederacy?  Who  were  better  judges  of  the  propriety  of  it  than 
the  soldiers  who  endured  the  hardships  of  the  camp  and  the  field  ? 

"  Time  will  not   permit  me  to   say   more  in   reference  to    my  course 


542         GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

during  the  war.  I  claim  that  nothing  I  did  during  that  period 
conflicts  in  any  way  with  my  duty  or  present  position  as  a  Dem 
ocrat.  I  never  voted  anything  but  a  Democratic  ticket  in  my.  life  prior  to 
1868.  Upon  the  old  Democratic  platform  I  always  stood,  and  to  its  princi 
ples  I  was  always  true.  In  1868  the  Democratic  party  did  not  stand  upon 
its  former  platform,  and  it  certainly  did  not  stand  upon  its  present  platform. 
In  186S  it  declared  the  reconstruction  measures  to  be  revolutionary,  uncon 
stitutional,  null  and  void,  for  it  nominated  Blair  upon  his  Broadhead  letter. 
During  that  period  I  refused  to  stand  upon  that  platform.  I  knew  that 
General  Grant,  who  had  been  the  successful  leader  of  the  Union  armies  and  had 
received  the  sword  of  that  immortal  hero,  General  Lee,  was  entitled  accord 
ing  to  usage  to  the  presidency,  and  he  would  certainly  get  it.  He  had  been 
sent  by  President  Johnson  to  the  South  to  report  upon  our  condition,  and 
had  done  all  he  could  to  mitigate  the  excitement,  and  reported  as  favorably 
as  he  could.  He  was  evidently  disposed  to  turn  the  warm  side  to  the  South, 
and  I  thought  it  was  our  best  policy  to  agree  with  the  adversary  quickly, 
and  take  up  the  hero  and  support  him,  making  no  issue  with  him.  This 
would  have  given  us  representation  in  Congress  immediately  and  placed  us 
upon  a  much  higher  level.  And  if  we  had  acted  wisely,  all  the  probabilities 
are  that  General  Grant,  true  to  his  original  political  faith,  might  at  the 
next  race  have  accepted  the  nomination  from  the  Democracy  of  the  Union, 
as  he  had  been  up  to  that  time  an  original  Democrat.  My  opponent  is 
reported  to  have  said  in  his  speech  that  I  was  the  only  man  who  knew  that. 
It  has  been  on  more  than  one  occasion  published  that  General  Grant  him 
self  said  so,  and  it  has  never  been  denied  by  any  one.  He  never  cast  any 
but  a  Democratic  vote  prior  to  the  time  he  went  into  the  presidential  chair. 
And  I  think  my  opponent  is  probably  the  only  man  in  the  country,  of  his 
intelligence,  who  did  not  know  it.  Not  only  was  General  Grant,  who  re 
ceived  Lee's  sword,  in  favor  of  conciliation  up  to  that  time,  but  it  is  now 
a  well  known  fact  that  General  Lee  favored  acceptance. 

"The  Democrats  made  the  experiment  on  the  platform  of  1868,  and  made 
a  great  failure.  They  saw  then  that  it  was  impossible  to  stand  longer  upon 
that  platform.  And  in  1872  they  came  squarely  upon  the  reconstruction  plat 
form  upon  which  I  had  stood  in  1868,  when  I  supported  Grant,  and  they  nomi 
nated  Horace  Greeley  as  their  standard  bearer.  Contrast  the  records  of 
Grant  and  Greeley  and  say  who  made  the  biggest  leap  from  Democracy — I 
in  voting  for  Grant  in  1868,  or  my  opponent  when  he  voted  for  Greeley  in 
1872.  But  as  Greeley  was  placed  upon  the  reconstruction  platform  where 
I  had  stood,  and  to  which  the  inevitable  pointed  as  the  future  policy  of 
the  country,  I  stood  still  upon  the  platform  and  voted  for  Greeley.  I  did 
not  abandon  it  because  the  Democracy  came  to  it.  I  did  not  refuse  to  vote 
for  Greeley,  objectionable  as  he  was,  for  he  was  nominated  by  the  party  of 
my  preference,  who  stood  upon  the  platform  where  I  stood.  And  from  that 
day  to  this  I  have  constantly  acted  with  the  Democratic  party. 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.         643 

"  You  may  examine  all  my  utterances  in  reference  to  the  reconstruction 
measures,  and  you  will  find  that  the  tenor  of  them  all  was  that  I  accepted 
in  1808  the  reconstruction  measures  because  there  was  r.o  way  to  get  rid  of 
them,  not  because  I  approved  of  them,  but  I  admitted  the  hardship.  I  took 
them  as  matter  of  necessity  only,  and  not  as  matter  of  choice.  I  felt 
no  attachment  to  them.  I  had  no  devotion  for  them.  But  in  1876,  when 
the  Democratic  convention  of  the  Union  met  in  St.  Louis  and  nominated 
Tilden,  having  found  that  the  mistake  that  they  had  made  in  1868  had  so 
prejudiced  the  country  against  them  that  it  was  still  denied  that  they  had 
acquiesced  in  the  reconstruction vmeasures  in  good  faith,  they  determined  to 
make  the  acquiescence  strong  enough  that  it  could  no  longer  be  questioned, 
and  they  there  affirmed  their  devotion  to  the  Constitution  with  the  amend 
ments.  The  fact  is,  I  was  never  devoted  to  them,  and  there  I  could  nut 
heartily  stand  upon  the  Democratic  platform,  but  as  my  conqueror  dictated 
them,  and  I  accepted  his  terms  in  good  faith,  I  had  accepted  them  ;  1  had 
sworn  to  support  them,  and  I  intend  in  good  faith  to  do  so. 

"But,  as  you  all  know,  the  result  of  that  campaign  was  that  Mr.  Tilden, 
who  was  elected  President,  was  counted  out  by  the  returning  boards  in  the 
States  of  Florida  and  Louisiana,  where  the  advice  of  my  honorable  opponent 
had  prevailed  during  the  period  of  reconstruction.  When  it  was  found  that 
an  effort  would  be  made  to  count  us  out,  Mr.  Tilden  did  not  question  my 
Democracy,  but  through  a  friend  from  his  residence  he  telegraphed 
and  requested  that  I  go  to  Florida  to  aid  him  in  securing  a  fair  count.  I 
went  there  and  stayed  and  labored  faithfully  for  more  than  a  month,  at 
my  own  expense,  to  secure  such  count,  part  of  the  time  upon  a  sick  bed 
where  I  had  to  have  books  brought  to  my  bedside  and  prepare  arguments 
with  my  secretary  sitting  by  my  bed.  We  failed  there  because  a  majority 
of  the  board  were  radicals,  and  no  showing  that  could  be  made  could  con 
trol  or  influence  them.  I  did  not  have  the  control  of  matters  there.  That 
was  assumed  by  a  gentleman  from  New  York,  who  claimed  to  be  the  special 
agent  of  Mr.  Tilden.  My  opponent  was  also  requested  to  go  to  Florida, 
but  if  I  recollect  correctly  he  stayed  but  a  day  or  two.  I  believe  it  was  said 
he  had  private  business  which  called  him  home. 

"  But  soon  afterwards  Congress  appointed  a  committee  of  investigation 
to  go  and  look  further  into  the  matter  and  take  testimony.  I  had  returned 
home,  and  was  lying  upon  a  sick  bed,  unable  to  do  anything.  And  at  this 
point  Mr.  Hewitt,  the  chairman  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  of  the  United  States,  telegraphed  me  and  requested  me  to  go  to 
Florida  and  take  control  of  our  case  there.  I  would  cheerfully  have  gone 
back  and  done  so,  but  my  bodily  infirmity  and  suffering  rendered  it  impossible 
at  the  time.  If  I  am  not  to  be  relied  on  as  a  Democrat  and  cannot  be  trusted, 
and  my  opponent  is  a  better  Democrat  than  I  am,  why  did  not  Mr.  Tilden 
and  Mr.  Hewitt  invite  General  Lawton  to  go  there  and  take  charge  of  the 
cause  ? 


544         GOV.  BEOWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

"But  let  us  come  down  a  little  further.  During  the  present  year  the 
Democratic  convention  of  the  Union  met  at  Cincinnati  and  nominated 
that  grand  and  gallant  soldier,  Win  field  S.  Hancock,  and  placed  him  upon 
a  platform  fully  recognizing  the  reconstruction  acts.  In  his  letter  of  accept 
ance,.]^  too  lays  down  the  position  distinctly  that  *  the  18th,  14th  and  loth 
amendments  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  embodying  the  results 
of  the  war  for  the  Union  are  inviolable.  If  called  to  the  presidency,  I 
should  deem  it  my  duty  to  resist  with  all  my  power  any  attempt  to  impair 
or  evade  the  full  force  and  effect  of  the  Constitution,  which,  ih  every  article, 
section  and  amendment,  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.'  Toombs  says 
they  are  still  null  and  void,  and  he  speaks  for  General  Lawton  and  is  now 
grooming  him  for  his  race.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  Hancock  says  they 
embody  the  results  of  the  war,  and  are  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 
General  Lee  says  :  '  Wisdom  also  dictates  that  the  decision  of  the  conventions 
should  be  cheerfully  submitted  to  by  the  citizens  of  each  State,  who  should 
unite  in  carrying  out  its  decrees  in  good  faith  and  kind  feeling.'  Which  will 
you  follow,  Toombs  and  Lawton,  or  Lee  and  Hancock?  [Applause.] 

"  Both  the  Democracy  and  their  great  leader  then  plant  themselves  fully 
and  firmly  upon  the  Constitutional  amendments,  which  were  the  substance 
of  the  reconstruction  acts.  During  the  recent  campaign  the  chairman  of 
the  Democratic  committee  of  the  Union,  Senator  Barnum,  wrote  and  urged 
me  to  go  to  Indiana  to  aid  in  the  campaign  for  Hancock  and  English. 
Under  the  circumstances  I  could  not  do  so,  which  I  very  much  regretted. 
If  I  am  not  a  Democrat  to  be  trusted  and  would  not  in  the  Senate  be  a  true 
exponent  of  the  principles  of  the  Democratic  party  why  did  he  not  ask 
General  Lawton,  my  opponent,  to  go  ? 

"  I  have  not  a  sentiment  or  an  instinct  that  is  not  in  accord  with  the 
best  interests  of  Georgia  and  of  the  country ;  and  I  shall  be  one  of  the  last 
men  to  furl  the  banner  of  the  Democratic  party  and  lay  it  away.  My 
family  and  my  property  and  all  that  is  dear  to  me  are  in  Georgia.  The 
bones  of  my  ancestors  rest  here,  and  I  expect  to  be  buried  in  her  soil  and 
leave  my  posterity  upon  it.  Why  then  should  I  betray  her  ?  When  have 
I  ever  been  untrue  to  her  interests?  I  shall  always  pay  my  devotions  at 
her  shrine  ;  I  shall  always  be  ready  to  maintain  her  interests  and  to  stand 
by  her  honor,  come  what  may. 

"  From  what  I  have  already  stated  I  think  it  unnecessary  that  I  should 
further  argue  the  point,  that  the  Democratic  party  stands  to-day  fairly  and 
squarely  upon  the  reconstruction  platform  ;  that  it  vies  with  the  Republican 
party  in  the  expression  of  its  devotion  to  that  platform,  and  to  the  consti 
tutional  amendments  upon  which  it  is  based.  Which  was  the  worse,  for 
me  to  be  untrue  to  the  Democratic  party  in  1868  when  it  neither  stood  up 
on  its  old  platform  nor  upon  its  present  platform,  or  for  my  opponent  to  be 
untrue  to  it  now,  as  would  seem  manifest  from  his  speech  before  you? 
What  was  the  staple  of  that  speech  ?  It  was  an  arraignment  of  me  for  ac- 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.         545 

ceptinsr  the  reconstruction  acts  and  standing  upon  that  platform  and  defend 
ing  acquiescence  in  them  in  1808.  He  now  arraigns  me  bitterly  for  having 
done  so.  Does  it  not  raise  a  lair  inference,  therefore,  that  his  heart  is 
not  now  right  upon  these  measures,  and  in  his  inmost  bosom  tliat  he  is  not 
a  friend  to  them  and  does  not  fully  acquiesce?  What,  think  you,  would 
have  been  the  effect  of  the  speech  delivered  here  the  other  night,  if  he  had 
gone  to  Indiana  and  delivered  it  there  during  the  campaign?  What  will 
now  be  the  effect  of  it  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  Democratic  party  north  ?  The 
Republicans  will  seize  it  everywhere,  and  say  that  General  Lawton  admits 
that  Governor  Brown  has  ability,  that  he  is  mentally  qualified  to  represent 
Georgia  in  the  Senate,  but  he  denounces  him  as  untrustworthy  because  he 
supported  the  reconstruction  measures  in  18(58,  and  acted  with  the  recon 
struction  party  then.  And  if  you  elect  him  upon  that  speech,  to  the  Senate, 
will  it  not  be  an  acknowledgment  of  what  has  been  so  often  charged  by 
the  Republicans,  that  the  acceptance  of  the  reconstruction  measures  by  the 
Democracy  of  the  South  is  insincere  and  is  all  a  sham  and  a  cheat  ? 

"  After  the  4th  of  March  next  the  President  will  be  Republican,  the  House 
of  Representatives  will  be  controlled  by  the  Republicans,  and  the  Senate  will 
most,  probably  be  a  tie,  when  you  count  on  the  uncertainty  of  one  or  two  mem 
bers  who  have  heretofore  been  Democrats,  but  were  not  elected  as  Democrats. 
Suppose  you  elect  General  Lawton  to  the  Senate,  and  he  enters  the  body  un 
der  these  circumstances,  how  much  influence  will  he  have,  either  with  the 
Republicans  of  the  Senate  or  with  the  Northern  Democrats?  Will  not  the 
latter  say :  *  You  are  untrue  to  the  very  principles  upon  which  we  stand 
here.  You  are  a  recruit  to  the  brigade  of  Southern  brigadiers  here,  and 
the  worst  fire-eater  among  them.  You  denounce  and  would  ostracise  those 
who  twelve  years  ago  consented  to  stand  where  we  now  stand.'  What  could 
my  opponent  do  for  Georgia  under  these  circumstances?  I  leave  wise  legis 
lators  who  have  to  make  the  selection  to  judge. 

"But  I  have  already  occupied  too  much  time  in  reply  to  the  assaults  made 
upon  me  by  my  opponent  on  account  of  reconstruction.  1  think  it  time  that  is 
sue  were  buried.  I  think  it  is  time  that  all  Georgians  should  imitate  the  exam 
ple  of  Senator  Hill,  and  lay  those  things  behind  them ;  bury  them  deep  in 
the  grave,  and  look  forward ;  and  harmonize  and  fraternize  for  the  future  ad 
vancement  of  the  State.  Let  the  old  Whig  and  Democratic  issues,  the  seces 
sion  and  Union  issues,  and  the  reconstruction  issues  and  all  the  past  bitter 
ness  and  difference  of  opinion  be  buried;  and  let  us  all  unite  and  move 
forward  harmoniously  in  the  new  era  as  citizens  of  the  new  South  for  the 
promotion  of  the  good  of  the  whole  country. 

"  My  opponent  lays  down  the  rule  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  to 
select  a  man  for  the  Senate  who  represents  the  sentiment  of  Georgia,  and 
that  seems  to  be  his  platform — the  sentiment  of  Georgia!  What  is  senti 
ment?  The  dictionary  defines  it  to  be:  First,  sentimentality,  feeling,  emo 
tion  ;  second,  thought,  notion,  opinion,  judgment.  Suppose  we  take  the  lat- 
35 


546         GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  JSSO. 

ter  part  of  the  definition,  and  my  opponent's  meaning  is  that  you  should  se 
lect  a  man  who  represents  the  opinions  of  Georgia.  I  accept  the  issue.  I 
confess  I  may  not  be  a  proper  representative  of  a  certain  sentimentality  that 
there  is  in  this  State.  There  is  a  class  of  people  in  this  State  whose  lathers 
a  generation  or  two  back  possessed  either  wealth  or  distinction.  They  or 
their  descendants  were  large  slave  holders,  and  they  were  usually  classed  as 
the  aristocracy  of  the  South.  They  are  sometimes  termed  by  the  common 
people,  '  the  kid-glove  aristocracy.'  Either  fortunately  or  unfortunately  for 
me  I  never  belonged  to  that  class.  I  was  born  of  humbler  parentage.  I  had 
to  work  my  own  way  in  the  world.  I  had  to  rise,  if  I  rose  at  all,  by  my  own 
exertions.  1  was  brought  up  among  the  working  class;  rose  from  the  mass 
of  the  people.  They  took  me  by  the  hand  and  sustained  me,  because  they 
believed  I  was  true  to  them  and  was  one  of  them.  And  they  have  never  for 
saken  me  in  any  instance  where  the  popular  voice  could  be  heard.  The  aris 
tocracy  that  I  refer  to  above,  and  I  do  it  with  great  deference,  for  I  have 
great  respect  for  them,  never  believed  that  anyone  not  born  of  wealthy  par 
entage  should  participate  in  the  affairs  of  government;  that  belongs,  accord 
ing  to  their  idea,  to  the  privileged  class.  And  when  I  rose  up  to  some  posi 
tion,  and  the  people  determined  to  put  me  higher,  and  to  place  the  helm  of 
state  in  my  hands,  some  of  these  would-be  rulers  doubtless  regarded  me  as 
an  illegitimate  in  the  political  family  of  the  State;  they  probably  have  few 
sentiments  in  common  with  me.  They  have  led  lives  of  leisure  and  elegance, 
indulging  in  festivities,  discussing  fine  wines,  wearing  fine  apparel,  and  keep 
ing  company  with  their  own  class.  I  have  had  to  deal  with  the  realities  of 
life.  I  have  had  to  labor  all  my  life — first  to  obtain  position,  and  then  to  do 
my  duty  in  position.  I  have  not  had  time,  therefore,  to  cultivate  the  sort  of 
sensibility  or  sentiment  entertained  by  this  class,  and  I  confess  very  candidly 
that  I  am  not  a  proper  representative  of  that  sentiment.  If  the  people  of 
Georgia  think  that  a  man  should  be  sent  to  the  Senate  to  represent  that  sen 
timent  of  the  old  ruling  class,  as  they  assume  to  be,  and  not  the  sentiment 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  State,  then  I  admit  that  my  honorable 
opponent  is  a  fit  representative. 

'*  JSut  let  us  return  to  the  definition.  One  of  the  meanings  of  the  word  is, 
opinion,  judgment.  Do  I  represent  the  opinion  of  the  people  of  Georgia?  I 
think  that  question  has  lately  been  decided  and  a  verdict  rendered  in  an  un 
questionable  form.  Governor  Colquitt  appointed  me  to  fill  the  vacancy  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He  was  arraigned  for  that  act  by  my  oppo 
nent  and  those  who  acted  writh  him  all  over  Georgia.  I  will  not  go  into  the 
facts  in  reference  to  the  nomination  or  the  campaign,  further  than  to  say 
that  when  my  opponent  concluded  to  run  for  the  Senate  he  took  the  field  in 
opposition  to  Governor  Colquitt,  and  the  great  leading  issue  that  he  made 
against  him  was  that  he  had  appointed  me  to  the  Senate.  While  he  admitted 
mv  ability,  he  was  reported  to  have  assailed  me  bitterly,  though  he  has  tince 
said  that  the  reports  did  him  injustice  ;  and  he  epeiit  a  great  deal  of  every 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.         547 

speech  made  by  him  in  an  attempt  to  convince  the  people  that  the  act  was  a 
great  mistake.  In  a  word,  he  made  that  the  prominent  issue  ;  and  in  every 
county.  I  believe,  except  Chatham,  where  he  delivered  a  speech  and  took  that 
position,  arraigning  Governor  Colquitt's  administration  and  arraigning  me, 
the  people  responded  by  giving  an  overwhelming  majority  to  Colquitt.  I 
claim  that  I  have  a  right  to  participate  in  that  verdict.  Not  only  did  my 
opponent  make  the  issue,  but  General  Toombs,  the  ablest  intellect  among 
those  who  oppose  me,  al^o  made  it  distinctly  in  his  speeches.  He  denied 
that  there  was  anything  in  the  other  charges  made  by  the  Norwood  party 
against  Governor  Colquitt,  but  placed  the  opposition  to  Colquitt  distinctly 
and  alone  upon  the  ground  that  he  appointed  me  senator.  Then  the  ablest 
man  of  the  opposition  in  Georgia,  and  my  opponent  himself,  both  made  the 
issue,  distinct,  clear  and  unequivocal,  as  to  whether  I  was  the  proper  man  to 
go  to  the  Senate.  And  with  the  attack  made  upon  Governor  Colquitt  for  my 
appointment  and  the  issue  fairly  rendered,  the  people  responded  in  our  be 
half,  by  a  majority  of  nearly  fifty-five  thousand.  General  Lawton  made  the 
point  on  me  that  I  was  not  the  proper  man  to  go  to  the  Senate ;  he  arraigned 
the  governor  for  appointing  me  a  member  of  the  Senate.  The  people  replied 
and  expressed  their  sentiment.  In  other  words  they  gave  their  opinion,  their 
judgment;  and  they  said  by  this  enormous  majority,  that  the  general  was 
mistaken  ;  that  I  and  not  he  represented  the  popular  sentiment  of  Georgia. 
The  voters  of  General  Toombs's  own  county  decided  in  favor  of  Governor  Col 
quitt  and  myself  by  over  700  majority. 

"  But  they  may  say  that  the  people  did  not  take  up  the  issue  tendered  by 
General  Lawton  and  General  Toombs,  and  that  Governor  Colquitt's  majority 
is  no  just  index  as  to  what  my  majority  would  have  been.  I  do  not  think 
any  candid  man,  however,  who  hears  me  will  contend  for  this  position.  But 
suppose  my  opponent  plants  himself  upon  it,  then  let  us  make  a  little  com 
parison  of  the  relative  votes  given  to  me  and  Governor  Colquitt  in  a  few 
counties  where  the  issue  was  made.  In  the  county  of  Fulton,  which  was 
claimed  largely  for  Norwood  prior  to  the  election,  a  ticket  composed  of  the 
present  sitting  members  was  run,  favoring  my  election ;  in  other  words  a 
Brown  ticket.  Another  ticket  was  run  opposed  to  my  election,  part  of  its 
members  very  bitterly  opposed,  headed  by  an  able  lawyer  and  eloquent  legis 
lator  of  this  city.  The  issue  was  made  up  between  the  two  tickets.  Gover 
nor  Colquitt  carried  the  county  by  230  majority  I  believe,  and  the  lowest  man 
on  the  Brown  ticket  carried  it  by  more  than  a  thousand  majority  over  Col 
onel  Hoge,  the  highest  man  on  the  other  ticket.  Take  the  adjoining  county 
of  Cobb.  There  my  old  and  honored  friend,  General  Hansell,  and  Mr.  Orr, 
his  colleague,  ran  openly  as  the  Brown  ticket.  Their  opponents  were  known 
as  the  anti-Brown  ticket.  Governor  Colquitt  carried  the  county  by  a  little 
over  30  majority;  Hansell  and  Orr  carried  it  by  over  700  majority.  Take 
the  next  county  adjoining  to  that,  Bartow,  and  there  were,  as  I  understand 
it,  five  candidates  for  the  Legislature  ;  four  of  them  were  Brown  men.  One, 


548         GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

an  old  member  of  the  Legislature,  was  anti-Brown.  The  county  went  over 
600  majority  for  Norwood,  and  two  of  the  Brown  candidates  were  elected  to 
the  Legislature..  Take  the  county  of  Coweta.  It  was  agreed  there  that  the 
senatorial  contest  should  not  come  in.  to  disturb  the  election  of  members,  and 
they  would  run  but  one  ticket.  And  they  nominated  the  sitting  members, 
Wilkerson  and  Post,  with  the  understanding  that  the  voters  would  be  asked 
to  indorse  their  tickets  "Brown  "  or  "anti-Brown,"  and  if  a  majority  were 
in  favor  of  Brown,  the  representatives  were  to  vote  for  me ;  if  a  majority 
were  opposed,  they  were  to  vote  against  me.  What  was  the  result?  About 
1,400  votes  were  indorsed,  and  of  this  number  Brown  got  over  1,200,  or  more 
than  six  to  one.  I  could  mention  other  instances,  but  let  these  suffice. 
Doubtless  there  are  portions  of  the  State  where  Governor  Colquitt  was 
stronger  than  I  was.  But  I  do  not  think,  in  view  of  all  these  facts,  that  any 
one  will  say  that  I  was  indorsed  by  a  majority  of  less  than  fifty  thousand  in 
the  State.  , 

"  Defining  sentiment  to  mean  opinion,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  opinion 
of  the  people  of  Georgia  has  been  emphatically  expressed  in  my  favor  and 
against  my  opponent,  and  if  the  representatives  of  the  people  here  carry  out 
the  will  of  the  people,  I  shall  certainly  be  returned  to  the  Senate. 

"  I  accept  the  issue,  then,  that  you  elect  a  senator  who  is  in  accord  with  the 
sentiment  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  Georgia,  not  in  accord  with  the 
sentiment  of  that  small  class  who  feel  that  they  have  a  divine  right  to  rule 
and  who  never  expect  to  accept  in  good  faith  the  reconstruction  measures. 
The  people  of  Georgia  realize  the  fact  that  the  world  moves ;  that  we  have 
gone  through  a  great  revolution ;  that  there  has  been  a  great  change;  and 
they  have  moved  and  intend  to  move  with  it;  and  we  shall  have  to  move 
along  and  leave  that  small  class  of  excellent  people  who  have  such  tender 
sensibilities  to  their  misfortunes.  We  do  this  with  regret,  but  we  have  to 
bury  the  dead  issues  and  to  go  forward  with  the  living  future. 

"If  I  shall  be  elected  to  the  Senate,  1  shall  go  there  to  represent  no  sickly 
sentimentality,  I  shall  go  there  to  represent  the  interests,  the  prosperity  and 
the  honor  of  Georgia.  I  shall  go  there  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  bury  dead 
issues,  and  it  will  not  be  my  purpose  to  stand  there  as  a  fossil  of  the  past 
ages,  bewailing  our  losses  and  making  no  effort  to  retrieve  our  fortunes. 
But  I  shall  try  to  stand  there  as  a  living  man  of  the  present,  taking  advan 
tage  of  whatever  opportunities  may  offer,  to  build  up  the  waste  places  and 
restore  prosperity  and  happiness  to  our  people. 

"  If  you  honor  me  with  a  seat  in  the  Senate,  I  shall  do  all  T  can  to  advance 
the  great  agricultural  interests  of  this  State  and  of  the  whole  country.  Con 
gress  owes  it  to  that  class  upon  whom  rests  the  responsibility  of  producing  all 
that  makes  us  a  great  people  and  upon  which  every  other  profession  depends, 
to  lend  them  every  aid  in  its  power.  And  I  should  not  hesitate  to  vote  for 
any  appropriations  that  might  be  necessary  to  advance  the  improvement  of 
agriculture,  and  to  develop  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  country.  I 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.         549 

should  also  feel  it  my  duty  to  do  anything  in  my  power  to  encourage  the  de 
velopment  of  the  great  mineral  wealth  of  this  State  and  of  the  country.  You 
have,  imbedded  in  your  valleys,  hills  and  mountains,  inexhaustible  supplies 
of  iron  and  coal  and  other  minerals,  that  in  future  will  make  Georgia  one  of 
the  greatest  States  in  the  Union.  Instead  of  lying  still  and  doing  nothing,  I 
shall  be  ready  to  aid  in  any  way  I  can  in  putting  measures  on  foot  for  the 
development  of  these  great  interests.  It  is  also  our  duty  to  do  everything  we 
can,  con.-istently  with  the  rights  of  the  people,  to  build  up  the  manufactur 
ing  interest  of  the  country.  We  have  in  the  South  the  great  staple  upon 
which  the  exchanges  of  the  country  are  conducted,  and  that  moves  the  wheels 
of  commerce.  It  has  been  found  that  the  price  of  the  cotton  crop  can  be 
doubled  and  trebled  here  by  manufacturing.  We  have  in  future  no  negroes 
to  buy;  we  are  making  money;  we  shall  want  investments.  Let  us  do  all 
we  ciui,  then,  to  build  up  the  manufacturing  interests  in  Georgia,  and  thus 
greatly  augment  her  wealth  by  giving  employment  to  her  citizens  and  fur 
nishing  markets  for  their  productions,  and  sending  off  those  productions  in  a 
shape  to  be  worth  several  times  the  amount  that  they  are  in  the  raw  state 
when  first  produced. 

"I  met,  while  in  Washington,  a  number  of  very  intelligent  persons  who 
made  anxious  inquiries  in  reference  to  our  manufacturing  interests  here,  and 
as  to  the  profits  made  on  investments.  I  told  them  we  had  advantages  which 
they  did  not  possess  North.  They  asked  in  what  they  consisted.  I  said  your 
streams  are  frozen  up  in  New  England  part  of  every  winter  so  as  to  be  a  se 
rious  obstruction  to  the  business  of  manufacturing.  In  the  South,  there  is 
never  a  day  in  the  year  that  the  wheels  of  every  factory  cannot  run.  There 
are  no  obstructions  by  ice.  [Applause.] 

"  Another  point  I  made  was  that  on  account  of  the  very  cold  weather  during 
the  northern  winters,  the  cotton  did  not  spin  as  well  as  it  did  in  our  climate. 
They  said  :  'Why,  how  do  you  know?'  I  replied  that  when  I  was  a  boy, 
when  there  were  wet  days,  and  I  could  not  work  out  of  doors  on  the  farm, 
my  mother  taught  rne  to  spin ;  and  probably  no  girl  in  the  country  could  then 
beat  me  spinning;  [Great  laughter  and  applause.]  and  I  always  found  the 
threads  did  not  draw  as  well  of  a  cold,  bleak  day,  as  they  did  in  mild  weather. 
[Renewed  laughter  and  applause.]  They  admitted  that  they  had  to  keep  the 
rooms  at  a  temperature  in  winter  that  sometimes  impaired  the  health  of  their 
operati  ves. 

"  Again,  I  stated  that  we  had  the  advantage  in  cheap  labor,  and  that  the  raw 
material  is  produced  in  the  South  in  the  fields  around  the  factories  them 
selves.  They  have  to  pay  freight  on  their  cotton  from  the  South  to  New 
England,  and  then  spin  it  and  send  it  back  to  us  and  other  markets.  All 
this  we  save.  [Applause.]  We  have  comparatively  no  freight  to  pay ;  but 
send  off  the  productions  of  our  looms  many  times  as  valuable  as  the  raw  ma 
terial  at  a  great  deal  less  cost.  [Applause.]  When  I  told  them  of  the  prof 
its  made  by  our  Augusta  mills,  and  the  high  price  that  the  stock  bore,  some 


550         GOV.  BROWN'S  GKEAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

gentlemen  of  capital  said  they  desired  to  look  further  into  the  matter,  as  they 
thought  of  investing  in  that  line,  and  that  they  would  look  through  Georgia 
before  they  made  an  investment.  [Applause.] 

"They  inquired  whether  capital  invested  here  would  be  protected.  I  told 
them  that  a  citizen  from  any  part  of  the  Union  could  bring  his  money  here 
and  invest  witli  perfect  impunity,  if  they  would  act  the  part  of  peaceable, 
law-abiding  men  and  not  try  to  stir  up  strife  between  the  races.  [Renewed 
applause.]  I  think  there  is  good  reason  for  the  belief  that  within  a  few  years 
a  great  deal  of  northern  capital  will  be  brought  South  to  be  invested  in  man 
ufacturing.  [Applause.] 

"  As  an  aid  in  the  development  of  these  great  interests,  I  shall  do  all  I  can 
to  secure  our  part  of  the  appropriation  for  the  improvement  of  our  harbors 
and  the  cleaning  out  of  our  rivers  so  as  to  make  them  navigable ;  and  to 
make  those  that  cannot  be  navigated  with  large  boats  fit  for  rafting  pur 
poses.  You  have  in  the  lower  half  of  the  State  a  timber  interest  that  is 
worth  many  millions  of  dollars.  Small  appropriations  judiciously  expended 
would  clean  out  the  rivers  of  that  section  and  put  them  in  condition  that 
you  can  raft  down  them  all  the  year.  Then  by  running  railways  and  tram 
ways  out  into  the  timber  lands  these  millions  of  wealth  can  be  sent  to  the 
markets  of  the  world  and  the  gold  brought  back  in  return.  I  shall  do  all  I 
can  to  aid  in  that.  I  know  some  are  opposed  to  all  internal  improvements 
by  the  general  government,  but  it  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that  there  will 
be  from  seven  to  ten  millions  of  dollars  a  year  expended  for  this  purpose. 
And  as  we  pay  into  the  treasury  our  part  of  the  money  necessary  to  the  bur 
dens  of  government,  I  shall  feel  it  my  duty  to  do  all  I  can  in  the  distribu 
tion  to  get  our  share  of  it  in  return.  I  think  justice  and  wise  statesmanship 
require  this.  Not  only  so,  but  I  shall  do  everything  possible  to  aid  in  the 
development  of  our  harbors  all  along  the  coast,  taking  first  the  harbor  of  our 
beautiful  city  of  Savannah.  I  pointed  out  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  Senate 
the  advantages  of  that  harbor  and  shall  never  relax  my  efforts  for  its  im 
provement  for  I  think  great  interests  depend  upon  it.  The  other  harbors 
around  our  coast  and  the  inland  channels  should  have  the  earnest  attention 
of  the  representatives  from  Georgia  in  both  Houses  of  Congress.  I  think  I 
can  do  more  good  by  seeking  to  develop  these  great  interests  while  I  remain 
in  the  Senate,  if  I  am  senator,  than  I  would  by  sitting  there  and  preparing 
an  eloquent  speech,  with  rounded  periods,  and  delivering  it  once  in  six  months, 
upon  the  sentimentality  of  the  South  and  the  Bourbonism  of  the  past. 

"  There  is  another  great  question  that  the  statesman  of  the  South  has  no 
right  to  disregard.  I  refer  to  the  great  question  of  popular  education.  Dis 
guise  it  as  you  may,  the  New  England  States,  by  their  broad  and  liberal 
educational  system,  the  splendid  endowments  they  have  given  to  their  uni 
versities,  and  their  admirable  common  school  system,  have  educated  their 
people  up  to  a  point  which  has  given  them  great  advantage  in  the  contest 
for  power  and  place  in  this  government*  Travel,  if  you  please,  over  the 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          551 

broad  plains  of  the  mighty  West  and  you  will  find  in  most  instances  that 
the  lawyer,  the  physician,  the  doctor  of  divinity,  the  member  of  Congress, 
the  schoolmaster,  the  literary  man,  the  newspaper  man,  and  the  most  promi 
nent  citizens  in  their  cities  were  educated  in  New  England.  They  have 
imbibed  New  England  ideas  and  through  their  influence  New  England  has 
dictated  laws  to  the  continent.  If  we  would  elevate  the  people  of  the  South 
to  the  true  position  of  power  and  influence  to  which  they  are  entitled,  we 
must  educate  the  masses  of  our  people  and  develop  the  bright  intellect  in 
the  humbler  circles  of  life  that  is  now  left  uncultivated.  There  is  in  many 
a  cabin  in  the  mountains  or  in  the  wire-grass  of  Georgia,  a  bright-eyed, 
brilliant  little  boy  who  has  a  diamond  concealed  in  his  breast,  and  neither 
he  nor  his  parents  know  it.  Send  him  to  school  long  enough  to  rub  the 
rough  from  the  diamond  and  it  will  begin  to  sparkle.  Afford  him  advan 
tages  to  go  a  little  further  and  it  will  be  seen  to  be  still  more  brilliant,  and 
he  will  soon  reach  the  point  where  you  can  neither  keep  him  down  nor  limit 
his  thirst  for  more  knowledge. 

"Under  the  Prussian  system  the  talent  of  the  masses  is  carefully  watched  ; 
and  in  whatever  department  the  natural  bent  seems  to  run  the  brilliant  intel 
lect  is  cultivated  until  its  training  has  passed  the  stages  of  the  common 
schools  and  the  universities;  and  the  man  of  grand  intellect  whose  natural 
disposition  runs  in  any  particular  line  or  art  is  made  a  master  of  that  art. 
Thus  the  State  gets  the  benefit  of  all  the  great  intellect  of  the  country  devel 
oped  by  proper  training.  Let  us  imitate  the  example  of  New  England  and 
Prussia  and  our  people  will  soon  reach  a  point  where  it  will  be  impossible  to 
keep  them  in  the  background.  They  will  move  forward  to  the  front,  and  we 
shall  develop  the  great  resources  of  the  South  by  native  intellect,  aided  by 
culture  and  science. 

"  But  our  condition  is  peculiar.  During  the  period  of  slavery  reasons  of 
policy  forbid  the  education  of  the  colored  race.  They  are  now  not  only  set 
free,  but  they  are  made  citizens  with  all  the  legal  rights  of  citizens;  and 
being  citizens  it  is  our  duty  to  make  of  them  the  best  citizens  in  our  power. 
Much  to  their  credit  be  it  said,  they  have  shown  a  laudable  ambition  for  the 
education  of  their  children.  We  were  a  rich  people  when  we  went  into  the 
war,  but  we  had  to  maintain  our  own  armies  for  four  years  out  of  our  own 
substance,  for  which  we  cannot  now  show  a  dollar.  True,  we  got  the  bonds 
of  the  States  and  of  the  Confederacy  during  the  time  for  our  property.  But 
they  were  repudiated  at  the  end  of  the  war  and  are  now  nullities.  We  not 
only  had  to  submit  to  this  great  drain  upon  our  resources,  but  we  lost  billions 
of  dollars  of  gold  that  we  had  invested  in  slaves.  And  then  at  the  end  of 
the  war  we  had  to  return  to  our  place  in  the  Union  and  resume  our  propor 
tion  of  the  burdens  of  government,  and  we  have  to  pay  our  proportion  of  the 
war  tax  of  the  government.  The  slaves  were  set  free  by  the  Union  as  a 
matter  of  necessity.  They  are  now  ca^t  upon  us  as  free  men,  a  large  mass  of 
ignorance.  Is  it  just  or  generous  for  the  Union  to  expect  us  in  this  impover- 


552         GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

ished  condition  to  take  upon  ourselves  the  entire  burden  of  their  education? 
I  think  no  just  man,  North  or  South,  who  has  thoroughly  investigated  this 
question  can  so  contend.  What  then  shall  be  done  in  this  state  of  things? 
My  opinion  is  that  the  Government  of  the  Union  should  assume  the  burden 
of  aiding  in  the  education  of  the  people.  And  I  think  the  most  permanent 
fund  and  the  best  fund  that  could  be  appropriated  to  that  purpose  would  be 
the  incomes  from  the  sales  of  the  public  lands.  Let  them  be  kept  separate 
in  the  treasury  as  an  educational  fund  and  let  them  be  annually  distributed 
among  all  the  states  in  the  Union  in  proportion  to  the  illiteracy  that  exists 
in  each.  I  would  not  confine  the  money  to  the  education  of  the  colored  race, 
but  apply  it  alike  to  the  education  of  white  and  colored.  As  we  have  the 
four  millions  of  colored  people  among  us,  we  of  course  have  a  great  deal 
more  illiteracy  than  there  is  in  New  England  and  we  would  get  more  of  the, 
money.  But  1  believe  the  enlightened  people  of  New  England,  seeing  the 
condition  in  which  we  are  placed  by  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  results 
of  the  war,  would  generally  acquiesce  in  a  measure  giving  us  this  advantage 
until  we  have  reached  a  period  when  the  intelligence  of  the  different  sections 
is  placed  nearer  upon  an  equal  basis.  I  cannot  speak  authoritatively  upon 
this  question.  I  do  not  know  what  view  Congress  may  take  of  it;  but  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say,  if  I  should  have  the  honor  of  sitting  there,  that  it  will 
afford  me  great  pleasure  to  support  a  measure  looking  to  this  great  result. 

"  I  know  this,  however,  does  not  comport  with  the  old  idea  of  the  old 
regime  of  the  South.  The  slavery  system,  while  in  existence,  was  incompat 
ible  with  this  view.  But  we  must  remember  that  we  are  not  now  living 
under  that  system.  As  already  stated,  we  live  in  a  new  era,  and  the  new 
South  must  adopt  new  ideas,  must  wake  up  to  new  energy,  and  must  stand 
upon  the  broad  platform  of  equal  rights  and  equal  justice  to  all.  We  must 
conform  to  the  constitution  and  laws  as  they  now  exist ;  and  we  must  see 
that  every  citizen,  whatever  may  be  his  race,  color,  or  previous  condition, 
has  every  legal  right  to  which  he  is  entitled.  Legal  equality  must  be  strictly 
and  impartially  enforced;  social  equality  must  be  left  to  take  care  of  itself 
in  the  South  as  it  is  left  in  every  other  land.  I  am  for  a  free  ballot  and  a 
fair  count,  and  for  the  execution  of  the  13th,  14th,  and  15th  amendments  in 
honest  good  faith.  It  has  been  charged  that  I  have  probably  promised  some 
colored  men,  in  case  of  Garfield's  election,  to  try  to  secure  positions  for  them. 
I  do  not  know  what  influence  I  may  have  with  the  new  administration.  Jt 
would  be  iny  purpose  to  deal  justly  and  liberally  with  it.  While  I  sacrifice 
no  principle  of  democracy  I  shall  make  no  unnecessary  assault  upon  the 
administration.  I  prefer,  as  far  as  principle  will  admit,  to  act  in  harmony 
with  it;  and  if  I  find  Democrats  cannot  get  the  patronage  in  our  State,  as 
the  colored  race  constitutes  a  large  majority  of  the  Republican  party  of  the 
State,  I  believe  they  would  be  entitled  to  be  represented  in  the  distribution 
of  the  offices.  Some  of  them  are  now  qualified  to  fill  certain  positions,  and  if 
the  party  with  which  they  act  is  in  power,  they  would  seern  to  be  entitled  to 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          553 

something.  Senator  Hill,  in  1870.  said  tliat  he  would  prefer  an  honest  negro 
to  a  dishonest  white  man.  Doubtless  there  are  some  white  men  in  Georgia 
no  more  qualified  for  position  and  no  more  honest  than  some  of  the  better 
class  of  the  colored  race.  We  had  just  as  well  make  up  our  minds  to  meet 
the  issue  fairly.  The  reconstruction  measure  must  be  executed  in  good  faith, 
and  the  l«-gal  rights  of  every  citizen  must  be  respected  and  protected  without 
regard  to  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  I  do  not  wish, 
while  I  am  a  candidate,  to  mislead  the  representatives  of  the  people,  and  I 
therefore  state  my  position  on  this  question  distinctly  and  frankly  in  advance 
of  the  election  which  is  to  take  place  to-morrow.  I  understand  this  to  be 
exactly  the  doctrine  contained  in  the  Democratic  platform  and  in  the  letter 
of  acceptance  of  General  Hancock.  We  have  made  these  pledges  to  the 
country  and  should  carry  them  out  in  strict  good  faith. 

"  But  I  must  notice  the  sectional  argument  made  by  my  opponent.  He 
takes  the  position,  as  I  understand  it,  that  I  should  not  be  elected  to  the 
Senate  because  I  live  in  Atlanta,  and  that  he,  or  some  one  else  should  be 
elected  from  his  section,  because  he  lives  in  Savannah.  I  confess  I  do  not 
see  what  the  particular  place  of  a  man's  residence  has  to  do  with  his  capacity 
to  serve  his  constituents  or  the  constituency  of  his  State  in  the  Senate. 
When  I  took  my  seat  in  the  Senate  I  did  not  feel  that  I  was  there  as  the 
representative  of  Atlanta,  or  any  other  locality  in  Georgia,  but  as  the  repre 
sentative  of  the  whole  State.  The  first  act  I  did  there  was  to  move  to  restore 
the  ten  thousand  dollars  which  the  House  of  Representatives  had  incorpor 
ated  in  the  Harbor  and  River  Bill  for  the  harbor  of  Brunswick,  which  had 
been  stricken  out  by  the  committee  on  commerce  in  the  Senate.  After  a 
considerable  contest,  in  which  my  colleague  also  aided,  the  ten  thousand  dol 
lars  was  restored  to  the  Bill  and  Brunswick  gets  the  money.  In  other  words, 
I  had  been  there  but  a  short  time,  in  the  language  of  General  Toombs,  my 
distinguished  opponent,  before  I  scented  the  treasury ;  and  I  ran  my  hand  in 
up  to  the  elbow  and  pulled  out  ten  thousand  dollars  and  gave  it  to  the  Bruns 
wick  harbor.  I  accept  the  taunt  and  do  not  complain  of  the  position  in 
which  it  places  me.  True  to  the  same  instinct,  I  next  moved  to  amend  the 
River  and  Harbor  Bill  by  increasing  the  appropriation  for  the  Harbor  of 
Savannah  from  $65,000  to  $100,000.  I  wanted  to  put  my  arm  in  there  and 
pull  out  &3-VOO  for  Savannah.  But  the  committee  said  they  could  not  per 
mit  their  report  to  be  overruled  in  so  many  particulars,  and  they  seemed  to 
feel  that  it  was  especially  necessary,  as  the  session  was  drawing  to  a  close, 
that  tlie  bill  should  pass  as  nearly  as  possible  like  it  came  from  the  commit 
tee.  Many  of  you  have  seen  what  I  said  and  did  there  on  that  occasion.  I 
did  all  in  my  power  to  serve  Savannah  ;  and  1  think  I  have  sowed  the  seeds 
which  will  yet  produce  the  harvest  for  her. 

"The  next  act  I  did  was  to  introduce  a  bill  in  behalf  of  a  railroad  that  is 
building  from  Waycross  through  to  Jacksonville,  Florida,  which  crosses  the 
St.  Mary's  river  below  Traver's  Hill.  That  river  being  a  navigable  stream, 


554         GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

though  only  a  hundred  feet  wide,  it  was  necessary  to  get  the  consent  of  Con- 
gress  before  a  permanent  bridge  could  be  put  across  it,  unless  it  be  a  draw 
bridge  for  boats  to  go  through.  And  as  the  real  head  of  navigation  is  below 
the  point  and  the  boats  do  not  come  there,  and  the  river  is  used  only  for 
rafting  purposes,  to  put  a  pier  in  the  middle  of  it  so  as  to  put  in  a  draw 
bridge,  as  would  have  been  required  of  the  railroad  company,  would  have 
obstructed  it  so  that  the  timber  could  not  have  been  rafted  down  it.  My 
bill  was  to  authorize  the  company  to  build  a  permanent  bridge  there  without 
the  draw,  and  without  the  obstruction  in  the  way  of  the  timber  interest. 
And  I  got  it  passed  through  the  Senate.  And  the  honorable  representative 
from  the  first  will  no  doubt  get  it  passed  through  the  Hous-e  when  he  goes 
back  there  in  December.  I  was  not  very  sectional,  therefore,  in  the  start  I 
made  in  the  Senate.  My  first  act  was  in  favor  of  Brunswick,  my  second  in 
favor  of  Savannah,  and  my  third  in  favor  of  Charlton  county,  in  the  ex 
treme  southeastern  corner  of  the  State.  I  did  more  for  lower  Georgia  than 
I  did  for  upper  Georgia  while  I  was  there.  "Whether  General  Lawton  would 
have  doiie  more  for  that  section  had  he  been  there,  I  must  leave  for  you  to 
judge. 

"  But  I  must  contend,  if  you  will  p3rmit  me  to  treat  this  subject  with  a 
little  levity,  that  General  Lawton  has,  it  seems  to  me,  recognized  the  pro 
priety  of  the  senators  corning  from  the  same  locality.  My  friend  Hill  never 
could  get  into  Congress  until  he  moved  into  the  ninth  district,  the  upper 
portion  of  the  State.  He  was  then  elected  representative  and  from  that  to 
the  Senate.  And  it  may  yet  be  questionable  whether  his  residence  is  in 
Athens  or  Atlanta.  I  sprang  from  the  ninth  district.  In  other  words  I  am 
from  Gaddistown,  in  Union  county,  where  they  said  I  plowed  the  bull. 
[Tumultuous  laughter  and  applause.]  The  county  represented  here  by  my 
friend  Sena  or  Curtis,  near  the  line  of  the  district  represented  by  my  old 
friend  Senator  Duggar.  And  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  place  whence  I 
sprang.  My  young  friend  Speer  was  never  so  distinguished  till  he  went  to 
the  ninth  district.  It  is  a  good  place  to  look  for  congressmen  in.  There 
they  soon  elected  him  to  Congress  and  have  lately  returned  him  by 
over  4,000  majority.  [Great  applause.]  Finding  therefore  that  I 
sprang  from  the  ninth  district,  and  that  Mr.  Hill  went  into  the  ninth  district 
and  j-ot  into  the  Senate,  when  senatorial  aspirations  seized  my  friend,  Gen 
eral  Lawton,  he  at  once  established  a  summer  residence  at  Mount  Airy,  up 
in  the  ninth  district.  [Prolonged  laughter  and  applause.]  He  must  cot 
complain,  therefore,  that  two  of  us  already  in  position  come  from  the  ninth 
district,  when  he,  too,  goes  there  as  soon  as  he  determines  to  seek  position. 
[Laughter.]  I  do  not  think  the  geographical  objection  is  well  taken.  If  I 
should  be  elected,  gentlemen,  I  shall  guard  with  equal  care  and  vigilance 
the  interests  of  every  county  and  every  section  of  Georgia. 

"In  defending  myself  against  the  assaults  made  by  my  opponent,  I  have 
not  arraigned  him.  I  think  we  have  too  much  personal  bitterness  in  our 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          555 

campaigns.  It  seems  to  me  the  people  are  determined  to  put  a  quietus  up 
on  it.  Probably  there  was  never  u  campaign  in  Georgia  where  there  was 
so  much  vituperation  and  abuse,  as  there  was  against  Governor  Colquitt  in 
the  late  campaign,  and  the  people  rose  up  and  said  'stop  it.'  And  they 
spoke  in  thunder  tones  rounded  off  by  a  majority  of  fifty-five  thousand 
when  they  again  said,  *  It  shall  stop  1 '  I  do  not  believe,  gentlemen,  that 
you  approve  of  the  mode  adopted  by  my  opponent  to  seek  his  advancement 
by  assailing  my  political  record,  in  a  matter  of  twelve  years  ago  in  the  dead 
past,  where  it  turns  out  that  the  mountain  indeed  did  not  go  to  him,  but  he 
had  to  go  to  the  mountain.  I  might  go  back  ami  examine  the  official  record 
of  General  Lawton  in  the  most  responsible  place  he  ever  held.  He  made 
a  gallant  soldier  during  the  earlier  periods  of  the  war.  He  was  then  made 
quartermaster-general  of  the  Confederate  States.  He  represented  very  well 
the  sentiment  of  the  ruling  class  to  which  I  have  referred.  No  doubt  he 
acted  honestly  and  uprightly.  But  I  think  I  have  seldom  heard  as  much 
complaint  of  the  management  of  any  department  as  I  heard  during  that 
period  of  the  management  of  the  quartermaster  department.  If  my 
friend  was  not  at  fault  he  seems  to  have  been  singularly  unfortunate  in  the 
selection  of  his  agents.  But  I  do  not  propose  to  make  an  assault  there.  I 
simply  say  that  any  administration  of  mine  will  compare  favorably  with 
his  administration  of  the  quartermaster's  department  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America. 

"  He  has  arraigned  me  for  accepting  a  fee  to  prosecute  the  Columbus 
prisoners.  I  have  not  time  nor  have  you  patience  to  go  over  the  discussion 
on  that  question.  It  ha^  been  of  late  so  fully  discussed,  and  my  motives 
have  been  so  fully  defined  before  the  country  and  sustained  by  such  unques 
tionable  evidence,  that  I  do  deem  it  necessary  to  recur  further  to  it.  I  was 
the  best  friend  of  the  unfortunate  defendants  in  that  unfortunate  struggle. 
I  might  in  reply  inquire  where  my  opponent  has  stood  in  contests  of  this 
character  where  popular  rights  were  at  stake.  As  has  been  shown  within 
the  last  two  or  three  days  by  a  writer  in  The  Constitution — and  it  was 
not  at  my  suggestion — the  very  idea  of  taxing  the  railroads  of  Georgia 
originated  with  me  while  I  was  in  the  executive  office.  It  is  only  my  idea 
put  into  effect.  I  vetoed  charters  on  all  occasions  when  there  was  any 
attempt  to  limit  the  taxing  power  and  guarded  it  carefully,  and  called  at 
tention  to  the  fact  that  it  would  become  nece-sary  to  exercise  it.  When 
the  time  did  come  to  carry  out  my  policy  there,  and  legislation  was  had  on 
the  subject,  General  Lawton  accepted  a  fee  and  appeared  as  the  champion 
of  the  largest  corporation  in  Georgia  in  resisting  the  law  to  tax  that  grand 
corporation.  At  a  later  period  the  Legislature  thought  it  necessary  to  ap 
point  a  railroad  commission  to  intervene  between  the  people  and  the  railroads 
in  regulating  freight  and  transportation.  The  contest  arose  between  the 
people  of  southwest  Georgia  and  the  great  corporation  of  the  State  in  refer 
ence  to  that  question.  And  General  Lawton  accepted  a  fee  and  appeared 


556          GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

in  behalf  of  the  corporation  against  what  the  people  believed  to  be  their 
rights.  On  all  these  great  popular  questions,  therefore,  he  has  thrown  him 
self  in  the  breach  as  the  champion  of  corporations  against  what  is  claimed  to 
be  the  rights  of  the  people.  When  he  arraigns  me  for  accepting  a  fee  in  a 
case  that  I  would  have  had  a  right  to  appear  in,  if  it  had  even  been  with 
the  view  as  counsel  to  conduct  the  case  to  conviction  if  guilt  was  established, 
he  should  remember  where  he  has  appeared  against  the  popular  current, 
and  what  was  regarded  as  the  popular  interest,  and  as  representing  monop 
oly  against  popular  rights.  In  other  words,  those  who  live  in  glass  houses 
ought  not  to  throw  stones. 

"  It  is  charged  by  my  opponent,  that  in  a  speech  delivered  at  the  city  hall 
in  Atlanta  in  1868,  I  threatened  my  own  race  with  the  torch,  and  attempted 
to  incite  the  negroes  to  acts  of  bloodshed  and  devastation.  This  charge 
does  me  great  injustice.  And  just  here  it  is  proper  that  I  should  state 
the  surroundings  under  which  the  speech  was  delivered.  Public  notice  was 
given  that  I  should  address  the  people  on  that  occasion.  On  the  morning 
before  the  meeting  I  was  warned  at  different  times  and  by  different  friends 
not  to  go  upon  the  grounds,  as  it  was  said  there  was  a  band  leagued  together 
for  my  assassination  if  I  attempted  to  speak  to  the  crowd  on  that  day.  I  re 
plied  that  I  had  promised  to  speak,  and  it  was  so  advertised,  and  I  should 
be  there;  that  I  should  do  all  I  could  to  avoid  a  collision,  but  if  it  must 
come  I  should  take  the  consequences.  An  intimate  friend  and  relative  of 
mine  received  a  like  warning,  and  was  urged  not  to  permit  me  to  go  there. 
He  replied  that  he  knew  I  would  go.  Hearing  of  the  threats,  a  few  friends 
of  mine  accompanied  me  to  the  stand  and  remained  there,  armed  for  an 
emergency,  while  1  delivered  the  speech.  The  friend  who  received  that 
warning,  and  who  sat  with  his  hand  upon  his  pistol  while  I  delivered  the 
speech,  is  in  this  audience  to-night.  Others  who  were  present  in  like 
capacity  are  still  in  life.  It  is  well  known  that  at  that  time  there  were 
occasional  assassinations  growing  out  of  the  bitterness  engendered  by 
political  divisions.  Speaking  under  the  warning  that  my  life  was  in  danger 
every  moment,  and  knowing  that  the  effect  of  an  attack  would  be  a  general 
outbreak,  I  warned  both  races  against  intolerance  or  an  attempt  to  in 
terfere  with  the  relative  rights  of  each  other.  I  warned  the  white  race  that 
they  could  not  get  rid  of  negro  suffrage  by  an  appeal  to  violence ;  that  four 
millions  of  people  enfranchised  by  revolution  could  not  be  disfranchised 
without  bloodshed.  I  warned  them  as  friends  to  be  cautious  on  both  sides 
and  not  to  put  their  lives  in  jeopardy  and  their  homes  and  families  in  peril 
And  I  especially  warned  my  own  race  of  the  extreme  danger  to  them,  in 
case  of  a  collision,  and  referred  to  the  fact  that  the  colored  people  had  but 
little  except  their  lives  to  hazard,  but  that  the  white  people  had  their  lives 
and  their  property,  and  their  houses.  And  I  cautioned  them  to  be  care 
ful  how  they  excited  discord  and  bloodshed.  The  warning  was  given  alike 
to  both  races  under  circumstances  of  extreme  peril.  The  advice  was  good 


GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.          557 

that  both  sides  keep  the  peace.  Each  felt  that  life  was  in  danger  if  a  blow 
was  stricken.  And  as  the  threat  of  assassination  came  from  my  race,  and 
they  had  most  to  lose  by  striking  it,  the  caution  probably  had  its  influence 
in  preventing  bloodshed,  which,  if  begun,  might  have  ended  in  fearful  de 
struction  of  life  aivd  property. 

*'  These  are  the  circumstances  under  which  the  speech  was  made  and  the 
substantial  facts.  1  am  not  responsible  for  the  newspaper  reports  at  the 
time  any  more  than  my  opponent  was  responsible  for  the  recent  inaccurate 
reports  of  his  speeches  made  by  the  papers  who  favored  his  election;  and 
he  has  disclaimed  the  correctness  of  the  reports  made  by  papers  friendly  to 
him.  You  have  the  substantial  facts,  however,  before  you.  I  feel  that  the 
warning  was  timely;  that  the  circumstances  required  it,  and  that  good 
results  followed  it;  and  I  am  not  afraid  of  an  adverse  verdict  of  an  enlight 
ened  public  when  the  facts  are  known. 

"  What  interest  had  I  in  inciting  insurrection  and  bloodshed  and  the 
application  of  the  torch  to  houses  and  other  property?  Had  I  not  as  much 
at  stake  as  almost  any  other  citizen  in  Atlanta  ?  If  the  blow  had  been 
str.cken  probably  my  life  would  have  been  taken  and  my  property  first  de 
stroyed.  You  will  all  give  me  credit  for  intelligence  enough  to  understand 
this ;  and  I  am  quite  sure  you  will  not  doubt  that  under  the  circumstances 
my  earnest  desire  was  so  to  shape  my  course  and  my  advice  to  both  races 
as  to  secure  peace  and  harmony  and  not  to  incite  bloodshed  and  the  use  of 
the  torch.  My  enemies,  a  little  hard  run  in  their  search  for  something  in 
the  past  out  of  which  to  make  capital,  have  brought  this  matter  to  the 
attention  of  the  public.  I  meet  it  with  a  fair,  honest  statement  of  facts, 
and  am  ready  to  abide  the  verdict  of  an  enlightened  public.  Would  any 
of  you  under  similar  trying  circumstances  have  done  less  than  caution 
both  races  to  keep  the  peace,  under  the  fear  of  penalties  to  each  resulting  from 
an  outbreak?  I  am  satisfied  you  would  not,  and  I  here  dismiss  this  charge. 

"General  Toombs,  in  his  speech,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  Seymour 
platform  declared  the  reconstruction  acts  to  be  unconstitutional,  null  and  void, 
and  that  this  is  true  yet;  and  that  he  does  not  believe  five  hundred  honest 
men  voted  for  them.  Over  thirty  thousand  white  men  in  Georgia  voted  to 
accept  them,  whose  honesty  of  purpose  would  not  suffer  in  comparison 
with  that  of  General  Toombs.  Note  the  remark  :  he  declares  that  it  is  true 
yet  that  the  reconstruction  acts  are  unconstitutional,  null  and  void.  Every  one 
of  you  has  sworn  to  support  them.  Did  you  understand  you  were  swearing 
to  support  a  nullity,  an  unconstitutional  or  void  act?  The  trouble  with 
the  general  is  that  he  fails  to  learn  wisdom  by  experience.  He  has  always 
had  a  turn  for  pulling  down,  and  was  never  successful  in  building  up 
anything.  He  is  a  good  phrase-maker ;  and  he  has  much  to  say  about  the 
protection  of  the  public  treasury.  He  has  managed  to  get  into  a  number 
of  lawsuits  as  counsel  for  the  State  in  railroad  and  other  cases,  where  he 
scented  the  treasury,  and  ran  his  arm  deep  into  it  and  drew  out  large 


558          GOV.  BROWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880. 

amounts,  or  rather  he  retained  large  amounts  collected  as  fees,  which  he 
did  not  pay  into  the  treasury.  Under  the  high  sounding  phrase  of  'serving 
the  Commonwealth,'  his  'old  mother,'  [Laughter]  he  has  lined  his  pockets 
with  lucrative  fees.  I  believe  we  have  never  learned  how  much  he  has  re 
tained  as  fees  from  the  amounts  collected,  and  how  much  he  has  drawn 
directly  from  the  treasury.  It  is  said  the  amount  of  his  fees  and  commis 
sions  ranges  somewhere  between  twenty-five  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  If 
I  am  misinformed  he  can  easily  correct  it,  by  giving  the  public  a  full  state 
ment  of  all  the  fees,  commissions  or  money,  which  he  has  received  or  retained  on 
account  of  services  rendered  in  cases  where  he  professes  he  represented  the 
State.  I  make  no  charge  against  General  Toombs  [Laughter  and  applause], 
but  he  has  so  much  to  say  about  the  dishonesty  of  better  people,  that  the 
citizens  of  Georgia  would  no  doubt  be  glad  to  have  a  statement  of  the 
amount  he  has  retained  in  these  cases. 

"  But  I  would  ask,  which  do  you  prefer?  I  put  my  hand  into  the  treas 
ury  and  draw  out  ten  thousand  dollars  for  Brunswick,  for  our  own  people, 
while  General  Toombs,  the  volunteer  for  the  Commonwealth  in  civil  cases, 
is  said  to  have  put  his  hand  into  the  treasury  of  our  people  and  drawn  out 
much  more  than  that  amount  for  his  own  pocket. 

"  lie  turns  a  few  paragraphs  upon  the  Bullock  administration.  Gov 
ernor  Bullock  was  brought  back  to  the  State,  after  he  had  taken  up  his 
re.-idence  in  New  York ;  and  he  was  placed  upon  trial  before  the  court,  and 
he  was  acquitted  by  a  jury  of  his  country  of  every  charge  they  brought 
against  him  in  court.  Why  did  not  this  faithful  guardian  of  the  rights 
of  the  people  appear  and  make  good  his  charges  that  Bullock  had  stolen 
money  from  the  State?  Why  did  he  not  prosecute  to  conviction  Foster 
Blodgett  and  those  that  he  terms  thieves  under  his  administration?  Several 
of  them  were  put  upon  trial  but  we  hear  little  of  the  verdicts  of  conviction. 
Was  it  because  there  were  no  large  per  cents,  to  be  retained  as  fees,  as  in 
the  case  of  collections  in  railroad  cases,  that  the  eloquence  of  the  great 
volunteer  for  the  Commonwealth  was  not  heard  in  the  prosecution?  Why 
did  he  permit  these  criminals  to  go  unwhipped  of  justice  in  the  courts,  if 
they  were  as  guilty  as  he  says  they  were? 

"  The  course  taken  by  General  Toombs  since  the  war  is  very  well  illus 
trated  by  the  story  of  the  old  gentleman  in  one  of  the  counties  between  here 
and  the  Savannah  river.  He  and  his  old  lady  started  in  the  buggy  to  visit 
some  friends  and  on  the  way  had  to  cross  the  river.  In  going  down  into 
the  flat  one  of  the  straps  broke  and  the  buggy  ran  upon  the  heels  of  the 
horse,  and  he  kicked  himself  loose  and  ran  back  home.  The  good  old  lady, 
who  believed  in  the  policy  of  reconstructing,  gathered  up  the  fragments  of 
the  harness  and  started  tor  home.  The  old  man  refused  to  go,  but  sat  down 
on  the  river  bank  and  commenced  cursing.  The  old  lady,  however,  carried 
the  pieces  home,  got  an  awl  and  an  *  end '  as  they  call  it,  and  began  repair 
ing  the  harness.  And  finding  the  horse  at  home  she  told  the  servant  to 


GOV.  BKOWN'S  GREAT  SPEECH  OF  1880.         559 

take  him  and  go  down  to  the  river  and  meet  the  old  man  and  bring  him 
home.  After  an  absence  of  an  hour  or  so  the  servant  returned,  and  she 
asked,  'Where  is  the  old  man?'  And  he  said,  'lie  wouldn't  come.'  Then  she 
said,  '  What  is  he  doing?'  The  servant  said,  'He  is  still  sittin'  down  on 
the  river  bank,  cussinV  [Tumultuous  laughter  and  applause.] 

"  So  in  this  case  we  have  had  a  war  brought  on  more  by  the  agency  of  Gen 
eral  Toombs  than  of  any  other  man  in  the  South.  It  turned  out  differently 
from  what  he  and  others  of  us  expected.  We  have  been  unfortunate.  We  have 
broken  the  harness,  the  horse  has  kicked  out,  and  the  question  has  arisen 
what  is  to  be  done?  The  mass  of  our  people  have  concluded  it  w;is  better 
to  gather  up  the  fragments,  reconstruct  tl>e  harness  and  the  vehicle,  and 
prepare  to  move  forward  again,  and  do  all  we  can  to  restore  our  lost  pros 
perity.  We  have  appealed  to  General  Toombs,  who  led  us  into  the  destruction, 
to  aid  us  in  the  reconstruction,  but  the  old  man  refused  to  do  anything  to 
aid  in  restoring  prosperity,  and  sat  down  on  the  river  bank  and  commenced 
cursing. 

"  We  were  obliged  to  move  forward,  but,  like  the  good  old  lady,  we  sent 
the  horse  back  for  him,  and  he  still  refuses  to  come  ;  and  the  report  ia 
that  he  is  still  sitting  on  the  river  bank  a  cus>in'.  And  as  the  country  must 
move  forward,  we  are  obliged  to  leave  him  there  and  let  him  cuss.  [Pro 
longed  laughter  and  applause.] 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  for  having  detained  you  so 
long.  I  could  scarcely  have  done  justice  to  the  subject  and  to  my  defence 
and  said  less.  I  feel  that  I  have  Leen  true  to  you,  true  to  my  State,  true  to 
the  whole  country.  I  told  you  the  truth  when  it  was  exceedingly  unpalat 
able.  I  did  not  shrink  from  the  responsibility,  and  I  have  passed  through 
a  hard  ordeal.  I  knew  my  vindication  was  only  a  question  of  time,  and  I 
have  never  doubted  that  truth  would  prevail.  And  I  thank  God  that 

'  Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again, 

The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers; 
But  error,  wounded,  writhes  in  pain, 
And  dies  among  Ms  worshippers!'  " 

During  the  delivery  of  the  speech  Governor  Brown 
was  frequently  and  enthusiastically  applauded.  At  the 
conclusion,  as  he  was  about  to  take  his  seat  a  telegram 
was  handed  him,  when  he  resumed  as  follows: — 

"I ask  the  indulgence  of  the  audience  for  one  moment,  while  I  read  a 
telegram.  It  it  from  a  gentleman  to  whom  I  had  communicated  my  in 
tended  course  and  my  motive  when  I  first  took  position  for  the  acceptance  of 
the  reconstruction  measuies.  He  is  a  bosom  friend,  a  man  of  the  highest 
character  ;  he  was  an  ornament  to  the  judiciary  of  Georgia,  while  upon  the 


560  HON.  EMORY  SPEEB. 

bench;  he  ably  represented  our  country  at  a  foreign  court,  and  on  the  plains 
of  Mexico,  and  on  the  ensanguined  fields  of  the  South  he  led  liis  troops 
with  tlie  gallantry  and  courage  of  a  Marshal  Ney;  he  i.s  one  of  the  purest 
and  noblest  meu  of  Georgia,  the  lion.  Henry  11.  Jackson,  of  Savannah." 
[Applause  ] 

The   speaker  then   handed    the  telegram   to  a  friend, 

who  read  as  follows: — 

SAVANNAH.  GA.,         > 
Nov.  15,  I860,  9:40  p.  M.  j 

"  Returning  home,  have  just  opened  your  letter  too  late  to  reply  by  mail.  Tn 
the  conversation  referred  to,  you  used  arguments  afterwards  addressed  to 
the  public.  In  addition,  you  said  that  unless  some  one  should  pursue  the 
course  you  contemplated,  you  thought  great  evil  would  result  to  our  people. 
You  felt  it  your  duty  to  pursue  that  course,  but  believed  you  would 
probably  be  sacrificed;  that  you  were  prepared  to  make  the  sacrifice,  look 
ing  alone  to  the  protection  of  your  race  against  the  peculiar  dangers  before 
it.  This  briefly  is  my  recollection  of  the  conversation.  You  can  publish 
if  you  desire.  "  HENRY  R.  JACKSON." 

The  telegram  was  greeted  with  renewed  applause,  when 
loud  calls  were  made  for  the  Hon.  Emory  Speer,  who 
spoke  as  follows: — 

"  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — I  cannot  do  myself  the  injustice  to  fail  to  thank 
you  for  the  compliment,  the  very  gratifying  compliment,  which  you  pay  me 
this  evening  by  this  invitation  to  speak  to  you.  It  would  ill  become  me, 
however,  to  attempt  to  supplement  the  logic,  the  force  and  the  natural 
eloquence  of  that  magnificent  vindication  which  has  just  fallen  from  the 
lips  of  this  distinguished  Georgian.  [Applause.]  It  was  not  spread-eagle 
oratory  ;  it  was  not  that  power  above  power,  of  heavenly  eloquence,  that 
with  the  strong  rein  of  commanding  words  doth  master  sway  and  move  the 
eminence  of  men's  affections ;  but  a  simple  narrative,  it  was,  my  fellow- 
citizens,  the  eloquence  of  truth.  [Applause.]  The  vindication  is  absolute; 
it  is  complete.  Were  I  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Georgia  I 
would  vote  for  that  man  for  senator  who,  when  a  poor  boy,  drove  a  pair  of 
young  steers  of  his  own  raising  [Cheers  and  applause]  from  Gaddistown  in 
the  ninth  district,  to  South  Carolina,  and  there  sold  them  for  the  money 
that  paid  for  the  board  and  schooling  of  the  first  year  of  his  fiee  life.  [Re 
newed  applause.]  I  would  vote  for  the  man  who  has  successively  become, 
by  his  unaided  exertions,  senator  in  the  General  Assembly  of  Georgia,  judge 
of  the  superior  court,  governor  of  this  grand  old  Commonwealth,  chief  jus 
tice  of  the  supreme  court  of  his  State,  president  of  the  most  powerful  rail- 


RE-ELECTION  OF  SENATOR  BROWN.  561 

road  corporation  South,  and  senator  from  Georgia.  [Applause.]  I  do  not 
believe  in  that  school  of  politics  which  teaches  the  doctrine  of  unpardonable 
sin.  For  my  part  I  am  proud  of  this  great  Georgian.  [Applause.]  I  have 
witnessed  his  efforts  in  the  senate  chamber  of  the  United  States.  I  heard 
there  the  first  utterances  that  fell  from  his  lips.  And  I  saw  that  such  men 
as  Elaine  and  Conkling  regarded  him  at  once  as  a  foeman  worthy  of  their 
steel.  [Applause.]  Let  us  not  live  in  the  past.  Let  us  not,  like  political 
ghouls,  drag  from  their  graves  the  dead  issues  of  the  past  and  make  them 
like  ghosts  that  will  not  down,  but  terrify  and  mislead;  let  us,  my  fellow  citi 
zens,  live  in  the  living  present,  and  in  the  hopeful  future.  And  let  us,  oblivious 
of  the  past  except  to  remember  its  lessons  of  heroism  and  to  avoid  its 
mistakes,  labor  to  develop  that  magnificent  heritage  with  which  a  divine 
providence  has  blessed  the  American  people.  [Renewed  applause.]  So 
living  and  so  acting  upon  the  plane  of  a  common  humanity,  a  common  brother 
hood,  a  common  destiny  and  a  common  country,  our  institutions  will  pros 
per,  our  government  will  flourish,  and  soon  the  day  will  hasten  on 

'  When  freedom's  flag,  here  first  unfurled, 
Shall  wave  above  earth's  prostrate  thrones, 
And  its  bright  stars  shall  light  the  world.'  " 

[Great  and  continued  applause.] 

The  vote  of  the  Legislature  for  United  States  senator 
stood  146  for  Governor  Brown  and  64  for  General  Law- 
ton,  being  a  majority  of  82,  or  12  over  a  two-thirds 
majority  in  an  aggregate  of  210  votes.  It  was  a  fairly 
won  victory  of  the  most  decisive  character.  It  was  so 
complete  a  triumph  as  to  destroy  the  possibility  of  depre 
ciation.  The  result  could  not  be  construed  as  the  test 
of  the  strength  of  General  Lawton  with  the  people,  for 
under  other  circumstances  he  would  have  received  a 
larger  vote.  But  the  result  was  the  measure  of  Gov 
ernor  Brown's  renewed  hold  upon  his  people,  and  no  man 
could  have  made  a  better  showing  against  him  than  the 
distinguished  citizen  and  soldier  whom  he  so  decisively 
defeated. 

Senator  Brown's  career  in  the  Senate  has  been  a  sur 
prise  and  marvel  of  industry  and  intellectual  activity. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  legislation  to  compare 

36 


562  ABLE  SPEECHES  IN  THE  SENATE. 

with  it.  Let  us  look  briefly  at  the  topics  upon  which  he 
has  made  elaborate  and  thoughtful  speeches,  full  of  in 
formation  and  statesmanship,  exhibiting  profound  knowl 
edge  and  broad  reflection,  and  involving  the  most  difficult 
subjects  of  national  and  international  legislation.  Among 
these  were  speeches  as  follows: — 1.  December  15,  18SO, 
On  the  Educational  Fund,  covering  13  closely  printed 
nonpareil  pages;  2.  January  24,  1881,  Land  in  Severalty 
to  Indians,  and  is  he  a  Citizen  under  the  14th  Amend 
ment?  13  pages;  3.  February  17,  1881,  The  Bill  to 
refund  the  National  Debt,  8  pages;  4.  March  28,  1881, 
That  Peculiar  Coincidence  of  Senator  Mahone,  15  pages; 
5.  April  14,  1881,  A  Free  Ballot  and  a  Fair  Count,  20 
pages;  6.  January  18,  1882,  On  the  Silver  Question,  20 
pages  ;  7.  February  16,  1882,  The  Mormon  Question,  15 
pages;  8.  March  6,  1882,  The  Chinese  Bill,  16  pages; 
9.  March  27,  1882,  A  Tariff  for  Revenue  with  Incidental 
Protection,  16  pages ;  10.  December  14,  1882,  Civil  Ser 
vice  Reform,  15  pages ;  11.  January  8,  1883,  The  Right 
of  the  Confederates  to  the  Proceeds  of  the  Sale  of  Cotton 
in  the  Treasury,  24  pages;  12.  January  23,  1883,  The 
Tariff  and  the  Internal  Revenue  System,  15  pages;  13. 
February  20, 1883,  The  Proper  Rule  for  Raising  Revenue, 
16  pages. 

These  speeches  are  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  this 
volume,  and  illustrate  the  versatile,  the  practical,  the 
prodigious  capacity  of  Senator  Brown,  and  they  consti 
tute  a  series  of  intellectual  demonstrations  unparalleled 
in  the  annals  of  Congress.  A  senator  who  in  one  terra 
of  six  years  accomplishes  two  leading  speeches  upon  large 
themes  of  national  interest  comes  up  to  the  full  measure 
of  a  reasonable  public  expectation.  The  preparation  for 
such  an  attempt  involves  heavy  labor  arid  extensive  re- 


HIGH  ESTIMATE  IN  THE  SENATE.  563 

search,  the  examination  of  authorities,  and  the  study  of 
statistics.  The  serious  part  of  the  speech  is,  then,  the 
adjustment  of  the  line  of  thought,  the  construction  of  the 
groundwork  with  suitable  material,  and  the  erection  of  a 
symmetrical  superstructure  of  deduction  that  will  pass 
the  unsparing  criticism  of  the  highest  representative 
statesmanship  of  fifty  millions  of  intelligent  people,  im 
bued  with  the  spirit  of  free  institutions. 

In  a  little  over  two  years  this  strong-brained  and  mar 
vellously  equipped  senator  from  Georgia  prepared  and 
delivered  a  dozen  leading  speeches  upon  the  largest  topics 
of  national  statesmanship,  all  admitted  by  his  critical  col 
leagues  in  the  august  body  to  be  masterly  expositions, 
attracting  general  attention  by  their  original  treatment, 
marked  by  breadth  of  conception,  builded  with  consum 
mate  logic,  and  looking  to  a  sagacious  practicality  of 
result.  The  high  estimate  put  upon  his  powers  by  the 
members  of  the  Senate  was  variously  expressed.  Men  of 
all  parties  united  in  strong  encomium  upon  his  abilities. 
Senator  McDonald  of  Indiana  used  these  words  about 
him  : — 

u  He  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  additions  made  to  the 
Democratic  force  in  the  Senate  for  years.  More  than 
that,  he  is  a  senator  whose  influence  will  be  felt  all  over 
the  country.  He  seemed  to  recognize  instantly  upon 
corning  into  the  Senate  that  it  was  not  a  debating  society, 
but  strictly  a  practical  business  body.  He  therefore 
became  at  once  a  sensible,  straightforward,  sagacious 
worker,  and  won  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  both  sides 
of  the  chamber.  He  can  be  a  power  for  good  in  the 
practical  questions  that  must  be  settled  now  that  senti 
mental  issues  have  died  out." 

Mr.  Hill,  his  colleague,  valued  his  powers  highly.  Their 


564  AMONG  THE  LEADING  SENATORS. 

political  careers  had  been  curiously  blended.  In  his  first 
race  for  governor,  Senator  Brown  had  defeated  Mr.  Hill 
after  a  heated  canvass  and  discussion.  Mr.  Hill  was  a 
warm  supporter  of  conscription  and  other  matters  of  pol 
icy  by  the  Davis  administration,  when  Governor  Brown 
opposed  such  policy.  In  the  reconstruction  days  they 
stood  against  each  other  in  their  famous  controversy  on 
the  "  Notes  on  the  Situation/'  though  Mr.  Hill  subse 
quently  came  to  Governor  Brown's  views.  They  were 
now  colleagues,  and  Senator  Hill,  in  his  admiration  for 
his  old  antagonist  whom  he  had  learned  to  know,  declared 
him  possessed  of  "  discretion,  sagacity,  and  inflexible 
patriotic  sentiments."  Senator  Conkling,  himself  a  man 
of  large  mental  stature,  affirmed  the  opinion  that  he 
"  looked  to  see  Senator  Brown  one  of  the  most  notable 
men  in  the  country."  Perhaps  the  most  felicitous  piece 
of  praise  of  the  new  Georgia  senator  was  by  Senator 
Lamar  of  Mississippi,  who  said,  "  The  ease,  dignity,  and 
power  with  which  he  established  himself  as  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Senate  was  simply  marvellous." 

His  speech  on  the  "  Peculiar  Coincidence  "  of  Senator 
Mahone,  a  Democrat,  supporting  a  Republican  organiza 
tion  of  the  Senate  and  the  nomination  of  his  friends,  Gor- 
ham  and  Riddleberger  by  the  Republican  caucus,  for  sec 
retary  and  sergeant  at  arms,  was  effectively  made.  The 
Democrats  would  not  go  into  an  election,  and  the  Repub 
licans  held  back  from  executive  session.  Senator  Brown 
exposed  the  significance  of  Senator  Mahone's  un-Demo- 
cratic  conduct,  and  was  the  instrument  of  holding  the 
Democrats  in  determined  opposition  to  the  fillibustering 
tactics  of  the  Republicans.  His  policy  was  followed  and 
resulted  in  a  Democratic  triumph,  the  first  in  a  long  pe 
riod,  and  which  counteracted  the  demoralization  that  had 


DISCUSSION  OF  THE  NATIONAL  FINANCES.      5C5 

been  gradually  seizing  the  Democracy.  This  speech  and 
the  line  of  policy  connected  with  it,  illustrate  the  bold, 
astute,  self-reliant  quality  of  leadership  that  has  given 
Governor  Brown  such  success  in  political  management. 

One  striking  peculiarity  of  Senator  Brown  is  the  full 
ness  with  which  he  works,  giving  an  exhaustive  treatment 
to  whatever  he  handles.  This  is  especially  true  of  these 
senatorial  speeches.  With  a  remarkable  perception  of 
fundamental  principle,  with  great  faculty  of  generaliza 
tion  accompanied  by  absolute  grasp  of  detail,  his  exposi 
tions  of  the  subjects  were  thorough  and  searching,  going 
to  their  very  vitals. 

His  speech  on  education  covered  the  subject  entirely. 
Always  an  advocate  of  the  most  liberal  educational  facili 
ties,  standing,  as  the  young  governor  of  thirty-seven  years 
of  age,  far  ahead  of  the  times,  his  early  convictions  ,had 
ripened  with  years,  and  he  presented  an  unanswerable  line 
of  thought  impregnably  fortified  with  historic  illustration. 
Upon  the  colossal  theme  of  national  finances  he  made  two 
strong  and  able  expositions,  one  on  refunding  the  national 
debt,  and  the  other  against  the  policy  of  contracting  the 
currency  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  silver  certificates  from 
circulation,  and  urging  that  the  proper  circulating  medium 
of  this  country  was  gold  and  silver  coin,  based  upon  the 
proper  ratio  of  equivalence  between  the  two  metals,  and 
issues  of  paper  predicated  upon  and  convertible  into  coin 
on  demand.  These  efforts  were  marked  by  breadth  of 
view  and  that  keen  discernment  of  the  practical  needs  of 
the  country  that  distinguish  this  senator  upon  all  public 
'  questions.  In  this  financial  connection  he  made  an  elabo 
rate  and  conclusive  argument  on  the  rights  of  the  citizens 
of  the  late  Confederate  States  to  the  ten  millions  of  dol 
lars  in  the  United  States  treasury,  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 


566  CITIZENSHIP  OF  THE  INDIANS. 

of  their  cotton  seized  by  the  agents  of  the  government, 
discussing  the  effect  of  the  President's  pardon  on  their 
rights. 

On  the  mighty  and  perplexing  subject  of  the  tariff,  that 
kaleidoscopic  puzzle  of  the  politicians,  he  was  the  author 
of  three  original  deliverances,  in  which,  with  characteris 
tic  boldness,  he  formulated  the  doctrine  upon  which  the 
Democratic  party  must  stand  in  its  conflicts,  a  position 
combining  with  singular  felicity  the  requirements  of  prin 
ciple  with  the  demands  of  progress.  This  happy  enuncia 
tion  was  "a  tariff  for  revenue  with  incidental  protection,'' 
and  was  ably  argued.  In  the  second  of  these  tariff 
speeches,  he  discussed  in  his  trenchant  and  unmincing 
method  the  wrongs  of  the  internal  revenue  system,  with 
its  arbitrary  espionage  and  oppressions.  The  third  of 
these  tariff  speeches  presented  forcibly  the  proper  rule  for 
raising  revenue  to  support  the  government,  taxing  luxu 
ries  higher  and  necessaries  lower. 

A  subject  of  great  magnitude  and  importance  and  in 
volving  constitutional  questions  of  delicacy  was  that  of 
citizenship,  and  upon  this  he  made  a  series  of  speeches, 
handling  it  in  its  various  aspects  with  consummate  mas 
tery  and  profound  insight  into  the  principles  involved. 
One  speech  was  addressed  to  the  citizenship  of  the  Indians 
in  connection  with  their  right  to  severalty  in  lands.  The 
second  was  upon  the  proper  way  of  dealing  with  the 
Mormons,  whose  religious  system  presents  the  anomalous 
moral  conundrum  of  our  civilization.  The  third  was  con 
sideration  of  that  vexatious  inundation  of  Chinese  labor, 
that  was  pouring  in  upon  the  Pacific  coast;  and  whose 
alleged  evils  were  complicated  with  international  treaties 
affecting  both  commerce  and  missionary  operations.  The 
fourth,  and  a  powerful  presentation  of  view  upon  the 


SENATORIAL  LABORS.  567 

overmastering  negro  question,  was  his  extraordinary 
speech  upon  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count,  in  which  he 
daringly  asserted  and  proved  that  the  colored  citizens  of 
the  South  have  greater  freedom  of  ballot  than  a  large 
class  of  white  citizens  in  New  England,  and  that  the  Re 
publican  party  had  done  justice  neither  to  them  nor  the 
white  Republicans  of  the  South. 

Another  engrossing  theme  upon  which  Senator  Brown 
made  one  of  his  sensible  and  comprehensive  speeches, 
that  seized  the  public  thought  and  impressed  the  country 
with  his  strong  individuality,  was  civil  service  reform, 
upon  which  there  was  a  vast  amount  of  cant  and  sophis 
try  in  vogue.  The  measure  before  Congress,  the  pet  of 
Mr.  Pendleton,  a  Democratic  aspirant  for  the  presidency, 
and  favored  by  the  Republicans  as  a  political  weapon, 
was  boldly  declared  by  Senator  Brown  to  be  not  de 
manded  by  public  sentiment,  and  in  its  existing  shape 
either  a  delusion  or  injustice  to  a  majority  of  the  peo 
ple.  And  the  operations  of  the  measure  since  are  veri 
fying  the  correctness  of  his  strictures,  sagaciously  uttered 
in  anticipation. 

These  many  speeches  in  so  short  a  time,  all  able  and 
exhaustive,  all  upon  great  topics  of  pressing  interest,  all 
covering  every  line  of  practical  argument,  directed  both 
to  the  underlying  principles  and  their  resultant  utility, 
afford  striking  examples  of  the  wonderful  mental  fecundity 
and  immense  industry  of  the  man.  They  established  the 
high  statesmanship  of  this  senator,  but  they  accomplished 
more,  they  placed  Georgia  among  the  foremost  in  the 
national  councils  for  dignity  and  influence.  Nor  was 
his  senatorial  labor  confined  to  his  great  speeches.  In 
committee  and  in  the  departments  he  worked  with  energy 
and  tact  for  the  interest  of  his  constituents  and  the  ad- 


568  PUBLIC  AND  PEIVATE  CHARITIES. 

vancement  of  his  State,  pressing  individual  claims  with 
persistence  and  industry,  and  securing  valuable  appropria 
tions  for  our  harbors  and  rivers.  His  voluminous  corre 
spondence  has  been  promptly  answered.  All  matters 
consigned  to  his  care  for  the  State  or  individual  citizens 
have  been  attended  to  with  despatch  and  effectively. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  exalted  responsibilities  of 
United  States  senator,  Governor  Brown,  as  in  all  other 
trusts,  private  and  public,  has  not  only  sustained  himself 
fully,  but  has  been  conspicuously  prominent  for  his  supe 
riority,  placing  himself  immediately  in  the  front  as  a 
leader.  In  the  very  ripeness  of  his  great  faculties,  with 
all  the  conservative  wisdom  that  his  Christian  maturity 
and  experienced  statesmanship  can  give,  Senator  Brown 
stands  to-day  in  the  highest  position  of  public  usefulness 
and  private  distinction  that  he  has  ever  occupied,  and 
holds  in  his  grasp  the  achievements  of  lofty  service  and 
honors  for  himself,  his  State,  and  his  country. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  his  remarkable  capacity  for 
business  which  has  enabled  him  to  amass  a  large  and 
growing  fortune.  But  with  the  accumulation  of  wealth 
there  has  been  an  accompanying  display  of  a  generous 
and  judicious  private  and  public  charity.  His  smaller 
givings  have  been  innumerable.  With  a  heart  full  of 
kindness  and  humility,  he  has  ever  been  touched  by  suf 
fering.  His  greater  charities  have  been  munificent  and 
varied,  and  bearing  a  vast  proportion  to  his  means.  The 
objects  of  his  liberality  are  to  be  seen  widely  scattered. 
The  Sixth  Baptist  church  of  Atlanta  was  the  recipient  of 
$800  from  him  to  aid  in  its  construction.  He  donated 
$500  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  He  gave 
another  $500  to  assist  in  the  purchase  of  an  organ  for  the 
Second  Baptist  church  of  Atlanta  ;  he  contributed  $1,000 


GIFT  TO  THE  STATE  UNIVERSITY.  569 

to  the  Georgia  Baptist  Orphans'  Home  ;  he  subscribed 
$  1 ,000  to  Mercer  University  ;  he  came  forward  with  a 
timely  gift  of  $3,000  with  which  to  repair  and  make 
additions  to  the  Second  Atlanta  Baptist  church ;  he  gave 
two  donations  of  $1,000  each  to  the  Richmond  college 
of  Virginia ;  he  has  furnished  as  high  as  $800  in  a  single 
year  to  the  payment  of  his  pastor's  salary ;  he  was  a  con 
tributor  to  the  erection  of  St.  Luke's  Episcopal  church  in 
Atlanta ;  he  presented  $2,1 00  for  the  erection  of  a  parson 
age  for  the  Second  Baptist  church ;  he  has  contributed 
liberally  to  the  Christian  church,  the  First  Methodist 
church,  the  St.  Phillips  church,  the  Unitarian  church,  and 
to  two  or  three  colored  churches  in  Atlanta.  He  has 
recently  donated  $3,500  to  the  rebuilding  of  the  Kim- 
ball  house ;  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary 
he  gave  the  magnificent  endowment  of  $53,000. 

His  latest  large  gift  was  marked  by  peculiarly  touch 
ing  features,  exemplifying  his  charitable  spirit  and  noble 
encouragement  of  education,  and  tenderly  illustrating  the 
warm  paternal  instincts  of  his  strong  nature.  The  death 
of  his  cherished  son,  Charles  McDonald  Brown,  in  the 
very  beginning  of  his  bright  and  promising  young  man 
hood,  from  that  fell  disease,  consumption,  after  an  illness 
of  two  years,  proved  a  deep  blow  to  his  heart  and  was 
the  occasion  of  one  of  the  most  beneficent  and  useful 
benefactions  of  his  public  spirit.  Desiring  to  perpetuate 
the  memory  of  this  sterling  young  man  in  an  enduring 
form  in  connection  with  a  high  public  purpose,  he  de 
termined  to  give  to  the  State  University  at  Athens 
$50,000  of  the  portion  of  his  estate  to  which  this  son 
would  have  been  entitled,  to  be  used  in  the  education  of 
the  poor  young  men  of  the  State.  The  designs  and 
details  of  this  magnificent  gift  are  fully  set  forth  in  the 


570          LETTER  TO  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES 

following  letter  of  the  generous  donor,  and  were  sug 
gested  by  Senator  Brown's  own  hard  experience  when  he 
was  a  poor  youth  struggling  to  educate  himself,  and  were 
intended  to  provide  a  fund  for  just  such  cases  as  his  own. 

"  ATHENS,  GA.,     ) 

July  15, 1882.  j" 

"  To  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Georgia  : 

"  Gentlemen : — I  have  had  the  honor  to  hold  the  position  of  trustee  and 
member  of  your  Board  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century.  During  all  this  time 
I  have  felt  great  interest  in  the  success  and  prosperity  of  the  university. 

"  It  has  long  been  my  wish  to  do  something  which  may  afford  substantial 
aid  to  it,  and  result  in  permanent  future  good  to  the  people  of  this  State  who 
have  so  long  sustained  and  honored  me.  I  am  now  in  better  condition  to 
carry  out  this  cherished  object  than  I  have  been  at  any  time  since  my  con 
nection  with  the  board. 

"Nearly  one  year  ago  my  son,  Charles  McDonald  Brown,  a  noble  Chris 
tian  youth,  of  fine  intellectual  and  business  capacity,  the  soul  of  honor  and 
integrity,  who  had  been  a  student  in  the  university,  was  taken  from  us  by 
death.  He  was  named  for  my  true  and  cherished  friend,  the  late  Governor 
Charles  J.  McDonald.  , 

"  He  was  possessed  of  some  estate,  the  bulk  of  which  he  left  to  me  and  his 
mother,  giving  small  sums  to  each  of -his  brothers  and  sisters  in  token  of  his 
love  and  affectionate  regard  for  them.  He  had  bright  prospects,  and  if  he 
had  lived  might  reasonably  have  been  expected  at  no  distant  day,  at  my 
death,  to  go  into  the  possession  of  a  considerable  addition  to  his  estate. 

aNow,  while  it  is  my  object  to  do  something  that  will  advance  the  inter 
est  of  the  university  and  aid  to  some  useful  extent  in  the  education  of  worthy 
young  men  of  the  State  who  are  not  able  to  educate  themselves ;  I  desire  at 
the  same  time  to  perpetuate  the  name  of  my  said  deceased  son  in  connection 
with  the  university,  and  also  that  of  my  old  friend,  Governor  McDonald, 
whose  name  he  bore.  As  a  means  of  doing  this,  I  propose,  with  the  consent 
of  your  honorable  body,  and  upon  the  terms  and  conditions  hereinafter  men 
tioned,  to  make  a  donation  to  the  University  of  fifty  thousand  dollars — 
money  that  might  have  been  possessed  by  my  son  if  he  had  lived — to  be 
known,  and  in  all  appropriate  publications  made  by  the  university,  desig 
nated  as «  The  Charles  McDonald  Brown  scholarship  fund.' 

"  This  donation  to  be  made  on  condition  that  the  State  of  Georgia  will 
receive  the  said  sum  (which  I  will  pay  in  cash  into  her  treasury)  to  be  used 
in  payment  of  the  public  debt,  or  in  such  other  manner  as  may  be  for  the 
best  interest 'of  the  State,  and  will  issue  her  bond  of  bonds  to  the  university, 
bearing  seven  per  cent,  interest,  the  interest  to  be  paid  semi-annually  to  the 
university,  the  bond  or  obligation  to  run  for  fifty  years. 


OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  GEORGIA.  571 

"  At  the  last  session,  the  General  Assembly  passed  an  act  to  make  perma-. 
nent  the  endowment  of  the  university,  which  provides  in  substance  that 
whenever  the  trustees  of  the  University  of  Georgia  shall,  through  their  duly 
authorized  agent  or  officer  present  at  the  State  treasury  for  redemption  any 
valid,  matured  bond  of  the  State  as  the  property  of  the  university  that  the 
Governor  shall  issue  to  the  trustees  in  lieu  of  said  matured  bond,  an  obliga 
tion  in  writing  in  the  nature  of  a  bond,  in  an  amount  equal  to  said  matured 
bond,  falling  due  fifty  years  after  date  of  such  issue,  the  same  to  bear  inter 
est  at  the  rate  of  seven  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  not  to  be  subject  to  be 
called  in  for  redemption  by  the  State  before  that  time,  not  to  be  negotiable 
by  the  trustees  but  payable  to  them  alone,  to  be  issued  under  the  great  seal 
of  the  State,  signed  by  the  governor  and  countersigned  by  the  secretary  of 
state,  etc. 

"  All  I  ask  is  that  the  State  treat  the  amount  which  I  propose  to  donate  to 
the  university,  just  as  she  would  treat  any  other  amount  of  money  which 
may  be  the  property  of  the  university  due  at  the  maturity  of  any  bond  or 
bonds  of  the  State  belonging  to  the  university. 

"  I  have  long  thought  it  the  duty  of  the  State  to  endow  the  university 
liberally,  and  believe  that  wise  statesmanship  and  sound  policy  dictated  such 
a  course.  While  the  representatives  of  the  people  have  not  done  what  it 
seems  to  me  would  be  wise,  in  this  particular,  they  have  shown  a  disposition 
to  make  permanent  the  endowment  which  the  university  possesses,  and  I 
think  it  would  be  only  a  reasonable  extension  of  this  law  to  make  it  apply 
to  all  funds  that  may  be  donated  to  the  university,  as  well  as  to  funds  be 
longing  to  the  university  on  maturing  bonds.  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  Leg 
islature  will  see  the  wisdom  and  propriety  of  doing  this,  and  I  therefore 
make  the  donation  conditional  upon  the  passage  of  an  act  to  carry  out  this 
object  in  accordance  with  the  rule  above  mentioned,  at  the  next  session  of 
the  General  Assembly  ;  and  upon  the  further  condition  that  the  fund  shall 
be  used  for  the  purposes,  and  in  the  manner  hereinafter  mentioned. 

"  There  are  hundreds,  and  I  believe  thousands  of  young  men  of  good  char 
acter  in  Georgia,  who  are  intellectual  and  ambitious  to  become  useful,  who 
desire  to  obtain  a  liberal  education ;  some  with  a  view  to  the  profession  of 
law,  others  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  some  for  the  gospel  ministry,  some 
engineers,  architects,  chemists,  teachers,  professors  in  colleges  and  other  use 
ful  and  honorable  pursuits,  some  of  whom  have  at  their  command  part  of  the 
means  necessary  to  board  and  clothe  them,  while  engaged  in  the  pursuits  of 
their  studies  in  connection  with  the  university.  Other  young  men  may  be 
very  bright  and  very  worthy,  who  have  none  of  the  means  necessary  for 
board  and  clothing  while  engaged  in  their  studies.  I  believe  there  are  many 
young  men  of  both  classes  mentioned,  who  would  consider  it  their  good  fort 
une  to  be  able  to  borrow  at  a  reasonable  rate  of  interest  a  sufficient  amount 
to  carry  them  through  college,  or  to  enable  them  to  graduate  in  the  particu 
lar  profession  or  pursuit  which  they  intend  to  follow,  and  who  would  be  will- 


572         LETTEE  TO  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES 

ing,  after  they  had  obtained  an  education  and  prepared  themselves  for  busi 
ness,  to  refund  the  money  as  soon  as  they  could  make  it  after  providing  for 
their  livelihood  in  an  economical  manner  until  they  are  able  to  pay  it. 

"  Such  a  young  man,  who  takes  a  proper  view  of  the  subject,  would  not  de 
sire  to  incur  more  indebtedness  than  necessity  required.  He  would  be  will 
ing  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  an  education  to  wear  plain  clothing  and  be  con 
tent  with  cheap  board,  if  reasonably  good  and  wholesome. 

"  I  know  from  experience  in  early  life  the  feelings  of  a  youth  desirous  of 
educating  himself  without  the  means  to  do  so ;  and  the  good  fortune  which  a 
loan  of  money  for  support  while  engaged  in  study  was  considered  as  con 
ferring  upon  the  recipient.  I  recollect  very  well,  too,  that  prudence  dictated 
an  economical  course  so  as  to  incur  no  more  indebtedness  than  was  actually 
necessary.  I  preferred  to  live  plainly  and  cheaply  and  study  hard  rather 
than  be  too  much  loaded  with  debt ;  but  I  considered  myself  very  fortunate 
when  I  was  able  to  borrow  the  amount  actually  necessary  for  the  prosecu 
tion  of  my  studies  even  to  a  limited  extent.  And  I  doubt  not  there  are  at 
this  time  large  numbers  of  young  men  in  similar  situations  who  are  prompted 
by  the  same  feelings. 

"  The  object  of  this  donation  is  to  establish  a  fund  in  the  hands  of  the  uni 
versity  the  interest  of  which  is  to  be  loaned  to  young  men  of  the  character  I 
mention.  ^  „ 

"  First :  To  aid  in  part,  such  young  men  as  may  have  some  means,  but  not 
sufficient  to  carry  them  through  the  course  selected  by  them. 

"  Secondly :  To  aid  others  who  have  no  means,  but  who  are  bright  and 
worthy  and  ambitious  to  succeed.  I  desire  that  the  university  do  this  by 
loaning  the  interest  which  may  accrue  from  the  principal  each  year,  to  young 
men  of  the  class  above  mentioned.  No  young  man  is  to  avail  himself  of  the 
benefit  of  this  fund  until  he  is  eighteen  years  of  age  ;  each  to  sign  a  pledge  of 
honor  when  he  enters  the  college  and  commences  to  receive  the  fund,  that  he 
will  refund  the  amount  he  receives  to  the  university  as  soon  after  he  com 
pletes  his  course  of  study  as  he  may  be  able  to  make  it,  living  economically 
in  the  meantime;  and  as  this  obligation  given  during  the  minority  of  the 
student  would  not  be  legally  binding,  let  him  also  pledge  himself  that  when 
twenty-one  years  of  age  he  will  give  to  the  university  his  obligation  legally 
binding  for  the  payment  of  said  sum  as  aforesaid  with  four  per  cent,  per  an 
num  interest  upon  the  same. 

"  As  each  will  incur  indebtedness  by  borrowing  the  means  necessary  to  edu 
cate  himself,  each  will  become  more  self-reliant,  which  will  be  better  for  him 
in  the  end,  if  he  is  manly  and  possesses  talent,  than  if  the  amount  had  been 
given  him. 

"  And  as  tuition  is  now  free  in  the  university,  I  direct  that  not  more  than 
two  hundred  dollars  per  annum  shall  be  loaned  to  any  student,  to  be  ad 
vanced  to  him  monthly  during  the  scholastic  year  ;  but  interest  to  commence 
to  run  on  the  amount  advanced  on  each  year  at  the  end  of  the  year.  Having 


OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  GEORGIA.  573 

no  tuition  to  pay,  a  young  man  with  close  economy  may  be  able  to  get  along 
upon  that  sum ;  and  many  who  have  part  of  the  means  necessary  will  not  de 
sire  so  much. 

"  I  earnestly  urge  upon  each  recipient  of  the  fund  the  importance  of  pay 
ing  back  the  money  as  promptly  as  possible ;  and  I  trust  each  will  consider 
it  a  sacred  obligation,  as  the  payment  increases  the  amount  to  be  loaned  to 
others,  who  will  be  anxious  to  receive  the  same  benefits  enjoyed  by  him 
self. 

"  If  there  should  be  a  larger  number  of  promising  young  men  apply  for  the 
benefits  of  the  loan  than  can  be  accommodated,  then  I  direct  that  the  trustees 
of  the  university  provide  for  a  selection  of  recipients  from  time  to  time,  in 
such  manner  as  in  their  judgment  may  be  most  fair  and  equitable.  My  wish 
is  that  they  may  be  selected  as  impartially  as  may  be  from  all  parts  of  the 
State,  so  that  each  section  may  be  represented.  If  there  are  many  applicants 
and  it  can  conveniently  be  done,  I  think  a  competitive  examination  might  be 
best ;  but  there  will,  no  doubt,  be  many  cases  where  this  cannot  be  had  with 
out  difficulty,  and  where  the  young  man  is  very  bright  and  worthy,  in  which 
case  the  appointment  can  very  safely  be  made  without  a  competitive  exam 
ination. 

"  I  wish  such  young  men  selected  as  are  bright,  and  of  good  moral  charac 
ter,  apt  to  learn,  in  reasonable  health,  and  ambitious  to  prepare  themselves 
for  usefulness.  I  do  not  wish  to  make  a  donation  to  students,  but  to  place  a 
fund  in  the  hands  of  the  university  which  it  will  loan  them  in  aid  of  their 
education,  to  be  paid  back  by  them  as  aforesaid. 

"  I  desire  the  amount  paid  in  by  each  student  in  return  for  the  money  he 
has  received  be  added  annually  as  it  is  paid  in  to  the  principal  sum  above 
mentioned,  and  only  the  interest  upon  it  to  be  loaned  in  future,  which  will 
from  time  to  time  enable  the  university  to  increase  the  number  of  young  men 
to  whom  it  can  make  loans.  This  will  ultimately  increase  the  amount  of  prin 
cipal,  which  in  course  of  time,  if  properly  managed,  will  grow  to  a  large 
sum. 

"  I  trust  the  Legislature  of  our  noble  and  beloved  State  will  make  provi 
sion  for  receiving  this  accumulation  into  the  treasury  from  time  to  time,  and 
issue  its  bonds  to  the  university  in  lieu  of  it,  as  the  fund  may  accumulate.  But 
if,  contrary  to  my  desire  and  expectation,  the  State,  after  having  given  its 
obligation  for  the  principal  sum  of  the  donation  above  mentioned,  shall  at 
any  time  refuse  to  issue  its  bonds  for  the  accumulated  fund,  or  shall,  at  the 
end  of  fifty  years,  refuse  to  issue  its  bond  or  obligation  for  the  principal  sum 
of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  shall  pay  the  same  over  to  the  university,  then 
the  board  of  trustees  may  in  each  or  either  of  said  cases  invest  such  funds  as 
may  accumulate,  in  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  or  of  other  States. 

"  The  general  provisions  above  mentioned  are  subject  to  the  following 
qualification : 

••  I  desire  that  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  interest  accruing  annually 


574          LETTER  TO  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES 

from  the  said  principal  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  as  above  mentioned,  be 
used  by  the  board  of  trustees  aforesaid  to  aid  young  men  to  pursue  their 
studies  in  the  North  Georgia  Agricultural  college  at  Dahlonega,  upon  the 
same  terms  as  prescribed  for  students  at  the  university  at  Athens,  except  that 
the  students  who  may  participate  in  the  benefit  of  this  fund  at  Dahlonega 
must  be  selected  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  the  board  of  trustees  of 
the  university  may  prescribe  (to  be  reasonable  and  just),  from  the  mountain 
counties  of  northeast  Georgia  and  the  counties  of  Oconee,  Pickens  and  An 
derson,  of  South  Carolina.  Pickens  district,  now  Oconee  and  Pickens  coun 
ties,  contains  my  birthplace.  My  life,  up  to  the  commencement  of  my  man 
hood,  was  spent  in  the  district  of  my  birthplace  in  South  Carolina,  and  in  the 
mountains  of  northeast  Georgia;  and  the  first  credit  I  received  for  money  in 
aid  of  my  education  was  in  the  county  of  Anderson,  South  Carolina,  in  which 
Calhoun  academy,  where  I  commenced  my  studies,  is  located. 

"The  mountain  section  above  mentioned  was  the  theatre  of  my  early 
struggle  with  poverty,  in  my  attempt  to  educate  myself;  and  I  wish  to  pay 
its  people  who  have  sympathized  with  and  supported  me  in  every  emergency, 
this  small  tribute  of  my  grateful  recollection.  As  the  amounts  loaned  stu 
dents  at  Dahlonega  are  returned,  I  wish  them  to  be  added  to  the  principal 
which  is  set  apart  out  of  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  donated  as  above, 
to  raise  the  said  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  annually  for  said  college  at 
Dahlonega,  so  that  it  may  accumulate  as  in  case  of  the  fund  set  apart  for 
students  of  the  university  at  Athens,  both  being  placed  upon  the  same  prin 
ciple  of  accumulation. 

<k  If  the  North  Georgia  Agricultural  college  should  at  anytime  be  discon 
tinued,  which  I  trust  may  never  occur,  and  any  other  school  or  college  of  like 
grade  should  take  its  place  at  Dahlonega  or  in  any  of  the  mountain  counties 
of  northeast  Georgia,  that  is  not  denominational  in  its  character,  the  bene 
fits  intended  for  the  North  Georgia  Agricultural  college  at  Dahlonega  are  to 
be  transferred  to  the  students  of  such  college  or  high  school  as  may  be  se 
lected  by  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  State  university,  to  take  its  place  in 
said  section  of  country. 

"If,  unfortunately,  there  should  be  at  any  time  in  the  future  no  such 
school  kept  in  said  section  of  northeast  Georgia,  for  as  much  as  five  years, 
then  the  fund  set  apart  for  that  purpose  shall  be  transferred  to  the  university 
at  Athens,  and  become  part  of  the  fund,  to  be  expended  in  aid  of  the  stu 
dents  there  in  the  manner  and  on  the  terms  already  mentioned. 

"If  there  should  be  any  year  when  there  are  not  enough  applicants  for  the 
fund,  of  good  moral  character  and  promise,  to  consume  the  amount  of  inter 
est  accruing  during  that  year,  the  accrued  interest  not  so  used  is  to  be  added 
to  the  principal  and  placed  at  interest  to  be  applied  to  the  purposes  already 
designated. 

"  In  case  of  the  fund  to  be  loaned  to  young  men  at  Dahlonega,  as  living  is 
cheaper  than  at  Athens,  I  direct  that  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 


OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  GEORGIA.  575 

dollars  annually  be  loaned  to  any  young  man,  while  engaged  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  studies,  to  be  paid  to  him  monthly,  the  interest  for  each  to  commence 
at  the  end  of  the  year.  The  amount  in  each  case  may  seem  small,  but  a  young 
man  without  means,  who  is  not  willing  to  live  economically  to  secure  an  edu 
cation;  or  who  is  willing  to  go  in  debt  to  obtain  larger  means  to  be  expended 
in  better  living  or  for  greater  display  at  college,  is  not,  in  my  opinion,  the 
person  most  likely  to  succeed,  or  most  worthy  to  be  trusted  with  funds  which 
he  is  expected  to  return. 

"  Any  young  man  who  pursues  his  studies  for  the  purpose  of  preparing 
himself  for  the  ministry  in  any  of  the  churches,  and  who,  after  the  comple 
tion  of  his  studies,  devotes  his  time  and  talent  under  authority  of  his  church 
to  the  work  of  the  ministry  as  his  profession  or  business,  shall  only  be  re 
quired  to  return  to  the  university  one  half  the  amount  received  by  him  with 
interest  as  aforesaid. 

"  Any  young  man  studying  to  prepare  himself  for  the  profession  of  medi 
cine,  may  pursue  his  studies  at  Augusta,  where  the  medical  department  of 
the  university  is  located. 

"  No  part  of  the  fund  herein  mentioned  shall  at  any  time  be  paid  as  fees, 
commissions,  salary  or  otherwise  to  the  trustees  or  any  officer  or  agent  of  the 
trustees. 

"As  the  fund  is  donated  to  aid  poor  but  worthy  young  men  to  secure  a 
liberal  education,  I  have  full  confidence  that  the  trustees  and  officers  of  the 
university,  with  whom  I  have  acted  so  long,  and  their  successors  will,  as  here 
tofore  in  all  cases  connected  with  their  trust,  administer  this  as  part  of  the 
funds  of  the  university  for  the  good  of  all,  for  the  usual  salaries  which  the 
officers  would  receive  if  no  such  fund  existed. 

"  If  it  should  at  any  time  become  necessary  to  employ  counsel  to  collect 
money  due  from  any  one  who  borrowed  it  as  a  student,  and  is  able  to  pay  it 
back  and  who  refuses  to  do  so,  then  it  will  be  expected  that  the  usual  fees  be 
paid  to  such  counsel,  and  some  attorney  might,  in  such  case,  be  employed  to 
look  generally  after  such  colhctions,  and  see  that  the  university  dots  not  suf 
fer  loss  by  inattention  to  such  collection. 

"  I  reserve  to  my  four  sons,  Julius  L.  Brown,  and  Joseph  M.  Brown,  Elijah 
A.  Brown,  and  George  M.  Brown,  each  the  right  to  select  one  young  man  to 
receive  the  benefits  of  the  loan  and,  as  the  one  selected  graduates  or  leaves 
college,  to  select  a  successor,  so  that  each  may  constantly  during  his  natural 
life  keep  one  student  of  his  own  selection  in  the  university,  as  a  recipient  of 
the  use  of  the  funds  necessary  in  his  case,  subject  to  the  regulations  above 
specified,  and  in  case  any  one  or  each  of  my  sons  shall  select  a  kinsman 
as  near  to  him  as  the  fourth  degree  of  consanguinity,  such  student  shall  have 
the  benefit  of  the  fund  free  from  the  obligations  to  refund  it  to  the  university, 
if  my  said  son  so  direct,  all  other  selections  to  be  made  under  the  rules  and 
regulations  to  be  prescribed  by  the  board  of  trustees,  as  already  men 
tioned. 


576       RESOLUTIONS  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 

"  And  ray  said-sons  and  the  survivors  or  survivor  of  them  shall  have  all  the 
usual  rights  of  visitation,  with  power  to  see  that  the  trust  assumed  by  the 
board  of  trustees  in  behalf  of  the  university  is  justly  and  faithfully  adminis 
tered,  and,  in  case  the  trust  is  unjustly,  illegally  or  wrongfully  abused,  to  pro 
ceed  in  the  proper  court  to  recover  back  the  funds  for  the  use  of  my  legal 
heirs;  but  neither  my  heirs  nor  any  one  of  them  shall  have  the  right  to  re 
cover  back  the  said  fund  on  account  of  any  technical  or  inadvertent  failure 
to  carry  out  the  trust,  if  there  has  not  been  an  important  or  substantial  fail 
ure  to  do  so. 

"  The  survivor  of  my  said  four  sons  may  by  his  will  appoint  some  one  with 
like  power  of  visitation,  if  he  thinks  proper  to  do  so. 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 

Gov.  Brown's  letter  was  referred  to  a  special  commit 
tee  of  the  board,  who  reported  in  favor  of  the  acceptance 
of  the  gift. 

"  Report  of  the  committee  unanimously  adopted. 

<k  The  select  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  communication  of  Hon 
orable  Joseph  E.  Brown  to  the  board  of  trustees,  made  this  day  proposing  a 
donation  to  the  university  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  on  certain  terms  and  con 
ditions  therein  expressed,  have  duly  considered  the  same  and  beg  leave  to  re 
port  the  following : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  proposition  of  Honorable  Joseph  E.  Brown  to  the 
board  of  trustees  of  the  University  of  Georgia,  made  this  day,  be  accepted 
upon  the  terms  and  condition  therein  expressed. 

"  Resolved  2d,  That  this  board,  for  themselves  and  in  behalf  of  the  peo 
ple  of  Georgia,  tender  their  thanks  to  him  for  this  munificent  donation. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  by  the  president  of  this 
board  to  make  known  to  the  donor  the  action  of  the  board  upon  the  proposi 
tion  to  present  the  matter  to  the  next  Legislature,  and  ask  that  an  act  be 
passed  carrying  it  into  effect,  and  to  see  that  the  papers  are  recorded  accord 
ing  to  his  request.  .  "  ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS, 

G.  F.  PIERCE, 
A.  R.  LAWTON, 
D.  A.  VASON, 
J.  A.  BILLUPS." 

OBLIGATION  OF  GOVERNOR  BROWN. 

"  The  board  of  trustees  of  the  university  having  by  resolution  accepted  my 
proposition  to  donate  to  the  university  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  be  known  as 
'The  Charles  McDonald  Brown  Scholarship  Fund,'  subject  to  the  condi 
tions  mentioned  in  my  communication  of  this  date,  I  hereby  bind  myself, 


INCREDIBLE  OPPOSITION.  577 

my  heirs,  executors  and  administrators  to  pay  into  the  treasury  of  the  State 
of  Georgia  for  the  benefit  of  the  university,  subject  to  the  terms  mentioned 
in  my  said  communication,  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  cash  so  soon 
as  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  at  its  next  session,  shall  have  passed  an  act 
binding  the  State  to  receive  the  funds  and  give  her  obligation  to  the  uni 
versity  for  the  said  fund  payable  fifty  years  after  this  date,  with  semi-annual 
interest  at  the  rate  of  seven  per  cent,  per  annum.  And  I  desire  the  commu 
nication,  resolution  of  acceptance,  and  this  obligation  recorded  on  the  regu 
lar  minutes  of  the  board  of  trustees,  and  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the 
superior  court  of  Clarke  county,  Georgia,  for  preservation. 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 

"  Executed  in  the  presence  of  H.  V.  M.  Miller,  president  pro  tern. 

"  William  L.  Mitchell,  secretary. 

"James  Jackson,  chief  justice  of  supreme  court  of  Georgia." 

Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  this  munificent  act  of  large- 
hearted  and  noble-motived  benevolence,  inspired  by  a 
pathetic  bereavement,  framed  with  a  consummate  wisdom 
to  accomplish  good,  giving  material  aid  to  the  great  cause 
of  higher  education,  and  placing  our  venerable  Mother 
University  of  Georgia  upon  its  feet  in  a  period  of  lan 
guor,  met  with  opposition  at  the  hands  of  a  small  portion 
of  the  citizens  of  the  State,  who  were  politically  hostile  to 
the  generous  donor.  A  few  vigorous  jeremiads  were  put 
out  in  one  or  two  hostile  journals  and  several  speeches 
were  made  against  it  in  the  Legislature.  Constitutional 
scruples  were  raised.  It  seemed  strange  and  foolish  for 
intelligent  men  to  be  erecting  argumentative  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  a  valuable  State  benefaction.  It  was  a  poor 
compensation  to  worthy  young  men  for  the  loss  of  edu 
cational  facilities  tendered  them  to  hear  the  law  makers 
split  hairs  and  raise  quibbles  over  a  grand  benefit.  The 
objections  seemed  puerile  to  the  great  masses  of  the  peo 
ple  who  saw  in  the  act  an  exalted  piece  of  disinterested 
philanthropy,  a  timely  help  to  the  State  University,  a 
liberal  benefaction  to  the  poor  youth  of  Georgia,  and  a 
splendid  contribution  to  the  cause  of  education. 

37 


578  LETTER  TO  COLONEL  ESTILL. 

The  bill  to  accept  the  donation  failed  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  to  receive  the  constitutional  majority  of 
eighty-eight  votes.  Perhaps  no  more  complete  answer 
could  be  made  to  the  feeble  objections  to  the  superb  gift 
than  the  following  letter  of  Senator  Brown  to  Col.  J.  H. 
Estill  of  Savannah,  in  reply  to  one  from  that  gentleman 
on  the  subject. 

"  WASHINGTON,  January  3. 
"  COL.  J.  H.  ESTILL,  SAVANNAH,  GA. 

"  Dear  Sir : — In  reply  to  your  letter  calling  my  attention  to  the  objections 
that  have  been  made  to  the  terms  upon  which  I  proposed  to  make  a  donation 
of  $50,000  to  the  University  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  poor  young  men  to 
obtain  a  liberal  education,  I  have  to  state  that  the  hard  school  of  adversity 
through  which  I  had  to  pass  in  the  days  of  my  youth,  and  the  great  difficulty 
I  had  in  raising  the  means  to  secure  what  education  I  received,  caused  me 
naturally  to  sympathize  with  young  men  who  are  placed  in  the  situation  I 
then  occupied.  And  as  it  was  my  wish  to  do  something  to  aid  the  cause  of 
education,  I  did  not  see  any  other  use  to  which  the  fund  might  be  so  profit 
ably  applied. 

"  Many  of  the  brightest  and  most  promising  young  men  in  Georgia  are 
the  sons  of  the  poorest  parents  of  the  State.  Others  have  parents  in  moder 
ate  circumstances,  but  with  large  families,  who  are  entirely  unable  to  give 
their  children  a  liberal  education.  The  wealthy,  whose  sons  have  the  means 
to  go  to  college,  possess  great  advantage  over  this  worthy  class  of  bright  and 
most  promising  young  men,  whose  parents  have  not  the  means  to  educate 
them  and  who  have  not  the  means  to  educate  themselves.  Many  of  these 
would  make  leading  men  in  the  State  and  ornaments  to  society  if  in  early  life 
they  could  borrow  money  enough,  with  close  economy,  to  educate  themselves. 
My  observation  has  been,  as  a  rule,  that  that  class  of  men  are  the  most  energetic 
and  likely  to  be  the  most  useful.  With  sincere  sympathy  with  this  class,  and 
a  desire  to  place  them  nearer  than  heretofore  upon  an  equality  with  the  sons 
of  the  rich  in  the  advantages  they  so  much  need,  I  determined  to  contribute 
of  my  means  as  liberally  as  I  felt  in  condition  to  do,  to  establish  a  fund,  the 
income  of  which  should  be  perpetually  devoted  to  that  character  of  educa 
tion,  upon  a  basis  that  the  money  borrowed  by  young  men  and  paid  back 
by  them  should  constantly  increase  the  fund,  so  that  in  the  lifetime  of  the 
University  it  would  grow  to  be  a  sum  large  enough  to  reach  all  the  poor  young 
men  of  the  State  desiring  it. 

"In  addition,  however,  to  this  view  of  the  subject,  it  is  due  to  candor  that 
I  state  that  I  had  lost  a  most  promising  son,  who  had  just  reached  man 
hood,  and  who  had  been  a  student  at  the  State  University ;  who,  if  he  had 


LETTER  TO  COLONEL  ESTILL.  579 

lived,  would  have  inherited  the  money  that  I  proposed  to  donate  to  the  Uni 
versity.  And  I  had  a  desire — which,  if  founded  in  a  mistaken  view  of  the 
subject,  I  trust  was  a  pardonable  mistake — to  perpetuate  the  name  of  my 
beloved  son,  now  no  more  in  this  world,  in  connection  with  this  fund. 

"  The  question  then  presented  itself  to  my  mind,  are  there  any  constitu 
tional  difficulties  in  the  way  ?  and  I  looked  carefully  into  the  provisions  of 
our  State  Constitution,  and  satisfied  myself,  beyond  all  doubt,  that  there  were 
none.  In  the  first  place,  I  found  that  the  whole  scope  and  spirit  of  the 
instrument  is  intended  to  encourage  the  Legislature,  and  even  the  counties 
and  municipal  corporations,  in  making  appropriations  for  the  education  of  the 
people,  first  in  the  primary  branches,  and  then  to  encourage  the  State  Uni 
versity,  and  a  university  or  college  for  the  colored  people.  In  connection 
with  this  general  scope  arid  object  of  the  Constitution,  I  find  that  those  who 
framed  it  intended  to  encourage  citizens  of  the  State,  or  of  other  States,  to 
make  donations  for  the  purpose  of  education.  The  language  of  the  Consti 
tution  under  that  head  is,  *  The  trustees  of  the  University  of  Georgia  may 
accept  bequests,  donations  and  grants  of  land  or  other  property  for  the  use 
of  said  university.'  In  providing  that  the  trustees  may  accept  bequests  or 
donations,  it  certainly  intended  to  encourage  citizens  of  the  State  or  other 
liberal  minded  men  to  make  to  the  university  such  bequests  or  donations. 

"  I  did  not  feel,  therefore,  that  it  would  be  the  policy  of  the  State,  if  I 
tendered  a  donation  of  this  sort,  to  reject  it,  but  supposed  it  would  be  the 
policy  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  to  accept ;  and,  on  any  terms  that 
were  reasonable,  to  encourage  not  only  that  but  like  donations  from  liberal 
citizens.  Taking  this  view  of  the  subject,  I  naturally  concluded  that  in  con 
struing  sections  or  paragraphs  of  the  Constitution  that  might  be  considered 
as  limitations  upon  the  power  of  the  Legislature  in  taxing  the  people  and 
appropriating  money,  or  incurring  debts  by  the  State,  that  a  liberal  construc 
tion  should  be  put  upon  such  paragraphs  in  favor  of  common  school  educa 
tion,  in  favor  of  appropriations  to  the  University,  and  in  favor  of  encourage 
ment  of  bequests  or  donations  to  it.  In  this  view  of  it,  if  I  had  found 
language  that  was  doubtful  as  to  the  right  of  the  State  to  accept  a  donation 
upon  the  terms  proposed,  I  should  still  have  believed  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  members  of  the  Legislature  to  put  a  liberal  construction  on  the  instru 
ment  to  meet  such  a  case,  and  to  encourage  such  an  endowment.  But  I  find 
no  such  difficulty  in  the  Constitution.  It  is  true  I  find  limitations  as  to  the 
right  to  issue  bonds,  or  to  incur  indebtedness  on  the  part  of  the  State,  but 
they  do  not  deny  to  the  State  the  power  to  incur  a  debt  in  a  case  like  the  one 
now  under  consideration. 

"  When  I  looked  to  paragraph  1,  article  7,  section  3,  of  the  Constitution, 
I  found  this  language  :  *  No  debt  shall  be  contracted  by  or  on  behalf  of  the 
State,  except  to  supply  casual  deficiencies  of  revenue,  to  repel  invasion,  sup 
press  insurrection,  and  defend  the  State  in  time  of  war,  or  to  pay  the  exist 
ing  public  debt ;  but  the  debt  created  to  supply  deficiencies  in  the  public 
revenue  shall  not  exceed  in  the  aggregate  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.' 


580  LETTER  TO  COLONEL  ESTILL. 

"  Here,  among  other  things,  the  power  is  given  to  incur  a  debt  to  supply 
the  casual  deficiencies  in  the  revenue  which  does  not  aggregate  more  than 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  a  debt  may  be  contracted  to  pay  the  exist 
ing  public  debt. 

"Now,  as  is  well  known,  we  have  a  debt  of  some  nine  millions  of  dollars. 
Portions  of  it  are  falling  due  frequently.  In  a  short  period  more  than  three 
millions  of  it  will  fall  due  in  the  same  year.  Nobody  expects  that  the  peo 
ple  of  Georgia  will  be  taxed  three  millions  to  pay  a  debt  coming  due  that 
year.  How  shall  we  meet  it?  We  shall  doubtless  issue  new  bonds  and 
exchange  them  for  the  maturing  bonds,  or  put  them  on  the  market  and  sell 
them  and  get  money  with  which  to  pay  the  maturing  bonds.  Does  anybody 
hold  that  the  State  is  obliged  to  tax  the  people  to  pay  every  obligation  as  it 
falls  due  ?  If  so,  why  the  exception  to  the  rule  giving  to  the  Legislature  the 
right  to  contract  a  debt  to  pay  the  existing  public  debt  ?  It  seems  to  me 
that  is  too  clear  for  argument. 

"  The  Hon.  N.  J.  Hammond,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  appointed  by  the 
Board  of  the  Trustees  of  the  University,  drew  the  bill  that  was  before  the  Legis 
lature  with  great  care,  after  all  the  able  lawyers  on  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
except  General  Toombs,  had  approved  the  donation  on  the  terms- prescribed. 
The  bill  required  the  money  to  be  put  into  the  treasury  and  to  be  paid  out 
to  the  maturing  bonds  of  the  State,  and  a  new  bond  or  obligation  to  be  given 
to  the  University  to  run  for  fifty  years, bearing  seven  per  cent,  interest.  How 
did  this  violate  the  Constitution  ?  It  might  possibly  have  had  to  lie  in  the 
treasury  awhile  before  any  bonds  matured  in  the  payment  of  which  it  could 
be  used.  But  as  soon  as  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  the  bonds  did  mature,  why 
might  it  not  have  been  used  in  the  payment  of  these  bonds,  and  a  new  bond 
or  obligation  given  to  the  University  for  it?  By  what  fine-spun  distinction 
can  the  right  of  the  Legislature  to  accept  money  for  the  benefit  of  the  Uni 
versity  and  give  a  new  bond,  and  the  right  of  the  Legislature  to  accept  money 
from  anybody  wanting  to  purchase  a  bond  and  issue  a  new  bond,  be  main 
tained  where  the  object  in  both  cases  is  to  pay  the  money  to  the  public 
creditor  ? 

"  But  it  has  been  said  the  rate  of  interest  is  too  high.  The  State  could 
borrow  money  at  four  per  cent.  It  is  true,  when  she  issued  what  are  called 
her  baby  bonds,  at  four  per  cent,  paying  commission  for  the  sale,  as  I  have 
been  informed,  they  were  disposed  of.  But  it  was  mostly  to  corporations 
that  used  them,  by  paying  them  back  to  the  State  for  railroad  property  pur 
chased,  etc.  It  would  be  a  strain  upon  the  public  credit  of  Georgia  that  her 
citizens  might  not  care  to  see,  to  place  her  four  per  cent,  bonds  on  the  mar 
ket  in  the  present  condition  of  things.  But  I  suppose  no  constitutional 
lawyer  will  deny  that  the  State  has  the  right  to  issue  bonds  for  money 
received  and  used  in  payment  of  maturing  bonds,  or  that  the  Legislature 
has  the  right  to  fix  the  rate  of  interest,  and  that  it  might  legally  in 
such  case  be  fixed  at  seven  per  cent.  That  is  the  rate  of  interest  fixed  in 


LETTER  TO  COLONEL  ESTILL.  581 

Georgia  between  man  and  man,  where  there  is  no  contract  varying  it.  That 
is  precisely  the  rate  of  interest  fixed  in  the  law  now  upon  the  statute  book, 
where  the  State  bonds  held  by  the  University  are  maturing.  The  law  pro 
vides  in  such  case  that  the  Governor  shall  take  up  the  maturing  bonds  and 
issue  new  bond  or  obligation  to  the  University  running  fifty  years,  at  seven 
per  cent.,  payable  semi-annually. 

"  I  looked  at  the  law,  which  I  found  upon  our  own  statute  books  as  appli 
cable  to  the  University,  and  placed  my  proposed  donation  upon  precisely  the 
same  terms.  I  simply  said,  as  you  take  up  the  maturing  bonds  of  the  Uni 
versity,  and  give  new  bonds  at  fifty  years  at  seven  per  cent,  semi-annu 
ally,  I  will  add  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  the  endowment  if  you  will  take  that 
sum  and  give  the  bond  or  obligation  of  the  State  running  for  the  same  time, 
at  the  same  rate  of  interest  which  you  pay  the  University  in  new  bonds,  on 
all  State  bonds  which  she  may  hold  as  fast  as  they  mature.  Was  this 
unreasonable  ?  Why  should  the  State  refuse  to  pay  the  same  rate  of  inter 
est  on  money  (which  I  give  the  University)  which  she  pays  on  money  re 
ceived  from  the  land  grant  fund? 

"Again,  suppose  the  Legislature  could  borrow  money  at  five  per  cent,  and 
issue  bonds  of  the  State  in  payment,  and  suppose  any  other  citizen  than 
myself  were  to  point  to  the  provisions  in  the  Constitution  which  relate  to  the 
encouragement  of  education  and  to  the  encouragement  of  the  University  for 
the  white  as  well  as  for  the  colored  race,  and  to  the  encouragement  of  dona 
tions  ;  and  such  citizen  were  to  say,  *  I  will  give  you  $50,000  to  aid  in  the 
education  of  a  most  worthy  class  of  young  men  who  have  always  been  denied 
the  benefits  of  a  liberal  education,  which  $50,000  you  could  not  borrow  for 
less  than  five  per  cent.,  if  you  will  give  a  seven  per  cent,  bond,  contributing 
two  per  cent,  out  of  the  treasury  to  aid  that  class  of  young  men,  and  to  ad 
vance  the  objects  contemplated  by  the  Constitution.'  Think  you  the  Legis 
lature  would  have  rejected  a  proposition  put  in  that  shape  from  any  liberal 
citizen  not  in  public  life,  who  might  have  made  the  tender,  even  if  there  had 
been  no  statute,  and  no  law  on  the  statute  book  prescribing  the  rate  of  in 
terest  which  the  State  allows  on  her  maturing  bonds  to  aid  the  University  ? 
How  could  the  Legislature  do  so  much  in  aid  of  the  University  for  so  small 
a  sum  in  any  other  way  as  it  could  by  adding  two  per  cent,  to  the  rate  of 
interest  at  which  it  could  borrow  money  on  all  donations  that  might  be  made 
to  the  University  ?  In  such  case  the  donor  furnishes  the  capital,  and,  in 
effect,  pays  to  the  University  the  five  per  cent,  per  annum  which  the  money 
would  be  unquestionably  worth,  and  the  State  pays  only  two  per  cent,  on  the 
money  without  furnishing  a  dollar  of  the  capital,  a  very  small  proportion. 
The  University  in  this  way  would  produce  wonderful  results  for  the  future, 
at  a  nominal  cost  to  the  State,  if  donations  could  be  secured  on  these  terms. 

"  However,  I  simply  claim  in  this  case  that  as  my  donation  is  admitted  to 
be  a  liberal  one,  the  State  should,  in  my  opinion,  have  taken  it  for  the  bene 
fit  of  the  class  of  poor  young  men  for  whom  it  was  intended,  and  at  the  same 


582  LETTEK  TO  COLONEL  ESTILL. 

rate  of  interest  that  she  pays  on  other  funds  belonging  to  the  University, 
which  accrue  from  her  maturing  bonds  owned  by  the  University.  Why  make 
a  distinction  between  the  interest  the  State  will  pay  on  my  donation  and  the 
interest  it  will  pay  on  other  funds  due  the  University  ?  Is  that  the  way  to 
encourage  others  to  make  liberal  donations  to  the  University  to  aid  in  the 
cause  of  education?  Experience  will  soon  show  whether  it  affords  such 
encouragement. 

"  The  sons  of  wealthy  men  have  so  long  had  the  advantage  and  received 
the  chief  benefits  of  the  University  that  it  may  be  thought  by  part  of  that 
class  and  their  representatives  that  it  is  an  innovation  to  open  a  way  for  the 
brightest  class  of  the  sons  of  the  poor.  If  my  donation  had  provided  for  bet 
ter  facilities  for  the  sons  of  the  wealthy,  it  might  have  met  a  different  fate 
at  the  hands  of  some  of  those  who  sat  in  judgment  upon  its  merits. 

"  But  a  word  more  on  the  subject  of  interest.  If  I  were  simply  seeking 
popular  applause,  what  need  I  care  whether  the  State  paid  seven  per  cent,  or 
four  per  cent,  on  the  moneys  ?  In  either  case  I  would  have  given  the  fifty 
thousand  dollars  to  the  University,  and  in  neither  case  would  a  dollar  of 
principal  or  interest  come  back  to  me.  The  only  question  was,  whether  the 
poor  young  men  should  have  the  benefit  of  the  larger  or  smaller  rate  of  inter 
est.  In  the  one  case,  the  fund  would  have  educated  a  larger  and  in  the  other 
a  smaller  number  of  those  for  whose  benefit  it  was  intended. 

"  But  it  is  proper  to  notice  one  other  point.  Objection  was  made  that  I 
appointed  my  sons  visitors,  as  the  law  would  term  it.  In  other  words,  that  I 
reserved  to  them  the  right  to  see,  during  their  lifetime,  and  to  the  survivor 
of  them,  the  right  to  name  in  his  will  a  person  who  may  see  in  his  lifetime 
that  the  money  is  not  squandered  or  recklessly  wasted.  Or,  in  other  words, 
that  the  trust  is  carried  out  and  the  money  applied  to  the  uses  for  which  it  is 
given.  That  is  all  the  right  of  visitation  means.  As  every  one  acquainted 
with  such  matters  knows,  it  is  one  of  the  most  common  provisions  in  case  of 
donations  made  to  colleges  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken.  In  the 
English  colleges,  even  the  endowment  of  a  scholarship  is  usually  accom 
panied  by  such  provisions  against  waste  or  misapplication  of  the  fund.  In 
that  country  the  rector  of  a  parish,  or  some  person  or  corporation  where  there 
is  perpetual  succession,  is  frequently  made  the  visitor.  In  my  case  I  only 
proposed  that  the  right  of  visitation,  or  the  right  to  look  after  the  fund  and 
see  that  it  is  not  squandered  or  misapplied,  last  for  two  lifetimes.  The  life 
time  of  the  University  runs  through  centuries,  therefore,  in  comparison  with 
the  whole  term  for  which  the  donation  would  run,  the  right  of  visitation  is 
reserved  for  but  a  fractional  period.  And  then  only  for  a  substantial  violation 
of  the  trust,  not  on  account  of  any  technical  error  or  unintentional  mistake. 

"  This  is  only  securing  to  my  sons,  by  direct  reservation,  what  the  com 
mon  law,  as  expounded  by  the  ablest  authors,  gives  to  the  heirs  of  every 
founder  who  endows  a  college,  to  wit :  the  right  in  case  of  a  substantial 
failure  to  carry  out  the  trust,  or  a  gross  or  wilful  misapplication  of  the  fund, 


LETTER  TO  COLONEL  ESTILL.  583 

to  call  the  persons  whose  duty  it  is  to  execute  the  trust  to  account  in  the 
courts.  Who  will  deny  the  justice  and  propriety  of  such  a  provision  for  the 
preservation  and  protection  of  the  fund,  and  to  secure  its  appropriation  to 
the  uses  for  which  it  is  given  ? 

"  But  it  is  complained  that  I  reserved  to  my  four  sons,  during  the  lifetime 
of  each,  the  right  to  select  one  young  man  who  is  to  have  the  benefits  of  the 
donation.  One  of  the  principal  troubles  the  Board  of  Trustees  will  have 
will  be  in  the  proper  selection  of  the  young  men  who  are  to  be  benefited. 
As  the  fund  accumulates  it  would  during  the  lifetime  of  the  University  run 
into  millions  of  dollars,  and  there  would  be  two  or  three  times  as  many  poor 
young  men  enjoying  the  benefits  as  there  are  now  students  in  the  University. 
But  even  during  the  lifetime  of  my  sons,  it  might  run  to  fifty  or  one  hundred 
a  year.  Was  it  unreasonable  to  say  that  each  of  them  might  select  one  ? 
Or,  if  it  run  to  only  twenty  a  year  at  the  commencement,  was  it  unreasonable, 
as  I  gave  the  money,  that  each  of  my  sons  select  one  of  them  ?  If  I  had  re 
tained  the  money  as  a  part  of  my  estate,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they 
would  have  inherited  it  at  my  death.  Therefore,  each  is  to  that  extent  a 
part  contributor,  and  the  reservation  of  the  right  of  each  to  select  one  of  the 
beneficiaries  seems  to  me  to  be  reasonable.  No  matter  how  large  the  fund 
grows,  or  how  large  the  number  of  beneficiaries,  they  would  each  still  have 
the  right  to  select  only  one.  If  the  number  reached  one  hundred,  and  my 
sons  were  all  in  life,  they  would  select  four  and  the  trustees  ninety-six.  If 
two  of  them  should  be  dead,  the  survivors  would  select  two  and  the  trustees 
ninety -eight. 

"  But  another  provision  is  objected  to,  and  that  is,  that  in  case  the  person 
selected  is  a  relative,  my  son  may,  in  his  discretion,  relieve  him  from  paying 
the  money  back.  Whether  this  would  have  ever  occurred  in  a  single  instance 
is  very  doubtful.  There  might  have  arisen  a  case  where  a  relative  might 
have  been  educated  under  the  provision,  and,  on  account  of  some  misfortune, 
it  might  have  been  their  pleasure  to  relieve  him  from  the  repayment  of  the 
money,  with  the  four  per  cent,  interest,  as  required  of  other  young  men. 
But  as  the  object  of  this  donation  is  to  make  worthy  young  men  who  are  poor 
feel  that  they  are  not  charity  scholars,  but  in  an  independent,  manly  way  that 
they  are  borrowing  money  to  educate  themselves,  it  would  be  neither  my 
wish  nor  the  wish  of  my  sons  to  relieve  a  relative  from  the  repayment,  unless 
in  some  case  of  affliction  or  misfortune.  And  in  the  case  of  some  one  selected 
by  the  trustees,  not  a  relative,  there  would  probably  occasionally  be  a  failure 
to  return  the  money  to  the  University. 

"  Again,  suppose  some  of  the  relatives  of  my  sons  should  be  educated  out  of 
the  fund,  would  it  not  be  reasonable  to  suppose  that  as  educated  citizens  they 
would  be  as  serviceable  to  the  State  as  young  men  not  related  to  us  or  se 
lected  by  them  who  might  be  educated  in  the  same  way  ?  And  as  it  would  be 
done  with  money  donated  by  me,who  would  be  wronged,  as  ten,  probably  fifty, 
not  related  would  get  the  benefit  for  every  one  of  my  relatives  who  received  it  ? 


584  LETTER  TO  COLONEL  ESTILL. 

"  But  it  has  been  said  the  act  was  intended  to  give  to  my  sons  some  sort  of 
advantage  or  political  ascendency  in  Georgia.  How  could  this  be  ?  The 
three  who  are  of  age  are  all  settled  down  in  regular  profitable  business  pursuits. 
No  one  of  them  has  shown  the  slightest  disposition  to  engage  in  politics,  and 
it  is  not  probable  they  ever  will.  But  if  they  should,  what  advantage  would 
the  fact  that  I  had  given  $50,000  to  the  University,  and  that  they  have  the 
right  to  see  that  it  is  not  recklessly  squandered  or  wasted,  be  to  them  in 
political  life?  The  idea  is  simply  absurd.  I  leave  the  country  to  judge  of 
the  motives  of  those  who  make  such  groundless  appeals  to  popular  prejudice, 
or  to  what  they  doubtless  suppose  to  be  popular  ignorance. 

"  One  other  point.  It  is  objected  that  I  givo  some  advantages  in  the  selec 
tion  of  beneficiaries  to  the  young  men  of  the  mountain  section  of  our  State, 
including  three  counties  in  South  Carolina,  which  contain  my  birthplace,  and 
the  place  where  I  had  my  earliest  struggles  with  poverty  in  my  effort  to  edu 
cate  myself.  It  may  be  true  that  the  feeling  of  love  and  veneration  we 
cherish  for  our  birthplace,  and  the  scenes  of  our  youth  and  companions  of 
childhood  are  mere  sentiment.  Be  it  so.  It  is  a  sentiment  that  finds  a  lodg 
ment  in  every  generous  nature,  and  a  response  in  every  patriotic  heart— a 
sentiment  which  I  shall  cherish  to  the  latest  moment  of  my  life,  and  upon 
which  I  shall  delight  to  act  on  every  appropriate  occasion. 

"  Again,  it  has  been  said  the  State  does  not  wish  to  borrow  money  from 
me  at  seven  per  cent. 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  lend  any  to  the  State.  I  only  proposed  to  donate  to  the 
University  $50,000  to  aid  poor  but  bright  and  worthy  young  men  in  obtain 
ing  such  education  as  they  need  and  wish  at  the  University  arid  at  its  branch 
at  Dahlonega,  if  the  State  would  take  the  money  and  use  it  in  payment  of 
her  maturing  debt,  and  pay  to  the  University  (not  to  me)  the  same  rate  of 
interest  which  by  her  own  statute  she  binds  herself  to  pay  for  fifty  years,  on 
all  her  bonds  now  owned  by  the  University,  as  fast  as  they  mature.  Not  a 
dollar  of  the  principal  or  interest,  if  the  donation  were  accepted,  is  to  be  paid 
back  to  me,  or  to  any  child  or  children  of  mine.  Every  dollar  of  it  is  to  be 
expended  in  the  education  of  young  men  in  the  State,  which  would  result  in 
incalculable  benefit  to  the  State.  It  could  result  in  no  more  personal  benefit 
to  me  or  my  children  than  to  any  other  citizen  of  the  State.  The  right  of 
visitation  to  see  that  the  fund  is  not  wasted,  but  applied  to  the  uses  for  which 
it  is  given,  is  reserved  to  my  sons,  and  the  right  during  the  life  of  each  to 
select  one  of  the  young  men  to  be  educated  is  also  reserved.  This  is  all. 
Not  a  dollar  of  pecuniary  benefit  is  reserved  to  me  or  to  them.  Not  a  dol 
lar  of  the  money  is  to  be  returned  to  us.  Not  a  dollar  is  to  be  loaned  to  the 
State  by  me  or  them.  Fifty  thousand  dollars  was  offered  as  a  gift  to  the 
University,  if  the  State  would  take  it  and  pay  the  same  interest  she  pays 
for  other  funds  belonging  to  the  University. 

"  However,  I  have  made  this  letter  longer  than  I  intended.  I  wish  you  to 
understand  fully  my  view  of  this  question.  If  I  was  actuated  by  any 


LEGISLATIVE  ACTION  CONDEMNED.  585 

unworthy  motive  I  am  not  aware  of  it.  I  of  course  regret  that  the  House  of 
Representatives  feel  it  its  duty,  no  matter  by  what  motives  prompted,  to 
reject  the  donation,  as  I  had  hoped  it  would  result  in  great  benefit  to  the 
mass  of  the  people  whose  sons  are  now  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  a  liberal 
education.  It  is  still  my  fixed  purpose  to  appropriate  that  sum  to  the  very 
object  contemplated  in  Che  proposition  to  the  University  and  Legislature.  I 
intend  to  do  so  either  in  or  out  of  the  State,  upon  as  nearly  the  exact  plan 
as  possible,  simply  because  I  think  the  plan  is  right  in  itself.  It  is  true  I 
shall  regret  it,  if  the  action  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  denies  to  the 
sons  of  the  class  of  people  for  whom  it  was  intended,  this  benefit,  and  com 
pels  me  to  give  it  to  the  young  men  of  that  class  in  another  State,  when  I 
would  greatly  prefer  that  our  own  young  men  who  so  much  need  it,  should 
have  the  benefit. 

"  I  beg  to  assure  you  I  do  not  feel  hurt  personally  at  the  action  of  the 
Legislature.  I  believe,  on  culm  reflection,  after  they  have  consulted  their 
constituents,  possibly  the  representatives  of  the  people  who  voted  against 
accepting  the  donation  may  realize  the  fact  that  they  have  made  a  mistake. 
Taking  the  mildest  view  of  it,  I  do  not  think  it  can  be  claimed  that  their 
action  will  have  a  tendency  to  encourage  other  like  donations  to  the  Uni 
versity,  or  to  those  struggling  to  obtain  such  education  as  is  taught  in  any 
department  of  the  University  which  fits  them  for  the  profession  or  business 
in  life  which  they  expect  to  follow. 

"  I  have  written  the  above  that  my  own  views  and  motives  in  this  matter 
may  be  fully  understood.  I  shall  engage  in  no  discussion — no  controversy. 
I  have  said  all  I  expect  to  say.  I  cannot  importune  the  people  or  their  repre 
sentatives  to  accept  a  large  sum  of  money  as  a  gift  from  me  for  a  purpose 
or  in  a  manner  which  they  do  not  approve.  Each  citizen  of  the  State  who 
feels  enough  interest  in  the  subject  to  look  into  the  facts  will  form  his  own 
conclusions  as  to  the  propriety  of  my  course  in  the  premises,  and  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  act  rejecting  the  donation. 

"  Possibly  the  application  of  the  constitutional  test  to  some  other  acts  and 
resolutions  of  the  Legislature  as  compared  with  the  constitutional  scruples 
which  prevented  the  passage  of  the  act  to  accept  my  donation  might  not  be 
uninteresting  to  the  public.  But  as  I  decline  controversy,  1  shall  not  enter 
upon  the  comparison,  nor  shall  I  inquire  into  the  motives  which  prompted 
action  in  either  case. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 

It  must  have  been  a  temptation  to  any  man  to  forego 
a  generous  purpose  so  unkindly  treated.  The  public 
sentiment,  however,  began  to  speak  in  thunder  tones  in 
condemnation  of  the  legislative  action,  showing  that 


586  NOT  TO  BE  THWARTED. 

the  cavilling  of  a  few  croakers  was  not  the  feeling  of  the 
people  who  warmly  appreciated  the  philanthropical  act. 
But  Senator  Brown  is  not  the  man  to  be  thwarted  in  his 
charities  any  more  than  in  his  business  or  politics.  He 
has  always  a  habit  of  grasping  victory  at  an  unexpected 
moment  when  his  adversaries  are  in  the  very  repose  of 
fancied  triumph,  and  by  some  cool,  easy  stroke  achieve 
success  so  complete  as  to  take  the  breath  away. 

The  following  letter  of  his  to  the  trustees  of  the  State 
University  explains  the  new  movement  that  he  made,  viz  : 
the  purchase  of  the  bonds  and  their  tender  to  the  institu 
tion.  This  movement  demonstrated  that  he  was  sincere 
in  his  generous  intent  and  that  he  had  both  falsified  and 
circumvented  his  objectors. 

"  ATLANTA,  March  31,  1883. 
"  To  the  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Georgia : 

"  Gentlemen : — On  the  15th  of  July  last  I  proposed  in  a  written  communi 
cation  addressed  to  you  to  make  a  donation  to  the  university  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  for  the  purpose,  and  upon  the  terms  and  conditions  therein  mentioned. 
One  of  the  requirements  of  the  proposition  was,  that  the  Legislature  of  Georgia 
at  its  next  session  should  provide  for  receiving  said  sum  into  the  treasury  of 
the  State,  and  for  the  issuance  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  the  bonds  of  the 
State  to  the  university  in  place  of  said  amount,  having  fifty  years  to  run 
with  seven  per  cent,  interest  payable  semi-annually.  The  Legislature  met  at 
the  usual  time  in  November  and  adjourned  without  having  made  provision 
for  the  receipt  of  the  money  and  the  issue  of  said  bonds  to  the  university. 
The  proposition  was  accepted  by  your  honorable  body  when  made  by  me, 
but  as  the  Legislature  did  not  make  provisions  for  issuing  the  bonds  I  sup 
pose  neither  party  is  now  bound  by  the  proposition  or  acceptance. 

"  It  is  still  my  desire  to  appropriate  that  sum  of  money  for  the  education 
of  poor  young  men  in  the  University  of  Georgia,  as  specified  in  said  proposi 
tion.  And  with  a  view  of  avoiding  all  misunderstanding  on  the  subject  and 
of  placing  this  amount  in  the  hands  of  the  trustees  of  the  university,  for  the 
purposes  above  referred  to,  I  have  purchased  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  the 
valid  bonds  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  which  are  not  now  due  but  will  mature 
on  the  first  day  of  April,  1883,  and  I  propose  now  to  deliver  said  fifty  thou 
sand  dollars  in  the  above  bonds  of  the  State  of  Georgia  to  the  trustees  of  the 
University  of  Georgia,  as  the  property  of  said  university,  for  the  same  uses 


A  LIVELY  EPISODE.  587 

and  upon  precisely  the  same  terms,  except  as  herein  modified,  as  are  set  forth 
in  my  written  communication  to  this  board,  dated  15th  of  July  last,  the  said 
bonds  on  delivery  to  this  board  to  become  the  property  of  the  university  for  the 
uses  and  upon  the  terms  above  mentioned,  upon  the  condition  subsequent  that 
the  trustees  of  the  university  shall  within  a  reasonable  time,  say  within  two 
months  from  the  maturity  of  the  bonds,  through  their  duly  authorized  agent 
or  officer,  present  at  the  treasury  of  the  State  for  redemption  the  said  bonds 
as  the  property  of  the  university,  and  shall  receive  from  the  Governor  of  the 
State,  in  lieu  of  said  matured  bonds  so  presented  for  payment,  an  obligation 
or  obligations  in  writing  in  the  nature  of  a  bond  in  amount  equal  to  the 
principal  of  the  bonds,  so  presented  as  provided  in  an  Act  to  make  perma 
nent  the  income  of  the  University  of  Georgia  and  for  other  purposes,  approved 
September  20,  1881. 

"  This  will  place  the  bonds,  which  I  now  propose  to  donate  to  the  university 
through  this  board,  upon  the  same  footing  precisely  as  all  other  bonds  of  the 
State  belonging  to  the  university  are  placed  by  the  Act  of  1881.  I  have  the 
bonds  now  present  ready  for  delivery  if  this  proposition  is  accepted. 

"JOSEPH  E.  BROWN." 

Senator  Brown  in  the  purchase  of  these  bonds  had  to 
pay  a  large  sum  of  premium,  which  made  the  donation, 
so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  much  larger  than  the  $50,000. 
The  trustees  of  the  university  assembled,  and,  with  the 
single  dissenting  vote  of  General  Robert  Toombs,  accepted 
the  bonds.  Quite  a  lively  episode  occurred  in  the  Board. 
General  Toombs  spoke  against  the  acceptance  of  the 
bonds,  claiming  it  unconstitutional.  Senator  Brown  asked 
him  if  he  had  not  taken  position  before  this  that  under 
the  new  Constitution  the  Legislature  had  power  to  borrow 
money  to  donate  to  the  university.  General  Toombs 
replied  promptly  in  the  negative.  Senator  Brown  ad 
monished  him  to  think  carefully,  and  asked  if  that  had 
not  been  his  position.  General  Toombs  insisted  that  it  was 
not  and  had  not  been.  Senator  Brown  drew  a  letter  from 
his  pocket,  written  by  General  Toombs,  which  he  explained 
had  come  into  his  possession  under  the  following  circum 
stances  :  Mr.  Elam  Alexander  had  made  a  gift  of  money 
to  the  trustees,  to  be  used  for  educational  purposes  under 


588  GEN.  TOOMBS  IN  A  FALSE  POSITION. 

the  act  of  1859,  which  authorized  the  governor  to  receive 
the  money  into  the  treasury  and  issue  bonds  in  lieu  of 
it.  Colonel  Whittle,  one  of  the  trustees,  was  in  doubt 
whether  he  could  pay  the  money  into  the  treasury  and 
get  the  bonds,  or  whether  the  Constitution  of  1877  re 
pealed  the  law  of  1859  under  which  the  bonds  asked  for 
could  be  issued ;  and  he  sought  the  opinion  of  several 
leading  gentlemen,  among  them  General  Toombs.  Colonel 
Whittle  then  sent  three  of  these  responses,  including  that 
of  General  Toombs,  to  Senator  Brown,  requesting  his 
view  of  the  matter.  Senator  Brown  wrote  indorsing  the 
issuance  of  the  bonds ;  and  as  the  subject  was  one  of 
public  importance  and  General  Toombs'  letter  an  em 
phatic  one,  he  had  taken  copies  of  the  three  letters, 
which  he  expressed  the  desire  to  retain  if  it  was  not 
deemed  inappropriate  by  Colonel  Whittle  that  he  should 
do  so.  As  no  objection  was  made  by  Colonel  Whittle, 
the  copies  were  still  in  his  possession.  Senator  Brown 
continued  his  remarks  before  the  Board,  stating  that  he 
should  not  feel  at  liberty  to  read  the  letter  if  General 
Toombs  objected,  at  the  same  time  he  would  do  so  if 
General  Toombs  was  willing. 

General  Toombs  replied  curtly  to  read  anything  he 
had  written.  The  letter  was  read  and  made  a  sensation, 
containing  as  it  did  a  decided  opinion  that  the  Constitu 
tion  of  1877  did  not  repeal  the  law  of  1859,  and  that  the 
governor  could  issue  a  bond  for  the  Alexander  donation. 
The  letter  also  contained  the  distinct  statement  that  the 
Legislature  had  the  right,  under  the  Constitution  of  1877, 
to  borrow  money  to  donate  to  the  university.  In  view 
of  the  questions  and  answers  that  had  preceded  the  pro 
duction  of  the  letter,  its  reading  created  a  decided  sen 
sation  in  the  Board.  The  letter  placed  General  Toombs 


A  TWOFOLD  BENEFIT.  589 

of  the  past  against  General  Toombs  of  the  present,  and 
his  failure  to  remember  his  former  attitude  made  his 
present  position  all  the  weaker,  and  entirely  nullified  his 
argument.  The  trustees  voted  for  the  acceptance  of  the 
bonds;  thirteen  for  and  one — General  Toombs — against. 
After  the  bonds  fell  due  the  trustees  applied  to  Gov.  Jas. 
S.  Boynton  for  the  new  security,  and  on  the  eighteenth 
day  of  April,  1883,  that  Executive  issued  a  single  bond 
for  $50,000  at  seven  per  cent,  interest,  due  in  fifty  years, 
under  the  act  of  1881  ;  which  was  the  precise  thing  asked 
by  Governor  Brown  when  he  tendered  the  cash  donation 
to  the  university.  The  bond  was  written  on  parchment. 
There  were  already  fifty  or  sixty  young  men  applying 
for  the  benefits  of  the  fund.  Governor  Stephens  took  a 
profound  interest  in  this  gift  and  looked  forward  to  it  as 
the  means  of  incalculable  good,  and  as  the  operation  on  a 
large  scale  of  his  own  life-long  system  of  educational  aid  to 
young  men. 

The  more  that  this  plan  of  Senator  Brown  to  aid  the 
university  is  considered,  the  wiser  does  its  philosophy 
appear.  There  is  a  twofold  benefit  in  it,  to  the  benefi-' 
ciaries  and  the  university,  that  could  not  be  realized 
under,  and  that  gives  it  infinite  superiority  over,  an  ordi 
nary  donation.  The  young  men  who  get  education  under 
it  do  so  in  a  manner  that  fosters  their  independence  and 
requires  them  to  treat  their  schooling  as  a  debt  to  be 
repaid  and  not  a  charity.  The  moral  effect  is  much 
better  upon  their  characters,  and  induces  the  spirit  of 
pride  of  sentiment,  and  a  habit  of  self-denial  to  get  the 
means  to  repay  obligation,  and  the  self-respect  due  to 
self-reliance,  the  honorable  freedom  from  burden,  and  the 
proud  consciousness  that  success  is  due  to  their  own 
labor. 


590  A  LASTING  MONUMENT. 

The  advantage  of  this  scheme  to  the  university  over 
all  other  possible  plans  of  endowment  is  that  the  repay 
ment  of  the  interest  loaned  to  the  students  steadily  in 
creases  the  principal  of  the  fund  and  enlarges  the  useful 
ness  of  the  institution.  It  was  certainly  a  sagacious  and 
far-seeing  brain  and  heart  that  devised  a  plan  so  master 
fully  promotive  of  the  interest  of  both  student  and  col 
lege, — a  plan  so  original  and  perfect  in  conception  and 
detail,  that  the  thoughtful  mind  is  amazed  that  any  pre 
judice  could  have  found  objection  to  it.  As  time  passes 
and  the  State  becomes  permeated  with  the  educated 
beneficiaries  of  this  grand  gift, — men  of  education  and 
influence, — and  as  the  university  grows  in  its  expanding 
capacity  for  educating  the  poor  but  intellectual  and  aspir 
ing  youth  of  Georgia,  trained,  by  this  very  ordeal  to  get 
and  pay  for  learning,  to  the  discipline  that  makes  good 
steady  men,  the  wisdom  and  benevolence  of  the  author 
of  this  noble  scheme,  and  his  fame  as  a  public-spirited 
philanthropist,  will  broaden  and  brighten,  resting  upon 
the  enduring  basis  of  truth  and  the  public  welfare.  Sen 
ator  Brown  has  erected  in  this  superb  educational  endow 
ment  a  lasting  monument  to  his  young  son,  whose  name 
it  bears,  so  sadly  removed,  and  to  his  own  genius  and 
philanthropy.  And  he  can  safely  repose  upon  this  sub 
stantial  ground  his  claim  to  the  permanent  and  grateful 
remembrance  of  the  people  of  Georgia. 

This  volume  may  properly  end  with  this  splendid  inci 
dent.  It  may  be  proper,  however,  to  refer  to  the  excep 
tional  position  that  Senator  Brown  occupies  in  relation  to 
the  distinguished  public  men  of  Georgia.  Twenty  years 
ago  the  State  had  a  larger  array  of  great  political  leaders 
than  any  State  in  the  Union.  Those  illustrious  spirits, 
recognized  giants  in  eloquence  and  statesmanship,  have 


SYMBOL  AND  LINK  OF  THREE  ERAS.  591 

recently  passed  away  almost  in  a  body.  The  old  land 
marks  have  disappeared  rapidly.  Ilerschel  V.  Johnson, 
II iram  Warner,  Benjamin  H.  Hill,  Alexander  EL  Stephens 
and  Charles  J.  Jenkins — five  of  our  strongest  Georgians, 
men  of  national  fame  and  contemporaries  of  Joseph  E. 
Brown  in  the  great  events  of  the  last  two  decades — have 
one  by  one  gone  in  a  brief  while.  Senator  Brown  has 
aided  in  the  funeral  obsequies  of  nearly  all  of  these  emi 
nent  sons  of  Georgia.  With  Mr.  Stephens  he  was  closely 
allied  by  links  of  friendly  affection,  and  at  his  burial 
Senator  Brown  delivered  a  beautiful  and  feeling  eulogy. 

Of  the  older  leaders  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  but 
two  remain,  General  Robert  Toombs  and  Senator  Joseph 
E.  Brown.  General  Toombs  is  about  to  retire  from  pub 
lic  life.  It  is  announced  probably  by  authority  that  he 
is  to  give  up  business  entirely.  Senator  Brown  is,  there 
fore,  the  sole  active  survivor  of  the  grand  galaxy  of 
shining  historic  luminaries  that  made  Georgia  so  power 
ful  and  so  famous  in  the  majestic  events  that  preceded, 
constituted  and  followed  the  greatest  civil  war  of  human 
history.  He  is  the  connecting  link  with  a  momentous 
past,  and  yet  the  most  potential  representative  that  the 
State  now  has  of  the  most  vigorous  and  progressive 
statesmanship  of  the  present.  Of  the  generation  of 
younger  men,  filling  active  public  life,  he  is  the  admitted 
leader.  What  a  position  for  any  man  to  occupy,  illustri 
ous  exponent  of  past,  present,  and  future — type  of  the 
highest  fame,  and  public  service  of  all — symbol  and  link 
of  the  three  eras  in  their  most  valuable  public  distinc 
tion! 

It  is  a  strange  physical  fact  as  typical  of  a  curious  in 
ner  philosophy  that  Senator  Brown,  who  in  early  and 
middle  life  was  a  very  plain  person,  has  become  a  hand- 


592  A  CAREER  OF  INCREASING  LUSTRE. 

some  old  gentleman.  He  has  gained  some  fulness,  which 
always  adds  comeliness  to  a  spare  person,  and  his  flowing 
white  beard,  expansive  brow  full  of  intellectuality,  pleas 
ant  but  searching  eyes,  and  kindly  expression  of  counte 
nance  make  him  a  notable  and  attractive  individual. 
He  is  one  of  those  persons  that  every  one  can  recall  in 
every-day  life,  who  were  regarded  as  plain  men  in  their 
young  days,  who  have  flowered  under  the  beautifying 
alchemy  of  pure,  brainful,  laborious  lives  into  handsome 
ness.  Years  of  clean  thought  and  successful  endeavor, 
of  domestic  purity  and  intellectual  action,  of  victorious 
ordeal  mixed  with  enough  of  the  inevitable  chastening  of 
sorrow,  chisel  the  features  and  face  into  a  certain 
comely  result  of  these  refining  processes.  An  expres 
sive  countenance  becomes  rounded  and  softer,  and 
a  long,  beautiful  and  useful  life,  by  the  steady  attrition  of 
grace  and  power,  gives  an  increasing  attractiveness  to  a 
noted  face. 

Senator  Brown's  career  from  this  time  onward  must  be 
one  of  increasing  lustre  and  power.  In  renewed  and 
strengthening  health  at  the  solid  age  of  sixty,  when  Eng 
lish  leaders  only  get  fairly  into  power,  his  potential  states 
manship  ripened  to  highest  maturity,  backed  by  large 
wealth,  he  may  reasonably  look  forward  to  political  possi 
bilities,  if  such  he  wishes,  as  no  Georgian  yet  has  com 
passed. 


APPENDIX. 


SPKECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  IN  THE  SENATE  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES,  JUNE  12,  1880,  ox  THR  BILL  TO  PENSION  SOL 
DIERS  IN  THE  MEXICAN  AND  INDIAN  WARS;  AND  ON  RECONSTRUC 
TION  AND  THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  STATES  IN  THE  UNION. 

On  the  bill  (S.  No.  1753)  granting  pensions  to  certain  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the 
Mexican  and  other  wars  therein  named,  and  for  other  purposes. 

Mr.  Brown  said  : 

Mr.  President:  This  Government,  after  too  long  delay,  granted  pensions 
to  the  soldiers  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution  without  any  qualification  as  to 
their  wealth  or  poverty. 

We  had  the  war  of  1812.  A  long  time  passed  before  there  were  any  pen 
sions  granted  to  the  soldiers  of  that  war,  but  the  time  did  come  when  the 
Government  judged  it  was  proper,  on  account  of  the  valuable  services  ren 
dered  by  them  to  their  country,  to  grant  pensions  to  the  old  and  decrepit 
soldiers  of  the  war  of  1812.  And  I  recollect  no  provision  in  that  act  that 
drew  any  distinction  between  him  who  was  in  the  poor-house  or  the  old 
soldier  who  lived  in  good  style  and  had  means  to  support  himself.  The 
pension  was  not  for  his  poverty,  but  for  the  valuable  service  rendered  to  his 
country. 

About  thirty -four  years  ago  we  declared  war  against  Mexico,  and  the 
soldiery  of  this  country  rallied  under  the  flag  of  the  Government  and 
inarched  to  that  foreign  soil,  and  achieved  feats  of  valor  the  equal  of  which 
have  scarcely  been  known  on  any  other  fields.  They  soon  overran  the 
country,  humbled  the  government  of  Mexico,  and  dictated  terms  at  its 
capital;  and  as  the  honorable  senator  from  Texas  [Mr.  Maxey]  justly  tells 
us,  we  annexed  as  the  result  of  that  conflict  of  arms  an  empire  of  territory 
and  an  empire  of  wealth.  The  number  of  men  was  comparatively  small  who 
achieved  this  grand  result.  True,  we  have  since  pensioned  the  wounded 
and  those  who  were  disabled  in  that  war.  Time  has  passed  along,  and  many 
of  the  old  soldiers  of  the  Mexican  war,  as  it  has  been  so  well  and  so  elo 
quently  said  by  the  able  senator  from  Indiana  [Mr.  Voorhees].  are  becoming 
decrepit.  They  are  now  mostly  old  men  ;  all  except  the  youth  who  went  in 
then  are  now  gray-headed,  tirae-worn,  little  able  to  work  for  their  support. 

My  honorable  friend,  the  senator  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Williams],  in  this 
state  of  the  case  comes  forward  with  his  bill  to  pension  those  old  veterans 
who  were  his  companions  in  arms,  and  the  gallant  old  soldiers  of  the  Indian 
wars,  and  we  are  met  here  with  amendments  which  seem  to  us  to  be  intended 
to  defeat  this  measure.  I  neither  impugn  nor  question  the  motives  of  sena 
tors,  but  I  say  it  seems  to  us  this  is  the  intention  ;  and  if  the  amendments 
prevail,  that  tliis  is  to  be  the  effect.  The  amendment  of  the  senator  from 
Kansas  [Mr.  Ingalls]  is  in  substance  that  all  the  soldier.-?  who  lately  fought 
in  the  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  on  the  Union  side  are  to  be  now 
pensioned.  Another  amendment,  offered  by  the  honorable,  senator  from 
38 


594  APPENDIX. 

Maine  [Mr.  Blaine],  is,  that  the  soldiers  of  the  Mexican  war  are  only  to  be 
pensioned  where  it  is  ishowu  that  on  account  of  their  poverty  their  neces 
sities  require  it. 

As  1  have  said,  that  is  an  unusual  amendment  because  it  has  not  been  in 
corporated  in  other  bills  granting  pensions  to  soldiers  who  have  defended 
the  honor  and  the  Hag  of  their  country.  It  is  not  a  proper  time  now,  I  insist, 
to  pension  the  Union  soldiers  indiscriminately,  nor  do  I  suppose  honorable 
senators  on  the  other  side  have  any  intention  of  doing  so,  because  the  period 
has  not  arrived  which  has  brought  them  to  old  age,  or  that  has  caused  them 
on  account  of  their  age  or  infirmities  to  be  unable  to  work  for  an  honest 
living.  If  it  were  the  purpose  of  senators  to  vote  to  give  them  pensions  in 
discriminately  now,  it  would  then  be  the  object  of  my  amendment  to  post 
pone  the  operation  of  that  part  of  the  act  tilt  as  long  a  period  of  time  is  past 
after  the  service  was  rendered  as  has  already  passed  in  the  case  of  soldiers 
of  the  war  against  Mexico  and  of  the  Indian  wars. 

I  think  it  cannot  be  justly  asserted  that  we  of  the  South  have  been  illib 
eral  in  voting  pensions  to  Union  soldiers  who  were  disabled  by  the  war.  But 
we  insist  that  the  cases  are  not  parallel.  It  is  not  proper  to  put  the  Union 
soldier  on  the  pension-roll  by  the  side  of  the  old  soldier  in  the  war  against 
Mexico,  because  the  length  of  time  has  not  passed  which  disables  him  by 
age  or  infirmity  from  making  his  own  living  by  his  own  exertions  or  his  own 
labor. 

Mr.  Ingalls.     Will  it  disturb  the  senator  if  I  ask  him  a  question? 
•    Mr.  Brown.     No,  sir ;  not  at  all. 

Mr.  Ingalls.  Does  he  base  the  right  or  claim  to  a  pension  upon  the  lapse 
of  time  that  has  intervened  since  the  close  of  the  war  in  which  the  soldier 
fought,  or  upon  the  necessities  of  the  soldier  or  his  surviving  widow  ?  I 
should  like  an  answer  to  that  question. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  will  answer  the  senator's  question  by  asking  him  one. 
Does  he  in  pensioning  the  wounded  officers  of  the  Union  army  base  it  on 
their  necessities,  or  does  he  pension  the  poor  and  the  wealthy  who  lost  limbs 
all  alike  V 

Mr.  Ingalls.  There  is  a  class  of  pensions  that  are  given  to  those  who  have 
specific  disabilities  resulting  from  gunshot  wounds  or  loss  of  limbs,  and  in 
juries  of  that  description.  There  is  another  class  of  what  are  called  pensions 
to  dependent  relatives,  where  there  is  no  injury  to  the  person  receiving  the 
pension,  but  where  necessity  and  indigence  and  dependence  must  be  proved. 
But  my  question  was  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  or  not  the 
senator  believes  that  pensions  should  be  granted  simply  upon  the  fact  of 
lapse  of  time  since  the  war  closed,  or  upon  the  fact  that  there  is  a  depend 
ence  and  indigence  and  a  necessitous  condition  that  renders  help  from  the 
Government  desirable. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  think  the  period  that  has  elapsed  in  case  of  the  soldiers  of 
the  war  against  Mexico  is  long  enough,  and  that  the  pensions  ought  to  be 
granted  ;  and  the  records  will  show  that  neither  the  senator  nor  his  party, 
nor  those  on  my  side,  have  made  any  exception  in  the  case  of  wounded 
soldiers  in  the  Union  army.  As  we  have  pensioned  all  alike  without  inquir 
ing  into  their  wealth  or  their  poverty,  we  should  pension  all  alike  here  with 
out  inquiring  into  their  wealth  or  poverty. 

Mr.  Ingalls.  iSo  we  pension  all  the  wounded  soldiers  and  officers  of  the 
Mexican  war  without  inquiring  into  their  poverty  or  their  wealth.  They  all 
t-tand  on  the  same  platform. 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  it  follows  when  the  time  has  come  that  it  is  proper  to 
pension  the  officers  and  privates  who  were  not  wounded,  it  should  be  done 
without  any  regard  to  their  poverty  or  wealth. 


APPENDIX.  595 

Mr.  Tngalls.     Is  it  a  question  of  time? 

Mr.  Brown.  Yes ;  time  has  much  to  do  with  it,  and  when  the  proper  time 
corner  to  pension  the  Union  soldier,  I  care  not  if  he  is  a  millionaire,  who  was 
a  faithful  soldier  and  acted  a  gallant  part,  I  would  vote  to  pension  all  alike. 
All  who  did  the  same  service  should  have  the  same  reward. 

Mr.  Conkling.     Will  the  senator  from  Georgia  allow  me  a  minute? 

Mr.  Brown,     Yes,  sir,  with  pleasure. 

Mr.  Conkling.  He  seems  to  be  discussing  this  question  with  candor  and 
fairness. 

Mr.  Brown.     That  is  my  intention. 

Mr.  Conkling.  I  believe  it;  and  for  his  information  and  my  own  I  beg  to 
submit  to  him  this  proposition:  I  understand  the  senator  to  argue  that  time 
is  the  controlling  matter,  and  that  had  thirty-three  years  elapsed  he  would 
be  willing  to  vote  for  this  amendment  in  favor  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Union. 
I  think  1  am  right  so  far. 

Now  I  ask  the  senator  this  question,  or  rather  I  submit  to  him  in  the  form 
of  a  query  this  impression  of  my  own:  Although  the  proportion  of  men  of 
advanced  age  who  served  in  the  Mexican  war  is  of  course  immeasurably 
greater  now  than  in  the  case  of  men  who  served  in  the  war  for  the  Union,  I 
think  that,  speaking  positively,  speaking  of  actual  numbers,  there  is  a  far 
larger  number  of  men  advanced  in  age  who  served  in  the  war  for  the  Union 
than  who  served  in  the  Mexican  war,  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  the  whole 
number  of  enlisted  men  was  so  immensely  greater.  Forty-five  years  I  believe 
was  the  limit  of  age  which  subjected  men  to  the  draft.  Now,  without  saying 
that  numbers  of  men  volunteered  who  were  beyond  that  age,  the  senator 
will  see  that  a  very  large  number  of  men  who  served  in  the  war  for  the 
Union  must  be  now  upwards  of  sixty.  The  war  for  the  Union  broke  out  in 
1861 — in  18GO  in  reality,  but  I  will  say  1861;  nineteen  years  ago.  A  man 
who  was  forty-five  years  old  at  that  time  is  now  sixty-four  years  old.  Count 
all  these  men  ;  and  is  there  not  a  much  larger  number  than  of  men  surviving 
who  fought  in  the  Mexican  war  who  are  even  as  old  as  that? 

I  think  the  honorable  senator  will  be  compelled,  if  he  will  reflect  a  moment, 
to  agree  with  me ;  and  if  he  does,  then  I  beg  to  ask  him,  assuming  the  whole 
force  of  his  argument,  why  is  it  that,  with  laws  now  exactly  equal  toward 
soldiers  of  all  the  wars,  we  should  come  in  and  say  that  men  sixty  years  old 
and  upward  who  fought  in  the  Mexican  war  shall  be  paid  a  pension  although 
no  injuries  were  received  by  them,  and  that  a  much  larger  number  of  men 
of  equal  or  greater  age  shall  not  be  paid  a  farthing  unless  they  lost  limb  or 
health  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  the  senator's  argument  would  k-ad  him  to  say 
that  as  to  this  much  larger  number  at  least  of  Union  soldiers,  the  equities 
which  he  states  applied  quite  as  strongly  to  them. 

Mr.  Brown.     Mr.  President — 

Mr.  Blaine.  If  the  senator  from  Georgia  will  permit  me  one  word  in 
further  continuation  of  what  the  senator  from  New  York  has  said — 

Mr.  Brown.  I  was  just  going  to  observe  that  when  1  yielded  the  floor  to 
the  honorable  senator  fipm  New  York  [Mr.  Conkling]  to  make  an  Inquiry, 
I  did  not  expect  he  would  inject  a  speech  into  mine.  To  the  senator  from 
Maine  I  will  yield  with  pleasure. 

Mr.  Blaine.  I  only  want  to  inject  a  further  observation,  not  a  speech,  and 
that  is  in  continuation  of  the  suggestion  made.  I  do  not  believe  a  war  was 
ever  fought,  certainly  none  on  this  continent,  so  exclusively  by  young  men 
as  the  Mexican  war  was.  It  went  with  a  whirl  of  enthusiasm  through  the 
Southwest  of  this  country;  the  young  men  everywhere  flocked  to  the  stand 
ard,  and  I  presume  that  per  capita  there  never  was  a  more  irresistible  army 
than  marched  into  Mexico;  full  of  enthusiasm,  full  of  fire,  full  of  youth. 


596  APPENDIX. 

venture  to  say,  taking  tlie  age  of  the  survivors, — I  am  only  repeating,  prob 
ably  showing  the  other  side  what  has  been  said  already, — that  you  can  find 
double  the  number  of  men  over  sixty  years  of  age  who  served  in  the  war  for 
the  Union  that  you  can  find  of  men  who  served  in  the  war  with  Mexico, — 
double  the  number. 

Mr.  Conkling.     Now  at  least  double. 

Mr.  Brown.  Mr.  President,  I  have  listened  with  patience  and  with  a  great 
deal  of  interest  to  the  remarks  made  by  the  honorable  senator  from  .New 
York  and  the  honorable  senator  from  Maine.  I  have  been  entertained  by 
the  ingenuity  with  which  they  have  presented  their  argument ;  and  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  answering.  My  reply  is,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  meet  and 
act  on  those  questions  when  they  come  before  the  senate. 

When  the  senators  introduce  an  amendment  here,  which  they  have  not 
done,  to  limit  the  period  of  the  age  at  which  a  soldier  who  served  in  either 
of  the  wars  shall  draw  a  pension,  1  may  then  be  prepared  to  say  something 
on  that  subject.  Jf  the  honorable  seuator  from  New  York,  for  instance, 
chooses  now  to  introduce  an  amendment  to  pension  a  soldier  of  the  war  for 
the  Union  who  is  sixty-five  or  seventy  years  of  age,  I  may  or  may  not  be 
found  voting  with  him.  If  he  chooses  to  introduce  an  amendment  here  that 
a  soldier  who  served  in  the  war  against  Mexico  shall  not  be  pensioned  until 
he  has  arrived  at  a  certain  age,  1  may  or  may  not  be  willing  then  to  vote 
with  him.  But  no  such  question  as  that. which  the  honorable  senators  have 
pressed  on  the  consideration  of  the  senate  is  now  before  us.  I  am  discussing 
the  bill  with  the  amendments  submitted ;  and  I  am  replying  to  the  argu 
ments  which  have  been  made  on  those  amendments.  I  say  that  the  cases  of 
the  Union  soldiers  and  the  soldiers  of  the  Mexican  war  are  not  parallel ; 
because  there  were  about  two  millions  of  men  in  the  Union  army  and  about 
one  hundred  thousand,  I  believe,  in  the  army  against  Mexico;  and  the  pro 
portion  of  old  men  in  the  Union  army  that  served  any  length  of  time  may 
not  have  been  much  greater  than  in  the  Mexican  war  ;  but  I  presume  it  was 
something  greater,  because  they  were  called  out  sometimes  for  mere  local 
service  for  thirty  days;  and  I  give  the  senators  the  benefit  of  all  that;  but 
1  say  that  does  not  'affect  the  question  we  are  now  discussing.  1  will  meet 
the  question  presented  by  the  two  able  senators  when  it  comes  in  shape  for 
action  before  the  senate. 

The  time  has  come  when  I  think  it  is  proper  to  pension  the  soldiers  of  the 
war  against  Mexico  and  the  Indian  wars;  and  when  amendments  come  up 
as  to  limiting  the  period  of  time  or  the  age  when  they  shall  have  it,  I  will 
then  consider  that  question.  When  interrupted  by  the  three  honorable  sen 
ators  I  was  discussing  the  amendment  of  the  senator  from  Maine,  by  which 
he  proposes  to  pension  in  the  case  of  the  soldiers  against  Mexico  only  those 
who  are  indigent;  and  I  was  attempting  to  show  the  senate  that>that  was 
an  exception  never  made  heretofore  in  a  general  pension  bill,  and  that  it 
was  not  a  proper  one  to  make  against  the  men  who  had  performed  the  feats 
of  gallantry  and  had  achieved  the  grand  results  that  the  men  did  who  fought 
against  Mexico.  That  is  about  what  I  desired  to  say  upon  that  point. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  a  few  remarks  upon  another  point. 

The  honorable  senator  from  New  lrork  [Mr.  Conkling],  it  is  true,  did 
not  say  that  the  senators  on  this  floor  who  fought  on  the  Confederate  side  of 
the  late  war,  which  he  terms  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  sit  here  by  the  grace 
of  the  Government,  of  the  senators  on  the  other  side,  or  of  the  party  to 
which  the  honorable  senator  belongs;  but  why,  let  me  ask  that  honorable 
senator,  was  it  necessary  to  throw  out  the  idea  on  that  point,  that  we  sit 
here  under  circumstances  where  the  title  to  our  seats  might  at  least  by  im 
plication  be  questioned  ? 


APPENDIX.  507 

The  honorable  senator  in  his  interrogatories  to  the  senator  from  Texas 
desired  to  know  whether  the  result  achieved  by  the  Union  army  in  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  Union  was  not  much  greater,  more  grand  and  glorious  than 
the  result  achieved  by  the  soldiers  in  the  war  against  Mexico.  On  this 
point  I  desire  to  say  that  I  must  -suppose  now  that  Providence  overruled 
our  efforts  to  secede  from  the  Union,  and  I  presume  a  wise  Providence  had 
a  grand  object  in  thnt  result,  and,  if  He  had,  He  will  doubtless  continue  to 
develop  His  designs  until  the  achievements  of  the  Union  army  in  restor 
ing  the  Union  may  be  above  comparison  with  the  achievements  of  any  other 
army  that  ever  went  into  the  field.  If  I  am  right  as  to  the  Divine  will  in 
this  matter,  then  I  trust  these  grand  and  glorious  results  may  be  perpetual, 
and  may  bring  us  with  good  government,  unbounded  wealth  and  unlimited 
prosperity. 

But  why,  let  me  ask,  are  we  thus  told  by  the  senator  from  New  York, 
gently,  delidfctely,  mildly,  that  we  hold  title  to  our  seats  hereby  grace? 
Your  armies  fought,  as  you  claimed,  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union;  you 
could  not  preserve  it  without  representatives  from  all  the  States  in  this 
chamber.  The  Constitution  of  our  fathers,  the  compact  of  union  of  our 
fathers,  requires  that  each  State  shall  have  two  representatives  of  her  own 
free  choice  in  this  chamber;  and  I  care  not  how  long  a  State  has  been  in 
rebellion,  when  she  lays  down  her  arms  and  you  refuse  to  permit  her  sena 
tors  to  come  back  into  this  Senate  and  occupy  their  peats  you  do  that  which 
you  did  not  profess  to  do  during  the  war ;  you  destroy  the  Union  of  the 
Constitution  by  refusing  to  permit  the  different  departments  of  the  Govern 
ment  to  perform  the  functions  required  by  the  Constitution. 

The  State  of  Georgia  has  a  right  to  two  senators  on  this  floor  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  country,  and  they  hold  their  seats  here  by  the  grace  of 
no  political  party,  of  no  government,  of  no  department  of  government,  and 
of  no  other  power  on  the  face  of  this  earth  except  a  guarantied  right  under 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  We  sit  here  as  a  matter  of  right, 
and  not  as  matter  of  grace. 

True,  we  attempted  to  go  out  of  the  Union.  I  grant  it.  I  was  a  seces 
sionist,  earnest  and  active  ;  I  mince  nothing  about  it.  Georgia  sent  about 
one  hundred  regiments  into  the  field  against  you,  organized  by  me  as  gov 
ernor  of  my  State  or  called  in  under  the  conscript  act  of  the  Confederate 
States,  which,  as  all  know,  I  did  not  approve.  We  fought  you  honestly. 
We  were  as  earnest,  as  honest,  as  bold,  and  as  gallant  as  you  were  in  the 
struggle.  We  believed  we  were  right. 
Mr.  Kirk  wood.  And  believe  it  yet? 

Mr.  Brown.  Yes,  sir ;  I  believe  it  yet.  I  say  we  were  right  on  princi 
ple  at  the  time.  I  will  give  the  senator  the  full  benefit,  and  then  I  will  say 
frankly  to  the  senator  from  Iowa  two  great  questions  brought  the  war  about. 
They  were  slavery  and  our  differences  on  the  right  of  secession.  Two  great 
questions,  the  discussion  and  agitation  of  which  shook  this  country  from 
centre  to  circumference.  Bold  men,  enthusiastic  men,  I  may  say  patriotic 
men,  each  believing  they  were  right  advocated  their  own  ground  with  zeal 
and  ability. 

We  of  the  South  believed  we  had  a  right  to  slavery  guarantied  by  the 
Constitution  of  our  fathers.  The  people  of  New  England  and  Old  England 
imported  the  slaves.  You  did  not  find  it  profitable  to  continue  to  use 
them,  and  you  sold  them  to  our  fathers.  As  you  did  not  find  it  profitable 
and  it  could  be  made  profitable  in  the  south/ you  sold  them  to  our  fathers, 
took  their  money,  which  you  put  into  brick  and  mortar,  factories,  shipping 
and  other  profitable  investments  that  built  you  up  and  made  you  a  great 
people.  I  would  detract  nothing  from  your  merits.  I  admire  your  industry, 


598  APPENDIX. 

I  admire  your  educational  institutions,  and  I  admire  your  prosperity,  and 
wish  you  well  in  it. 

Your  people,  after  the  importation  of  slaves  had  ceased,  became  dissatis 
fied  with  slavery  when  we  became  prosperous  with  it,  and  without  going 
over  the  ground  so  often  occupied,  which  I  do  not  intend  to  do  here,  sufiu-e 
it  to  say  we  reached  the  point  where  you  had  elected  a  President  on  a  sec 
tional  issue  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  we  of  the  South  thought 
we  saw  in  this  no  other  alternative  than  the  ultimate  downfall  of  slavery, 
or  the  exercise  of  what  we  considered  the  inherent  right  of  secession  and 
withdrawing  from  the  Union. 

On  this  issue  you  resorted  to  arms  to  compel  us  to  remain  in  the  Union. 
We  met  you  in  the  high  court  of  your  own  choice,  knowing  that  on  the 
issue  of  that  litigation  was  involved  the  question  of  slavery  as  well  as  the 
right  of  secession.  I  believed  then  and  I  believe  now  that  the  right  of 
secession  was  inherent  in  the  several  States,  but  when  we  stltked  it  upon 
the  issue  as  joined  we  were  bound  honorably  and  in  good  faith  to  abide  by 
the  judgment  of  that  highest  of  human  tribunals,  the  ultima  ratio  regnm. 
The  result  of  that  litigation  in  that  high  court  of  last  resort  was  the  arbi 
trament  of  the  sword  that  slavery  was  abolished,  perpetually,  forever  abol- 
i->hed,  and  must  always  remain  abolished,  and  that  ours  is  an  indestructible 
Union  of  indestructible  States.  And  as  I  said  in  the  senate  the  other  day, 
While  I  would  have  given  my  life  then  to  maintain  our  institution  of  slavery 
believing  it  was  for  the  best  interests  of  both  races,  morally,  politically, 
socially,  and  religiously,  yet,  if  by  turning  my  hand  over  to-day  I  could  re 
instate  it  I  would  not  do  so.  I  accept  the  result,  feel  bound  by  the  judg 
ment,  and  shall  never  move  for  a  new  trial.  And  I  say  the  same  as  to  the 
question  of  secession ;  I  consider  it  forever  settled. 

I  did  think  a  State  had  the  right  to  secede,  and  still  think  it  had,  but  the 
decision  of  that  high  court,  as  already  stated,  was  against  the  right  and 
against  my  judgment  of  the  right,  and  I  feel  bound  by  that  decision,  which 
settled  the  question  finally,  perpetually,  forever. 

Now,  will  the  senator  from  Iowa  please  put  that  with  the  other  answer? 
That  is  where  I  stand.  I  hold  that  a  great  war  like  the  late  war  between  the 
States  always  settles  something.  The  war  of  the  Revolution  settled  some 
thing.  We  went  into  that  war  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  ;  we  came  out 
a  free  country,  with  free  and  independent  States.  There  was  no  question 
that  the  English  government  had  the  right  to  control  us  as  colonies  under 
her  charters  before  that  war.  It  is  equally  clear  that'she  has  no  right  to  do 
it  now.  Why?  Because  the  war  settled  that  question  and  settled  it  for 
ever.  It  settled  it  against  England  ;  it  settled  it  in  our  favor,  and  we  are 
no  longer  the  subjects  of  the  British  Crown.  In  this  view  of  the  subject  it 
must  be  admitted  that  wars  do  often  legislate,  or  at  least  they  decide  dis 
puted  rights. 

Mr.  Kirkwood.     Will  the  senator  allow  me? 

Mr.  Brown.  Not  this  moment.  The  parallel,  to  some  extent,  of  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  is  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  as  you  term  it,  and  as  we  must 
all  term  it  on  account  of  our  failure.  At  the  time  we  did  not  so  consider  it. 
If  we  had  succeeded  we  would  have  been  patriots  and  heroes,  but  having 
failed  we  were  rebels  ;  consequently  we  must  accept  the  term  "  the  war  of 
the  rebellion."  That  war  settles  it  permanently  and  absolutely  that  slavery 
is  dead  and  that  the  right  of  secession  is  lost  and  gone  forever,  just  as  the 
war  of  the  Revolution  settled  the  fact  that  we  were  no  longer  colonists  of 
the  English  government.  But  while  that  was  true,  it  did  not  settle  the  fact 
that  the  States  had  no  rights  in  the  Union.  It  settled  and  settled  perpet 
ually,  the  question  of  our  right  to  go  out.  That  will  never  be  contested 


APPENDIX.  599 

again,  but  we  stand  with  whatever  reserved  rights  we  originally  had  in  the 
Union  under  the  Constitution,  with  the  perfect  right  of  State  representation 
upon  this  floor,  without  favor  or  grace  from  any  quarter,  and  with  the 
perfect  right  of  local  self-government  as  practiced  by  the  fathers,  limited 
only  by  the  new  amendments  to  the  Constitution.  And  so  has  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  effect  decided  since  the  war. 

Many  of  the  senators  on  the  other  side  were  Whigs  originally,  and  I  will 
admit  that  we  stand  to-day  in  this  Government  more  nearly  upon  the 
original  platform  of  the  Whig  party  than  that  of  the  Democratic  party,  to 
which  I  belong  and  in  whose  fold  I  was  reared.  We  cannot  now  stand  to 
the  full  extent  upo_n  the  doctrines  of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  be 
cause  the  war,  so  far  as  the  right  of  secession  is  concerned,  has  settled  that 
against  us;  but  we  can  stand  upon  the  doctrines  of  Clay,  Jackson,  and 
Webster  as  to  the  rights  of  the  States.  And  there  is  where  I  think  we  do 
stand,  and  where  all  States  and  parties  should  continue  to  stand. 

Now  a  word  further  in  reference  to  our  right  to  be  here.  I  admit  at  the 
end  of  the  war,  when  we  were  the  vanqui.-hed  you  were  the  conquerors, 
and  I  as  an  original  secessionist,  believing  we  had  gone  out  of  the  Union 
and  had  been  conquered,  admitted  your  right  to  dictate  the  terms  as  con 
querors. 

When  President  Johnson  committed  the  great  mistake  of  not  calling 
Congress  together  and  submitting  his  plans  to  them  before  he  attempted 
to  reconstruct  the  Southern  States,  and  dictated  his  terms,  I  advised  our 
people  instantly  to  accept  them.  Why?  Because  as  I  understood  it  we 
had  seceded  and  you  had  made  war  upon  us,  and  in  that  war  you  were  the 
conquerors,  and  you  had  a  right  to  dictate  the  terms ;  and  as  the  President  alone, 
in  the  absence  of  Congress,  represented  the  conquerors,  1  bowed  to  his  dic 
tation.  We  had  no  one  else  to  appeal  to. 

When  Congress  assembled,  and  the  Republican  party,  being  largely  in  the 
majority,  repudiated  his  action  and  took  the  matter  in  hand,  you  dictated 
terms  that  we  of  the  South  thought  very  hard ;  but  hard  as  I  thought  they 
were,  as  a  matter  of  necessity  and  because  there  was  no  escape  from  it,  I 
advised  our  people  at  once  to  recognize  your  authority,  acquiesce,  and 
promptly  comply  with  your  dictation.  \Ve  had  tried  resistance  to  your  author 
ity  when  we  had  nearly  half  a  million  of  gallant  men  under  arms,  and  by  your 
superior  numbers  and  resources  you  had  decimated  our  ranks  and  compelled 
us  to  surrender.  At  the  end  of  the  struggle  you  had,  I  believe,  over  twelve 
hundred  thousand  troops  organized  and  on  your  muster  rolls,  in  service  and 
ready  for  service.  Having  failed  to  make  effective  resistance  while  our 
armies  were  in  the  field,  I  saw  no  hope  of  it  after  they  had  surrendered  and  you 
remained  armed  and  equipped  in  all  the  plenitude  of  your  power.  In  this 
state  of  the  case  I  was  satisfied  the  wisest  thing  our  people  could  do  was  to 
agree  with  the  adversary  quickly.  I  thought  it  of  the  first  importance  to 
get  back  into  the  Union  and  get  rightful  representation  in  Congress  as 
States,  even  upon  the  unjust  terms  of  your  dictation.  And  I  so  advised 
our  people. 

It  is  true  I  went  through  a  hard  ordeal  on  account  of  that  advice,  but  I 
have  never  yet  regretted  it,  because  I  thought  it  was  best  for  my  section 
and  best  for  the  whole  country.  And  I  think  it  will  be  generally  admitted 
that  time  has  proven  the  correctness  of  my  judgment.  I  then  stood  upon 
the  platform  of  acquiescence  in  the  reconstruction  measures  dictated  by 
Congress.  I  still  stand  there.  The  Democratic  party  of  the  whole  Union 
stands  there  to-day,  and  has  stood  there  for  the  last  eight  years.  I  supported 
Grant  in  1868.  The  national  Democratic  party  supported  Greeley  in  1872. 
It  seemed  to  me  we  were  then  together  again.  And  I  have  constantly  acted 


600  APPENDIX. 

with  them  since  then.  But  at  that  time  other  eminent  gentlemen  differed 
with  ine.  They  were  honest  as  I  was.  I  impugn  the  motives  of  nobody. 
I  only  speak  of  the  history  of  those  events.  I  am  aware,  gentlemen,  that 
you  considered  us  still  very  rebellious,  because  the  section  to  which  I  be 
longed,  the  States  lately  in  rebellion,  did  not  instantly  acquiesce  in  every 
thing  you  dictated.  Let  us  look  at  this  a  little  and  see  if  you  ought  not  to 
have  viewed  our  course  with  a  little  more  fairness,  not  to  say  charity.  It 
seems  to  me  justice  required  that  in  passing  upon  our  acts  you  should  have 
taken  into  the  account  our  true  condition  and  the  great  embarrassments  of 
our  situation. 

\Ve  may  have  made  a  great  mistake  in  going  into  the  war.  I  think,  how 
ever,  there  was  no  other  way  on  earth  to  get  rid  of  the  slavery  question.  It 
was  only  a  question  whether  we  would  fight  it  out  or  our  children  would 
have  to  fight  it  out.  Be  that  as  it  may,  we  went  into  it  a  wealthy  people. 
We  lost  by  the  results  of  the  war  over  two  thousand  million  dollars'  worth 
of  slaves.  We  supported  our  own  armies  for  four  years  out  of  our 
substance.  It  is  true  the  Confederate  government  and  the  States  issued 
bonds  and  notes,  but  at  the  end  of  the  war  you  required  us  to  repudiate 
them  absolutely  :  and  I  admit  you  had  a  shadow  of  reason  for  that.  It  was 
said  there  were  Union  men  in  those  States,  and  Union  men  had  a  right  to 
go  there  and  settle,  and  that  no  Union  man  should  be  taxed  for  the  purpose 
of  paying  the  war  debts  of  the  Confederate  States.  That  was  the  most 
feasible  grounds  on  which  you  put  it.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  you  required  us 
to  repudiate  those  obligations,  and  the  result  was  as  stated,  we  supported 
our  armies  for  four  years  out  of  our  own  substance. 

Then  we  returned  to  the  Union  as  soon  as  you  would  let  us.  It  is  true 
we  were  in  rather  an  awkward  dilemma  for  a  time.  During  the  war  you 
said  we  had  no  right  to  go  out;  that  we  never  were  out;  that  our  ordinances 
of  secession  were  nullities;  that  we  were  all  the  time  in  the  Union.  Well, 
we  surrendered,  after  we  had  made  as  gallant  a  fight  as  we  could,  and  we 
came  back  with  our  representatives  ready  to  acquiesce  in  your  theory,  and 
in  good  faith  resume  our  place  in  the  Union,  and  you  refused  to  admit  us. 
You  said  we  were  in  while  we  were  fighting  you,  but  we  found  we  were  out 
when  we  laid  down  our  arms.  However,  after  a  long  struggle  you  did 
admit  us,  but  on  what  terms?  You,  by  the  fourteenth  constitutional  amend 
ment  and  the  reconstruction  acts,  disfranchised  every  man  who  had  held 
office  and  taken  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  from  voting  for  dele 
gates  to  the  conventions  held  under  the  reconstruction  acts,  and  after  that 
period,  not  from  voting,  but  from  holding  office  until  relieved  by  Congress. 

Well,  now  look  at  that.  You  will  at  least  admit  that  the  people  of  the 
South  were  a  gallant  people.  And  you  can  readily  imagine  how  keenly  they 
felt  terms  of  that  character.  They  thought  it  was  hard,  even  cruel,  that  you 
should  impose  such  terms ;  but  you  did  impose  them.  Furthermore,  when 
you  finally  let  us  back  into  the  Union,  we  of  course  had  to  assume  our  part 
of  the  expenses  of  the  war  on  your  side.  In  other  words,  in  proportion  to 
our  means  we  had  to  pay  our  part  of  the  debt  contracted  for  the  support  of 
the  Union  armies,  and  not  only  so,  but  we  have  to  pay  our  part  of  the  very 
large  sum  that  is  now  annually  appropriated  to  pension  Union  soldiers,  and 
I  grudge  not  a  dollar  of  it  to  them,  for  they  were  gallant  men  fighting  for 
their  honest  convictions.  On  the  other  hand  I  think  you  should  sympathize 
with  the  poor  maimed  soldier  who  on  our  side  felt  that  he  was  fighting  in  as 
sacred  a  cause  as  yours,  and  believed  he  was  right,  who  can  draw  no  pension 
because  he  was  on  the  weaker  side. 

But  that  was  not  all.  You  set  our  slaves  free  as  I  have  said,  and  then  very 
soon  after  that,  you  put  the  ballot  in  their  hands  to  go  to  the  polls  by  the 


APPENDIX.  601 

side  of  those  who  had  lately  been  their  masters  and  owners,  and  exercise  the 
elective  franchise. 

Now  I  beg  senators  to  remember  that  all  these  things  taken  together  were 
very  trying  to  a  gallant  people.  A  people  who  had  gone  into  the  war  from 
honest  conviction  that  they  were  right,  who  had  lost  in  the  contest  under  cir 
cumstances  like  these,  would  very  naturally  feel  the  defeat  and  the  terms  im 
posed  by  the  conqueror  keenly,  and  it  would  have  been  remarkable  if  there 
had  been  no  riots,  no  bloodshed,  no  lynch  law,  nothing  there  to  disturb  the 
quiet  of  society.  It  is  only  remarkable,  when  we  think  of  all  we  had  to  undergo 
in  the  reconstruction  period,  and  the  losses  of  the  war,  and  the  irritations  grow 
ing  out  of  it,  where  every  family  had  lost  a  father,  a  brother,  or  a  son,  to  say 
nothing  of  property,  not  that  we  should  have  had  so  much  of  disorder,  but 
remarkable  that  we  did  not  have  more  of  it.  Place  yourselves  in  our  situa 
tion,  with  our  misfortunes,  and  tell  me  if  you  think  your  people  would  have 
acted  with  greater  moderation  or  less  of  violence. 

Now  the  senator  from  Kansas  [Mr.  Ingalls]  tells  us  that  if  this  Bill  passes 
we  put  upon  the  pension-rolls  a  portion  of  the  old  Mexican  soldiers  and  the 
soldiers  of  the  Indian  wars  who  fought  in  the  war  of  the  rebellion  under  the 
rebel  flag.  I  have  no  doubt  that  will  be  so,  because  they  were  as  gallant  a 
body  of  men  as  you  ever  knew  when  they  fought  under  the  Union  flag.  And 
when  their  section  was  invaded,  and  they  were  satisfied  they  were  ri^ht,  they 
rallied  to  arms  and  tLey  did  fight  like  heroes  under  the  rebel  flag.  But,  after 
all  the  hard  terms  you  put  upon  us,  after  all  we  have  had  to  suffer,  as  just  re 
cited,  are  these  gallant  old  heroes  to  be  still  further  punished?  Is  the  bloody 
shirt  to  wave  forever?  Is  there  to  be  no  time  when  the  offence  of  fighting 
gallantly  for  honest  convictions  is  condoned? 

We  do  not  ask  you,  senators,  to  pension  them  because  they  fought  in  the 
war  of  the  rebellion,  but  give  them  pensions  because  they  fought  in  the  war 
against  Mexico,  under  the  flag  of  the  Union.  You  say  you  forgive  the  balance. 
You  do  not  require  us  now  to  take  the  oath  that  we  did  not  engage  in  the  re 
bellion  before  we  can  hold  office.  You  permit  the  mass  of  our  people  to  go  to 
the  polls  by  the  side  of  their  former  slaves  and  vote.  Why,  then,  will  you 
make  the  point  here,  that  these  old  heroes  served  in  the  rebel  army,  when 
asked  to  give  them  pensions  for  the  service  done  upon  a  foreign  field  under 
the  Union  flag  ?  I  think  senators  on  the  other  side  will  not  be  so  illiberal  as 
that.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  illiberality.  "Now,  when  the  war  is  over,  and  you 
have  dictated  the  terms  and  enjoyed  the  results,  you  might  at  least  be  content 
to  waive  further  reference  to  the  conduct  of  these  gallant  men,  who  were  act 
ing  under  honest  convictions  during  the  late  civil  strife,  and  give  them  pen 
sions  for  valuable  services  rendered  to  the  Union.  Why  not? 

While  on  the  floor  I  want  to  say  a  few  words  about  another  subject  that  is 
not  exactly  germane  to  this  issue,  but  I  shall  not  have  another  opportunity, 
and  as  it  is  in  reply  to  remarks  that  dropped  on  the  first  day  I  sat  in  the 
senate  from  senators  on  that  side,  I  ask  your  indulgence.  It  is  in  reference 
to  the  treatment  of  the  colored  race  by  the  people  of  the  South  since  the  war. 
I  know  that  much  was  said  about  sworn  testimony  as  to  riots  and  bloodshed 
in  the  South  soon  after  the  war.  Much  of  this  testimony  was  from  sources 
wholly  unreliable  and  unworthy  of  credit.  But  I  have  admitted  that  there 
was  some  of  it,  and  have  given  you  the  reasons  for  it.  Now  allow  me  to  tell 
you  that  that  day  has  passed.  In  my  State — and  I  can  speak  more  certainly 
in  reference  to  it  because  I  am  better  informed  there — we  have  as  orderly  a 
community  to-day  as  senators  from  the  northern  section  of  the  Union  have 
in  theirs.  Law  and  order  reign  supreme,  and  he  who  inflicts  an  injury  upon 
a  colored  man  must  answer  for  it  to  the  law.  Not  only  that ;  the  colored  race 
has  behaved  well ;  they  are  working  well,  and  we  feel  most  kindly  toward 


602  APPENDIX. 

them.  Why  should  we  not?  They  were  raised  in  our  households;  tlie  mas 
ter  and  the  mistress  of  the  premises  h;id  the  responsibility  of  looking  after 
and  caring  for  them.  That  responsibility  added  to  the  common  dictates  of 
humanity  and  our  interest  in  them  made  us  treat  them  well.  There  were 
some  bad  slaveholders  as  there  are  some  bad  husbands  and  guardians  in  North 
ern  States ;  but  such  was  not  the  rule. 

When  the  war  came  the  newspapers  on  your  side  predicted  that  it  must  be 
of  short  duration  because  our  negroes  would  rise  in  insurrection  and  soon  dis 
band  our  armies.  Well,  I  confess  we  were  not  without  some  apprehension  on 
that  subject,  and  they  could  have  disbanded  Lee's  army  any  moment  they  had 
risen  in  insurrection  in  the  rear.  I  mention  that  to  show  you  the  kindly  under 
standing  that  existed  between  the  two  races  at  the  time.  There  was  no  bad 
feeling  there  between  them,  and  during  the  whole  period  of  the  struggle, 
where  they  were  not  torn  away  from  us  by  the  Union  armies  intervening,  they 
behaved  as  well  as  any  race  could  behave,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  testifying 
to  it. 

When  General  Sherman  invaded  the  territory  of  my  State  and  I  called  out, 
in  addition  to  the  very  large  number  in  Confederate  service,  the  old  men  up 
to  fifty-five  and  the  boys  down  to  sixteen,  it  was  an  extraordinary  levy  on 
account  of  the  invasion.  The  whole  manhood  of  the  white  race  was  in  the 
martial  field  and  the  whole  manhood  of  the  colored  race  was  in  the  corn-field 
and  the-  cotton-field.  They  had  it  in  their  power  to  disband  our  armies,  but 
they  did  not  choose  to  do  it,  and  when  the  news  would  come  of  one  of  Lee's 
or  Stonewall  .Jackson's  brilliant  movements  and  splendid  victories,  I  have  seen 
them  throw  their  caps  high  into  the  air  and  shout  for  joy  over  it.  The  only 
inquiry  was,  "  How  is  Massa  John  or  Massa  Tom  ?  Is  he  out  safe  ?  "  Hence 
I  say  we  have  no  reason  to  feel  unkindly  toward  them. 

Then  again  at  the  end  of  the  war  when  you  gave  them  the  ballot  by  our 
side,  without  education,  without  training,  without  any  state  of  probation,  it 
was  certainly  a  dangerous  experiment.  We  anticipated,  it  is  true,  great 
trouble,  and  we  did  have  trouble,  because  that  class  of  men  called  carpet-bag 
gers,  who  were  adventurers,  who  had  no  stake  at  home,  came  down  and  took 
charge  of  them  and  often  misled  and  deceived  them,  and  in  that  way  we  had 
trouble ;  but  take  it  altogether  they  behaved  then — and  I  take  pleasure  in  testi 
fying  to  it — better  than  probably  almost  any  other  face  would  have  done  under 
similar  circumstances.  Then  I  say  we  are  not  hostile  to  the  colored  race. 
We  are  their  friends  and  they  are  our  friends. 

Now,  a  little  further.  Soon  after  the  war,  and  during  the  reconstruction 
period,  the  question  of  their  education  came  up.  It  was  a  very  vexed  question. 
The  leaders  of  the  two  races  came  together  when  the  first  Legislature  under 
the  reconstruction  acts  was  in  session — and  a  considerable  proportion  of  it 
was  colored — to  confer  on  that  subject  as  to  what  was  best  to  be  done.  I 
recollect  a  delegation  of  them  came  to  my  office — I  was  then  on  the  supreme 
bench  as  chief  justice  of  my  State — and  asked  my  advice  about  it,  and  1  know 
they  asked  the  advice  of  other  gentlemen  very  freely.  I  said,  "  We  cannot 
have  mixed  schools  ;  you  build  a  school-house  for  your  children  on  one  bill, 
and  we  will  build  for  ours  upon  another,  and  we  will  divide  the  money  with 
you  honestly  and  faithfully  ;  you  shall  have  your  honest  pro  rata  according 
to  the  number  of  children  you  have  within  the  school  age,  and  though  we  have 
to  pay  it — and  as  a  people  we  are  left  very  poor — we  believe  it  right  that  you 
have  your  part  of  it,  and  we  will  see  that  you  get  it."  At  the  time  we  could 
not  make  lnrge  appropriations  for  that  purpose,  but  we  did  the  best  we  could 
and  divided  the  fund  fairly.  It  has  since  increased  till  I  see  by  the  last  report 
of  our  able  State  school  commissioner  we  now  raise  and  apply  to  public  schools 
in  our  State  about  $400,000  annually. 


APPENDIX.  G03 

i 

Mr.  Teller.     I  wish  to  ask  the  senator  what  Legislature  he  speaks  of  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  speak  of  the  Reconstruction  Legislature,  the  one  immedi 
ately  after  the  Reconstruction  convention. 

Mr.  Teller.  The  senator,  I  suppose,  does  not  speak  of  the  Legislature 
that  assembled  before  the  ballot  was  given  to  the  colored  people  in  his  State? 

Mr.  Brown.     Before  what,  sir? 

Mr.  Teller.  You  had  a  session  of  the  Legislature  before  the  colored  people 
were  given  the  ballot,  had  you  not? 

Mr.  Brown.  Yes,  there  was  a  session  of  the  Legislature  under  the  Johnson 
government,  as  you  may  term  it. 

Mr.  Teller.  In  the  Legislature  that  assembled  after  reconstruction  the 
negroes  had  control  of  the  Legislature  by  their  numbers,  had  they  not? 

Mr.  Brown.  No,  sir;  there  was  not  more  than  a  third;  I  do  not  remember 
the  exact  number,  but  my  recollection  is  there  was  not  quite  a  third  of  the 
members  who  were  colored  men.  The  white  men  had  the  control  of  the 
Legislature. 

The  question  came  up  also  as  to  the  education  of  their  sons  at  college,  and 
they  asked  what  about  that.  We  said  to  them,  "In  the  present  state  of  feel 
ing  here  if  you  send  your  sons  to  college  with  ours,  there  will  be  trouble  and 
probably  it  will  break  up  the  college,  but  we  will  build  you  a  college;  select 
your  place  ;  we  will  appropriate  money  out  of  the  treasury  to  construct  your 
'buildings  for  you,  and  we  will  appropriate  exactly  the  same  amount  annually 
to  your  college  that  we  do  to  our  own,  or  if  you  will  adopt  a  college  that  a 
noble  charitable  society  of  New  England  has  already  located  in  Atlanta,  and 
they  will  waive  the  denominational  feature,  we  will  adopt  that  as  the  colored 
college  of  the  State,  and  we  will  make  the  appropriation  to  it. 

Prior  to  that  time  we  had  appropriated  annually  $8,000  to  our  State 
University.  That  year  we  appropriated  $8,000  each  to  the  college  for 
the  whites  and  the  college  for  the  colored.  A  colored  member  went  into 
the  Legislature  and  moved  that  the  schools  be  kept  forever  separate.  A 
white  member  thereupon  moved  that  the  colored  race  should  have  their  fair 
proportion  of  the  fund.  Both  propositions  were  adopted  and  a  fair  division 
was  made.  It  was  just  and  it  was  right.  It  was  true  one  of  the  executives 
of  the  State  since  did  recommend  that  the  $8,000  a  year  to  the  colored  col 
lege  be  discontinued  for  what  he  considered  good  reasons,  but  after  the  ques 
tion  had  been  thoroughly  canvassed  in  the  Legislature  the  appropriation  was 
made  by  a  majority  so  overwhelming  that  there  was  scarcely  any  division 
upon  it.  Then  when  our  cenvention  of  1877  met,  which  framed  our  present 
Constitution,  they  incorporated  into  it  the  fundamental  principle  that  the 
State  should  continue  to  make  suitable  appropriations  to  maintain  a  colored 
college. 

The  city  of  Atlanta  maintains  a  system  of  public  schools.  It  employs 
sixty-odd  teachers  in  the  public  schools.  They  are  paid  out  of  the  treasury 
by  taxation  of  the  people.  Part  of  the  schools  were  built  for  "the  colored 
race  and  part  for  the  white,  and  they  have  had  equal  justice  there  all  the 
while,  and  there  is  no  complaint  whatever;  at  least  I  hear  none,  and  I  have 
been  a  member  of  the  board  since  its  organization.  Therefore  I  say  the  col- 
o  ed  people  are  satisfied.  We  have  given  them  fair  play  in  the  educational 
system  of  the  State  throughout. 

We  employ  the  colored  people.  They  are  the  best  laborers  we  can  get. 
You  may  talk  about  German  immigration,  Chinese  immigration,  or  any Bother 
immigration  into  the  State,  I  would  not  give  the  negro  as  a  laborer  in  the 
cotton-field  for  any  man  of  any  race.  They  are  laboring  there  faithfully  and 
we  are  paying  them  justly,  and  we  intend  to  continue  to  do  so.  Many  of 
them  are  accumulating  property.  We  are  glad  of  it.  Wre  feel  kindly  toward 


604  APPENDIX. 

them.  We  wish  them  well.  You  made  them  citizens  and  we  now  wish  to 
aid  them  to  be  good  citizens,  and  to  become  useful  members  of  society.  To 
that  end  we  shall  do  all  in  our  power. 

I  know  I  should  beg  the  pardon  of  the  senate  for  making  this  digression, 
as  it  is  not  germane  to  this  particular  debate;  but  while  on  the  floor  I  have 
asked  the  privilege,  because  I  think  some  honorable  senators  on  the  other 
side  the  other  day,  from  the  tenor  of  their  speeches,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  case  in  the  past,  did  not  understand  the  facts  of  the  case  or  the  relations 
as  they  exist  between  the  two  races  in  our  State  at  the  present  time. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  I  have  gone  through  substantially  what  I  desired  to 
say.  1  have  already  said  that  we  are  paying  our  part  of  the  taxes  to  pension 
your  wounded  soldiers,  and  we  do  not  grudge  it  to  them,  though  we  deeply 
deplore  the  fact  that  ours  have  no  pensions.  The  only  chance,  probably,  for 
the  South  to  have  a  little  in  return  is  for  you  to  give  pensions  to  there  old 
Mexican  veterans,  and  veterans  of  the  Indian  wars.  I  know  senators  on  the 
other  side  cannot  be  charged  with  want  of  generosity;  but,  I  ask,  is  it  gener 
ous  in  the  present  state  of  the  case  to  refuse  a  little  pittance  to  those  men 
who  composed  that  grand  army  of  invasion  of  Mexico,  the  superior  of  which, 
according  to  its  numbers,  has  never  been  known  upon  the  planet  that  we  in 
habit?  I  appeal  to  senators  to  withdraw  the  objection,  and,  at  least,  do  that 
much  for  the  men  who  served  so  gallantly  under  the  flag  of  the  Union  so  long 
ago,  both  in  the  Indian  wars  and  the  Mexican  war,  and  do  not  lay  to  their 
account  the  fact  that,  pursuing  their  honest  convictions,  they  have  since  served 
their  own  States  and  their  own  section  in  what  you  term  the  war  of  the  re 
bellion.  It  seems  to  me,  after  all  that  has  been  condoned  and  all  we  have 
suffered,  that  might  be  passed  over  on  this  occasion,  and  that  your  magna 
nimity  might  prompt  you  to  act  liberally  toward  them. 

When  we  returned  to  the  Union  we  did  so  in  good  faith.  The  question  of 
the  right  of  secession  is  settled  forever,  and  with  its  settlement  our  faith  is 
pledged  to  stand  by  and  defend  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  In  the  field 
you  found  the  Southern  armies  to  be  brave  men,  and  brave  men  are  never 
treacherous.  Should  our  relations  with  foreign  powers  at  any  time  involve 
this  government  in  war,  the  people  of  the  North  will  have  no  reason  to  com 
plain  of  the  promptness,  earnestness,  and  gallantry  with  which  the  people  of 
the  Southern  States  will  rally  around  the  old  flag  and  bear  it  triumphantly 
wherever  duty  calls.  If  that  emergency  were  now  upon  us,  the  comrades  in 
arms  of  Sherman  and  Johnston,  who  once  confronted  each  other  with  such 
distinguished  heroism,  would  rally  together  in  the  cause  of  the  Union,  and, 
vying  with  each  other,  would  perform  such  prodigies  of  valor  as  the  world 
has  seldom  witnessed.  This  being  the  present  condition  of  the  country,  the 
present  feeling  of  the  great  masses  of  people  on  each  side,  let  us  do  justice  to 
each  other,  restore  cordial  and  fraternal  relations,  and  folding  up  the  bloody 
shirt  let  us  bury  it  forever  beyond  the  reach  of  resurrection  :  and  let  us  unite 
in  the  enactment  of  such  laws  as  will  show  to  the  world  that  we  are  once 
more,  not  in  name  only  but  in  reality,  a  unijbed  people,  ready  to  do  equal  and 
exact  justice  to  all.  And  let  us  move  forward  grandly  and  gloriously  in  united 
efforts  to  restore  to  every  section  of  the  Union  substantial,  growing,  material 
prosperity;  and  we  will  then  bring  to  the  whole  country  peace,  happiness,  and 
fraternal  relations.  This  seems  to  me  to  be  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be 
wished  by  the  patriotic  people  of  all  parts  of  the  Union. 


APPENDIX.  605 

SPEECH   OF   HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 
WEDNESDAY,  DECEMBER  15,  1880,  ON  THE  EDUCATIONAL  FUND. 

On  the  bill  (S.  No.  133)  to  establish  an  educational  fund,  and  apply  a  portion  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  to  public  education,  and  to  provide  for  the  more  com 
plete  endowment  and  support  of  national  colleges  for  the  advancement  of  scientific 
and  industrial  education. 

"This  bill,  reported  unanimously  by  the  Committee  on  Education  and  Labor,  pro 
poses  to  consecrate  the  proceeds  of  sales  of  public  lands  to  the  education  of  the  people. 
It  will  not  interfere  with  the  rights  of  pre-emption  nor  with  entries  for  home 
steads,  and  leaves  unimpaired  the  claims  of  any  State  to  its  percentage  of  the  sales  of 
public  lands.  As  the  amount  of  such  sales  will  hereafter  be  small,  it  is  proposed  to 
add  to  this  educational  fund  the  net  proceeds  of  all  receipts  for  patents  after  de 
ducting  the  expenses  of  the  Patent  Office.  The  entire  fund  is  then  to  be  invested  in 
United  States  bonds  and  the  interest  annually  appointed  to  the  several  States  and 
Territories  upon  the  basis  of  population  between  the  ages  of  five  and  twenty-five 
years,  except  that  for  the  first  ten  years  the  apportionment  is  to  be  made  according 
to  the  numbers  of  their  population,  respectively,  of  ten  years  old  and  upward  who 
cannot  read  and  write  ;  with  the  further  provision  that  one-third  of  the  income  from 
the  fund  shall  be  annually  appropriated  to  the  more  complete  endowment  and  sup 
port  of  colleges  established,  or  such  as  may  hereafter  be  established  in  accordance 
with  the  act  of  Congress  approved  in  18b'2,  until  the  annual  income  of  each  shall 
amount  to  $30,000  ;  and  thereafter  all  beyond  that  sum  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  educa 
tion  of  the  children  of  the  several  States  and  Territories,  including  the  District  of 
Columbia,  between  the  ages  of  six  and  sixteen  years.  Authority  is  also  to  be  given 
for  the  acceptance  of  any  sums  which  may  be  donated  for  these  objects  by  will  or 
otherwise." 

Mr.  Brown  said  : 

Mr.  President :  J  have  listened  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to  the  able 
and  eloquent  argument  made  by  the  honorable  senator  from  Vermont  [Mr. 
Morrill]  in  favor  of  the  passage  of  the  bill  now  before  the  senate.  We  live 
under  a  republican  form  of  government.  The  stability  of  that  government 
depends,  in  my  opinion,  upon  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  We  are  exposed  all  the  time  to  tests  of  the  permanency 
and  stability  of  this  form  of  government.  When  we  had  a  sparse  population 
of  but  a  few  millions  scattered  over  a  very  large  territory,  with  no  large 
masses  of  people  congregated  together  in  great  cities  or  centres,  we  were  in 
a  condition  better  adapted  to  the  maintenance  of  republican  government 
than  we  shall  be  when  we  have  a  hundred  millions  of  population  crowded  in 
the  centres  and  upon  the  older  settled  portions  of  our  territory,  where  large 
masses  can  congregate  upon  short  notice.  In  that  condition,  if  we  have 
large  masses  of  ignorance,  understanding  nothing  about  the  form  or  prin 
ciples  of  the  government,  we  have  little  to  expect  in  the  future.  It  becomes, 
therefore,  important  that  we  should  educate  the  mass  of  the  American  peo 
ple  if  we  expect  to  perpetuate  American  institutions. 

Not  only  is  this  true  as  far  as  it  relates  to  the  Government,  but  the 
public  interest  requires  that  we  have  the  whole  intellect  of  the  people 
developed  and  cultivated  for  the  purpose  of  building  up  and  improving 
society.  Neither  the  intellect  of  this  country  nor  of  any  other  country 
is  confined  to  children  born  of  the  nobility,  the  aristocracy,  or  the' 
wealthy  classes.  Neither  Disraeli  nor  Gladstone  was  born  of  the  nobility, 
and  yet  to-day  the  destinies  of  England  and  of  the  British  P^rnpire  are  con 
trolled  by  the  intellect  of  these  two  competitors.  Though  born  neither  of 
the  nobility  nor  of  the  royal  family,  they  say  what  the  Crown  shall  do,  what 
the  nobility  shall  do,  and  what  the  commons  shall  do. 

So  it  is  in  this  Government.  The  intellect  of  the  people  of  this  country  is 
not  confined  to  the  sons  of  the  aristocracy  or  the  wealthy  classes.  George 
Washington  was  a  surveyor ;  Benjamin  Franklin  was  a  printer  ;  Roger 
Sherman,  1  believe,  was  a  shoemaker ;  Andrew  Jacksou  was  a  penniless  or- 


606  APPENDIX. 

phan  ;  Henry  Clay  was  a  mill  boy  ;  Daniel  Webster  was  the  son  of  poor  par 
entage  ;  Andrew  Johnson  was  a  tailor,  who  when  married  could  neither  read 
nor  write  ;  his  wife  taught  him  to  read  ;  he  was  self-educated  and  self-made  ; 
General  Grant  was  a  tanner;  the  great  commoner,  ALEXANDER  II.  STE 
PHENS,  was  a  poor  orphan  boy  ;  Abraham  Lincoln  split  rails  and  labored  in 
his  youth  with  his  hands  for  his  living  ;  and  I  believe  the  President-elect,  Gen 
eral  Garfield,  was  born  of  poor  parentage. 

Then  it  is  true  that  in  this  country  as  well  as  every  other  the  intellect  of 
the  country  is  not  confined  to  the  sons  of  the  wealthier  or  the  ruling  classes ; 
and  [  maintain  that  the  State  has  aright  to  have  the  intellect  of  the  whole  coun 
try  developed  out  of  the  mass  of  the  wealth  of  the  country  and  brought  into 
action  for  the  protection  of  society  and  the  building  up  and  development  of 
the  country.  How  can  this  be  done  ?  Only  by  the  education  of  the  children 
of  all  classes  of  society.  I  have  no  doubt  many  a  man  has  lived  in  the 
United  States,  of  intellect  as  grand  as  those  I  have  mentioned,  who  has  died 
unknown  to  fame.  Why  so  V  Because  no  circumstance  has  led  to  the  first 
stage  of  development  that  has  made  the  person  himself  conscious  of  his  own 
powers,  lhat  bright  boy  has  never  been  sent  to  school ;  he  has  never  been 
taught  even  the  first  rudiments  of  a  common  education  ;  he  has  been  con 
fined  to  labor  in  the  backwoods,  in  the  factory,  in  the  shop,  or  in  the  mines, 
and  while  he  may  have  been  regarded  there  as  one  of  the  most  intellectual 
of  his  comrades,  there  has  been  no  development  that  showed  his  powers  to 
either  him  or  them,  or  that  gave  the  country  the  benefit  of  those  powers. 

Educate  the  whole  mass  of  the  people  and  you  have  the  benefit  of  all  this 
power.  Let  me  illustrate.  The  honorable  senator  who  has  just  taken  his 
seat  was  too  modest  to  refer  to  it  because  he  is  from  New  England,  but  we 
find  a  noted  example  there.  AVhen  the  Puritans,  as  we  term  them,  landed 
in  this  country  and  located  themselves  on  the  bleak  shores  of  New  England, 
they  commenced  building  up  society  by  the  organization  of  churches  arid 
ihe  building  of  houses  of  worship,  and  they  located  the  school-house  near 
the  church.  They  established  a  system  of  common  schools  that  was  intended 
to  embrace  the  whole  population  and  to  give  every  child  an  opportunity  to 
have  a  common  education.  They  commenced  early  and  laid  deep  the  foun 
dations  of  their  universities  and  colleges.  The  result  has  been  that  they  have 
endowed  and  built  up  colleges  of  a  very  high  order,  where  immense  numbers 
of  the  young  men  of  this  country  have  been  educated. 

Go  out  through  the  mighty  West  and  over  the  Territories  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  what  do  you  find  ?  Where  was  the  member  of  Congress  or  the 
senator  in  this  hall  educated  ?  Usually  at  a  New  England  college.  Where 
was  the  minister  of  religion,  or  the  village  doctor,  or  the  lawyer,  or  the  local 
politician  educated  ?  Most  of  them  in  the  New  England  colleges.  Thus 
they  carried  New  England  ideas  with  them  all  through  the  West,  which  have 
controlled  in  the  organization  of  society  and  the  legislation  of  States,  and  in 
that  way  New  England  may  be  said  to  have  dictated  laws  to  the  continent. 
Her  ideas,  taught  to  the  youths  that  have  gone  out  West  and  scattered  all 
over  this  broad  land,  have  been  carried  along  and  ingrafted  upon  societ}r.  and 
we  are  obliged  to  admit  that  they  have  done  a  great  deal  in  controlling  the 
destinies  of  the  country. 

It  was  not  only  so  with  New  England  ;  but  there  is  another  very  noted  ex 
ample  worthy  of  our  attention.  I  refer  to  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia.  At  the 
time  Napoleon  the  First  led  his  armies  over  Europe  like  an  avalanche,  and 
swept  down  kingdoms  and  empires  before  him,  Prussia  was  a  third-class 
power,  devastated  by  the  ravages  of  war.  .  At  the  end  of  the  great 
struggle,  in  making  preparations  to  build  up  society,  she  early  took  into 
account  the  importance  of  educating  the  whole  mass  of  her  people.  She  en- 


APPENDIX.  607 

dowed  universities  liberally ;  she  established  a  system  of  public  Fchools 
throughout  the  entire  kingdom,  and  she  not  only  by  her  legislation  from 
time  to  time  made  provision  for  the  education  of  all  her  children,  but  she 
made  their  education  compulsory.  She  permits  no  father  who  has  been  the 
means  of  bringing  offspring  into* society  to  say,  "I  will  not  permit  my  child  to 
be  educated  ;  1  will  not  send  him  to  school."  She  says  :  "  The  State  has  an 
interest  in  it  and  it  shall  be  done."  The  law  requires  the  parent  to  send  the 
son,  and  then  the  State  gives  him  the  rudiments  of  an  education.  He  must 
have  it;  the  good  of  society  requires  it ;  the  law  compels  it. 

How  did  it  work  ?  From  a  third-rate  power  Prussia  rose  rapidly  to  a 
second-rate  power;  and  within  the  last  few  years  the  test  of  strength  came 
between  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  and  the  Empire  set  up  by  Napoleon,  when 
his  successor,  a  wise  statesman,  was  upon  the  throne.  What  was  the  result  V 
That  little  third-rate  kingdom,  overrun  by  Napoleon  the  First,  had  risen  to 
be  a  power  in  Europe,  and  when  the  struggle  came  Prussia  swept  over 
France,  dethroned  the  monarch,  the  successor  to  Napoleon  the  First,  and 
dictated  terms  to  France  upon  her  own  soil.  Why  was  it  so?  It  may  be 
said  she  had  abler  generals:  that  her  armies  were  better  handled.  There 
was  another  reason ;  she  had  a  better  educated  people.  Her  whole  people 
were  educated.  Every  man  felt  an  individuality  in  what  he  was  doing,  and 
then  she  had  all  the  best  intellects  of  the  kingdom  educated  to  fill  the  differ 
ent  places  where  it  was  necessary  to  have  ability.  A  government  that 
educates  all  her  brightest  intellect  has  greatly  the  advantage  of  one  that 
educates  only  that  portion  of  her  intellect  that  is  born  in  the  wealthier  and 
higher  elapses  of  society. 

Under  the  Prussian  system,  as  I  understand  it,  if  a  boy  shows  great  bright 
ness  and  is  intellectually  adapted  with  proper  training  to  the  position  of  a  pro 
fessor  of  chemistry,  he  is  carried  through  the  university,  and  he  is  fully  de 
veloped  and  educated  in  that  department  of  science.  If  another  shows  great 
talent  for  the  military,  he  is  passed  through  the  military  department ;  and  if 
he  has*  a  master  mind,  he  is  made  a  master  of  the  military  profession ;  and 
so  in  each  department.  Therefore,  when  Prussia  called  upon  her  sons  to  rally 
under  her  banner,  she  had  her  ablest  intellect  cultivated  in  their  respective 
positions,  and  they  were  ready  to  step  forward  and  fill  each  place  with  a  first- 
class  man.  This  was  not  so  with  the  French.  They  have  colleges  and  uni 
versities  of  the  highest  order;  they  have  education  of  the  highest  order;  but 
they  have  not  the  whole  mass  educated  as  they  are  in  Prussia.  There  may 
have  been  some  of  the  ablest  generals  by  nature  and  some  of  the  most  use 
ful  men  that  the  army  could  have  required  in  other  positions  who  were  in 
the  ranks,  whose  power  was  not  known  because  they  had  not  been  developed 
by  education,  and  therefore  the  state  lost  the  benefit  of  their  mental  powers. 
I  say  the  state  has  the  right  to  the  aid  of  all  the  mental  power  of  its  people, 
and  it  can  have  it  in  no  other  way  than  by  the  education  of  all  the  masses  of 
the  people  of  the  state.  And  this  should  be  done  by  the  aid,  as  far  as  neces 
sary,  of  all  the  wealth  of  the  state. 

Take  our  own  country,  to-day.  In  the  backwoods,  among  the  mountains, 
perad venture  away  out  among  the  Rocky  Mountains,  or  down  in  the  wire- 
grass  of  the  South,  there  is  many  a  bright-eyed  boy,  who  has  intellect  of  the 
highest  order,  in  one  of  the  humblest  cottages  or  cabins  of  the  land.  And 
there,  if  neglected,  he  may  stay  and  work  his  way  through  life  with  no  op 
portunity  to  show  the  power  he  possesses.  But  send  him  to  the  common 
school  and  let  the  rough  be  knocked  off  that  diamond  until  it  begins  to  glit 
ter,  and  you  cannot  then  stop  him.  He  will  go  forward,  and  the  more  the 
diamond  is  polished  the  brighter  it  will  sparkle,  till  it  shines  out  in  all  its 
brilliant  splendor  and  magnificence.  But  this  could  not  have  been  done 


608  APPENDIX. 

without  education  enough  to  show  what  was  in  the  boy.  Therefore,  with 
out  the  education  of  the  mass  of  the  people  and  of  the  whole  people,  you 
cannot  have  the  benefit  of  the  whole  intellect  of  the  country  brought  to  bear 
in  the  building  up  of  society  and  the  development  of  the  resources  and  pow 
er  of  the  state. 

But  there  is  another  good  reason,  Mr.  President,  why  those  who  come 
from  my  section  of  the  Union  should  advocate  this  measure.  The  honorable 
senator  from  Vermont  [MR.  MORRILL]  referred  to  the  fact  of  the  large 
illiteracy  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  He  did  not  carry  it  out  and 
show  to  what  States  or  sections  this  illiteracy  applies  most.  I  regret  to  say 
it  is  from  my  own  section.  There  are  several  reasons  why  it  is  so.  Under 
our  old  system  of  society  we  looked  more  to  the  education  of  the  ruling  class 
than  we  did  to  the  education  of  the  whole  mass.  In  other  words,  we  did  not, 
as  they  did  in  New  England,  furnish  the  money  to  establish  systems  of  pub 
lic  schools  where  all  the  children  could  be  educated,  but  we  educated  our 
children  through  the  means  of  private  schools,  where  only  the  wealthier 
classes  and  those  who  were  well-to-do  could  send  their  children.  Conse 
quently  there  was  a  larger  number  of  illiterate  persons  in  our  society  than 
there  was  in  the  society  of  New  England  or-  any  other  State  that  had  a 
properly  endowed  public  school  system. 

But  this  was  not  all.  We  had  there  a  large  slave  population,  amounting 
in  round  numbers  to  four  millions  at  the  time  they  were  emancipated.  Un 
der  our  system  as  long  as  we  kept  and  used  them  as  slaves  it  w'as  legarded 
unsafe  to  educate  them.  Therefore  their  education  was  neglected,  and  it 
was  a  very  hazardous  experiment  when  they  were  made  citizens  without 
education. 

The  honorable  senator  from  Rhode  Island  [General  BURNSIDE]  referred 
to  the  condition  of  the  Scotch  people  at  a  time  when  they  were  not  educated, 
and  told  us  how  degraded  they  were  and  how  they  were  looked  down  upon, 
and  to  the  elevation  that  they  afterward  attained  when  by  a  common-school 
system  they  were  educated  up  to  a  high  point.  Let  me  follow  his  example 
and  trace  something  of  the  history  of  another  race  of  people.  Take  the 
African  race,  and  go  back  two  and  a  half  centuries,  and  where  were  they 
and  what  were  they?  They  were  heathens;  they  lived  on  the  continent  o'f 
Africa  in  a  state  of  the  wildest  ignorance  and  most  savage  barbarity.  The 
different  tribes  engaged  from  time  to  time  in  warfare,  and  in  many  instan 
ces  the  rule  was  indiscriminate  slaughter ;  but  if  they  took  prisoners  they 
were  spared,  out  of  no  mercy  to  the  prisoner,  but  because  he  was  valuable 
to  them  to  be  sold  as  a  slave.  At  the  period  when  this  country  was  first  set 
tled  those  wars  were  raging  on  the  continent  of  Africa,  and  it  was  then  con 
sidered,  not  only  by  the  tribes  themselves  but  by  Old  England  and  New 
England,  that  they  were  proper  persons  to  be  made  slaves.  Companies  were 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  the  importation  and  traffic,  and  it 
is  said  that  the  reigning  queen  and  afterward  the  kings  of  England  owned 
stock  in  those  companies.  In  that  day  it  was  believed  to  be  right. 

I  do  not  mention  this  subject  now  with  a  view  of  bringing  up  any  mooted 
question  about  slavery,  but  I  am  speaking  of  the  history  of  the  negro.  All 
then  considered  slavery  was  right.  The  negroes  were  imported  into  this 
country  as  slaves  and  sold  into  slavery  from  British  vessels  and  the  vessels  of 
New  England.  They  were  sold  to  us  in  the  South.  We  bought  them,  we 
believed  it  was  right  to  buy  them,  and  they  believed  it  was  right  to  sell  them. 
In  a  word,  at  that  time  the  negro  was  considered  as  only  fit  to  be  a  slave,  and 
fit  for  nothing  else,  and  he  occupied  a  much  more  degraded  position  than  the 
Scotch  did  at  the  time  referred  to  by  th'e  honorable  Senator  from  Rhode 
Island. 


APPENDIX.  609 

And  just  here  permit  me  to  refer  to  a  chapter  in  the  history  of  my  own 
State.  The  original  charter  of  the  colony  of  Georgia  made  it  a  free  State, 
and  the  trustees  for  a  number  of  years  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  permit  ne 
gro  slavery  or  rum  to  be  brought  into  the  colony.  Finally  it  was  discovered 
that  the  adjoining  colony  of  South  Carolina  and  other  southern  colonies  that 
h  id  adopted  slavery  were  more  prosperous  than  that  of  Georgia,  and  the  peo 
ple  from  the  oth^r  colonies  refused  to  emigrate  to  Georg  a  and  stay  there  un 
less  they  were  permitted  to  carry  their  slaves  with  them.  About  that  period 
in  our  history,  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield,  the  two  great  divines 
who  under  Providence  were  the  founders  of  Methodism,  and  who  planted  the 
church  on  our  soil,  associated  themselves  with  the  colony  at  Savannah,  and 
Whitefield  established  his  orphan  asylum,  which  was  intended  to  be  and  was 
in  fact  a  noble  charity.  After  considerable  effort  to  sustain  it,  he  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  was  liis  true  interest  to  purchase  a  plantation  and  slaves 
in  the  colony  of  South  Carolina,  which  he  did,  and  which  he  declared  did 
much  to  enable  him  to  maintain  his  asylum.  And  this  great  divine  became 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  zealous  advocates  for  the  establishment  of  slavery 
in  the  colony  of  Georgia.  Finally  the  pressure  upon  the  trustees  became  so 
great  that  they  yielded,  and  slavery  was  permitted  and  soon  became  an  es 
tablished  institution.  I  simply  mention  this  to  show  that  in  my  own  State 
slavery  was  prohibited  by  law  at  a  time  when  the  people  of  the  mother 
country  and  of  New  England  were  importing  slaves  under  the  sanction  of 
law  without  a  question  that  the  traffic  was  legitimate. 

Slavery  was  found  to  be  unprofitable  in  New  England  and  the  Middle 
States,  and,  like  every  other  traffic,  it  was  carried  where  the  commodity  was 
most  needed  and  would  pay  best.  Consequently  the  slaves  were  sold  by  the 
ancestors  of  the  people  of  New  England  and  the  Middle  States  to  our  ances 
tors  in  the  South,  and  the  money  obtained  for  them  was  doubtless  invested 
in  building  up  your  towns,  your  factories,  and  your  commerce.  At  that  time, 
however,  neither  section  believed  that  the  other  was  doing  wrong  in  engag 
ing  in  the  importation,  the  traffic,  or  the  use  of  slaves. 

Thus  matters  passed  for  a  long  period.  Slavery  was  recognized  by  all,  and 
the  savages  imported  as  slaves  were  trained  here  in  the  practices  and  ideas  of 
civilization  till  they  were  very  much  elevated  in  the  scale  of  Christian  civil 
ization  before  slavery  was  abolished.  They  were  taught  not  only  the  prin 
ciples  of  civilization  but  the  principles  of  Christianity. 

I  well  recollect,  years  ago,  before  the  war  between  the  States,  in  one  of  the 
assemblages  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  New  York,  the  Reverend  Dr. 
Stiles  used  in  substance  this  noted  expression,  i%  the  southern  church  holds 
up  to  the  gaze  of  heaven  and  earth  more  converted  heathens  (referring  to 
our  slaves)  than  can  be  shown  in  heathen  lands  as  the  result  of  the  labors  of 
all  the  missionaries  of  all  the  Protestant  churches  combined."  Yes,  of  this 
four  million  people  we  held  up  a  large  number  who  were  converted  to  Chris 
tianity  and  reclaimed  to  civilization.  In  other  words.  Providence  seems  to 
have  had  a  great  design  in  this  matter.  They  were  brought  here  as  slaves ; 
indeed  they  were  prisoners  and  slaves  at  home  and  sold  as  such  by  their  own 
people.  We  used  them  as  slaves,  and  we  believed  we  had  the  right  to  do  so. 
And  while  they  were  going  through  this  long  training  ol  slavery  they  were 
improving  all  the  time  intellectually  and  morally.  But  the  time  came  when 
the  same  overruling  Providence  that  permitted  them  to  be  brought  here  as 
slaves  determined  in  His  divine  decrees  that  they  should  no  longer  be  slaves. 
And  who  can  say  that  it  is  not  the  design  of  Providence  that  the  descendants 
of  those  who  by  the  rulers  of  Africa  were  sold  into  slavery,  improved  and  ele 
vated  by  slavery  till  they  were  fit  for  free<lom,  may  not  be  the  instruments 
in  the  hand  of  God  in  redeeming  Africa  from  the  darkness  and  thraldom  in 
39 


610  APPENDIX. 

which  she  is  now  shrouded,  and  in  bringing  her  to  the  marvellous  light  of 
Christian  civilization  ? 

But  let  us  notice  further  the  remarkable  history  of  this  people.  The  two 
sections  of  the  Union  were  arrayed  in  hostility  against  each  other  on  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery.  If  you  of  the  North  had  proposed  to  tax  yourselves  and  pay 
us  for  the  slaves,  in  the  then  temper  we  would  not  have  agreed  to  accept  it. 
We  would  have  said,  "  VVe  have  constitutional  guaranties  that  we  sh'all  hold 
them,  and  you  must  not  interfere."  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  had  been  pro 
posed  to  tax  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  pay  for  them  and  liberate 
them,  the  people  would  have  submitted  to  no  such  taxation.  Therefore  that 
was  impossible.  The  passions  and  prejudices  on  both  sides  of  the  line  were 
aroused  into  active  play.  There  was  but  one  way  to  eradicate  slavery,  and 
that  was  to  tear  it  out  by  the  roots;  and  as  Providence  was  working  out  a 
great  problem,  we  were  plunged  into  the  war  between  the  States,  and  the 
institution  was  staked  upon  the  result.  Neither  side  contemplated  abolition 
at  the  commencement,  but  as  Providence  designed  it,  the  termination  of  the 
struggle  was  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

Here,  then,  was  another  step  taken  in  the  wonderful  development  in  con 
nection  with  this  race.  From  having  been  prisoners  of  heads  of  tribes  in 
Africa  and  sold  by  their  own  people  into  slavery,  and  from  having  gone 
through  a  long  period  of  servitude,  the  time  had  come  when  Providence  de 
termined  they  should  no  longer  be  slaves.  But  as  our  friends  of  New  Eng 
land  and  the  Northern  States  had  engaged  in  the  importation  of  them  and 
had  sold  them  to  us,  and  made  profit  by  it,  and  as  we  had  used  slavery  and 
made  profit  by  it,  and  no  section  could  charge  that  another  was  alone  respon 
sible,  every  section  and  every  part  of  the  Union  had  to  bleed  for  it,  and  we 
all  had  to  bear  burdens  to  get  rid  of  it.  But  we  are  rid  of  it. 

When  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  formed,  slavery  was  not 
only  tolerated  and  provision  made  for  the  surrendering  up  of  fugitive  slaves 
to  the  owner  on  requisition,  but  at  that  time  the  States  were  not  ready  to 
cut  off  the  importation ;  those  engaged  in  the  traffic  wanted  to  make  more 
money  out  of  it.  They  were  unwilling  to  give  it  up,  and  it  was  insisted 
upon  and  carried,  and  incorporated  into  the  Constitution  that  the  importa 
tion  should  not  be  abolished  prior  to  the  year  1808.  So  guarded  were  those 
who  framed  the  Constitution  on  that  point  that  in  making  provision  for  its 
own  amendment,  it  is  expressly  provided  that  that  clause  shall  not  be 
amended  prior  to  1808.  Then  negroes  were  slaves,  and  slaves  were  property, 
and  that  property  was  guarantied  to  us  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

But  when  we  went  into  the  struggle  of  1861  we  were  well  aware  that  if  we 
failed  we  hazarded  our  title  to  our  slaves,  and  that  abolition  was  a  possibility. 
At  the  end  of  the  struggle,  when  we  surrendered  our  armies  and  the  then 
President  of  the  United  States  adopted  a  policy  without  consulting  Congress, 
of  reconstructing  the  Union,  he  required  us  to  call  conventions  in  the  South 
ern  States ;  and  the  Congress  having  submitted  to  the  States  the  thirteenth 
constitutional  amendment,  we  adopted  it.  There  was  no  contest  made  over 
it  in  the  South.  The  Southern  States,  as  well  as  the  Northern  and  Western 
States,  agreed  at  the  end  of  the  struggle  that  slavery  should  be  abolished  ; 
and  we  put  into  the  Constitution  a  provision  that  forever  guarantied  the 
abolition.  Then  the  negro  had  taken  one  more  step.  From  a  slave  he  was 
a  freedtnan  without  the  rights  of  a  citizen. 

Then  followed  a  proposition  by  Congress  to  the  States  to  adopt  the  four 
teenth  amendment.  That  amendment  declared  him  to  be  a  citizen.  In 
other  words,  it  declared  all  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States 
to  be  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein  they  reside. 


APPENDIX.  611 

Then  the  negro  had  made  one  more  advance  step.  From  being  a  freedman 
he  was  now  a  citizen.  But  it  was  soon  found  that  this  was  not  enough. 
Very  grave  questions  were  raised  as  to  whether  a  race  who  had  been  slaves 
and  thus  freed  and  made  citizens  were  entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  the  origi 
nal  citizens  of  this  country;  in  other  words,  whether  they  had  the  right  to 
vote  and  hold  office ;  and  Congress  had  to  take  one  more  step.  That  step 
was  to  propose  the  fifteenth  constitutional  amendment,  which  guarantied  to 
the  race  the  right  to  vote.  Then  the  negro  advanced  one  further  step. 
From  being  a  citizen  without  rights  as  to  voting  and  holding  office  he  was 
made  a  citizen  free  and  independent,  with  all  the  rights  of  any  other  citizen 
of  the  United  States.  Of  course,  I  mean  legal  rights.  He  was  made  the 
legal  equal  of  any  and  every  other  citizen  of  this  Union.  Social  rights  must 
take  care  of  themselves;  neither  the  Congress  nor  any  other  governmental 
power  can  regulate  them.  But  all  his  legal  rights  were  guarantied.  Then 
what  was  the  status?  Here  are  four  million  persons,  formerly  slaves,  then 
freedmen,  then  citizens  without  all  the  rights  of  citizenship,  then  full-fledged 
citizens  with  every  right  of  the  citizen,  turned  loose  among  us,  without  edu 
cation,  incorporated  into  society  as  part  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  States  in  which  they  lived. 

A  grave  problem  arises  here  for  solution.  They  must  be  educated  ;  but 
we  are  not  able  to  educate  them.  Why  not?  We  claimed  to  be  a  wealthy 
people  before  the  war.  So  we  were;  but  we  lost,  according  to  the  best  esti 
mates,  about  $2,000,000,000  in  the  value  of  our  slaves.  It  was  that  much 
gold  value,  our  own  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  we 
lost  by  the  war,  and  it  was  gone  forever.  That  impoverished  us  to  that  ex 
tent  and  it  was  a  very  heavy  draught.  Then  we  had  to  support  the  Confed 
erate  armies  for  four  }ears  without  a  dollar  of  help,  out  of  our  substance. 
True,  we  issued  Confederate  bonds  and  notes ;  they  were  paid  out  for  our 
substance,  but  at  the  end  of  the  war  they  were  repudiated  and  they  became 
as  ashes  in  our  hands.  We  lost,  then,  not  only  two  billions  in  slaves,  but  we 
lost  about  two  billions  more  in  the  support  of  our  armies  for  four  years. 
Then  we  lost  immense  amounts  in  the  destruction  of  property.by  the  armies 
outside  of  what  was  necessary  to  feed  and  clothe  them. 

But  that  was  not  all.  At  the  end  of  the  struggle  we  had  to  return  to  the 
Union  and  resume  our  position  and  take  upon  ourselves  our  just  proportion, 
according  to  our  means,  of  the  war  debt  contracted  by  the  Government  in 
the  suppression  of  what  is  known  as  the  rebellion.  Then,  I  say,  with  these 
draughts  upon  us  we  are  not  able  to  educate  these  four  millions  of  people 
that  were  turned  loose  among  us.  As  I  have  already  stated,  during  the  pe 
riod  of  slavery  it  was  not  our  policy  to  educate  them ;  it  was  incompatible, 
as  we  thought,  with  the  relation  existing  between  the  two  races.  Now  that 
they  are  citizens  we  all  agree  that  it  is  our  policy  to  educate  them.  As  they 
are  citizens,  let  us  make  them  the  best  citizens  we  can.  I  am  glad  to  see 
that  they  show  a  strong  disposition  to  do  everything  in  their  power  for  the 
education  of  their  children. 

Then  I  say  the  provision  of  the  bill  that  gives  for  ten  years  at  least  the 
advantage  to  the  States  where  there  is  most  illiteracy  is  a  just  and  a  wise 
provision,  and  I  thank  the  senators  from  New  England  and  the  other  wealthier 
States  for  the  sense  of  justice  they  exhibit  in  coming  forward  and  showing  a 
willingness  to  aid  in  the  education  of  these  people.  We  all  agree  that  it  is  im 
portant  that  they  be  educated.  You  will  agree  with  me  that  we  in  the  Southern 
States  are  not  now  able  to  educate  them,  and  our  own  children.  They  were 
set  free  as  a  necessity  of  the  Union.  You  so  regarded  it.  Then  it  is  proper 
that  the  Union  should  come  forward,  and  with  its  vast  resources  aid  in  their 
education,  and  I  am  glad  to  see  a  movement  made  that  looks  in  that  direction. 


612  APPENDIX. 

I  confess  I  have  better  hopes  for  the  race  for  the  future  than  I  had  when 
emancipation  took  place.  They  have  shown  a  capacity  to  receive  education, 
and  a  disposition  to  elevate  themselves  that  is  exceedingly  gratifying,  not 
only  to  me,  but  to  every  right-thinking  Southern  man ;  and  I  wish  you  to 
understand  that  we  harbor  no  hostility  to  the  race  in  the  South.  There  are 
many  reasons  why  we  should  not,  no  good  reasons  why  we  should.  They 
were" raised  with  us;  they  played  with  us  as  children.  Under  the  slavery 
system  the  relations  were  kind.  When  the  war  came  on  it  was  supposed  by 
many  that  they  would  rise  in  insurrection  and  soon  disband  our  armies. 
They  at  no  time  ever  behaved  with  more  loyalty  to  us,  or  with  more  propriety. 
Since  the  end  of  the  war,  when,  as  we  thought,  you  very  unwisely  gave  them 
the  ballot,  they  have  exercised  the  rights  of  freemen  with  a  moderation  that 
probably  no  other'  race  would  have  done.  Therefore  I  say  it  is  our  duty  in 
the  South  especially,  and  I  think  yours  in  the  North  as  well,  to  encourage 
them,  and,  as  they  are  now  citizens,  to  elevate  them  and  make  them  the  best 
citizens  possible. 

But,  as  I  stated  a  while  ago,  I  have  given  you  a  reason  why  theie  is  such 
a  vast  preponderance  of  illiteracy  now  in  our  section.  It  is  not  only  due  to 
the  fact  that  we  did  not  have  the  common-school  systems  in  the  Southern 
States  prior  to  emancipation,  but  that  the  four  millions  of  freedmen  were 
added  to  our  population  as  citizens  there,  without  education.  Then  we  must 
appeal  to  you  not  only  now  but  in  future  to  be  liberal  toward  the  South  in 
aiding  in  the  education  of  these  people.  I  know  there  have  been  complaints 
that  they  may  have  been  cheated  in  some  instances  at  the  ballot-box.  Igno 
rance  may  be  cheated  anywhere.  Doubtless,  Senators,  you  have  seen  the 
more  ignorant  class  cheated  in  your  own  States.  If  you  would  guard  against 
this  effectually  in  the  future,  educate  them  ;  teach  them  to  know  their  rights 
and,  knowing  them,  they  will  maintain  them. 

It  is  necessary  to  educate  them,  furthermore,  for  the  reason  that  they  do 
not  now  understand,  as  ignorance  does  not  anywhere  understand,  the  theory 
and  form  and  spirit  of  our  Government.  Education  will  enable  them  to 
understand  it.  \Ve  must  give  it  to  them.  We  must  teach  them  what  is 
the  nature  of  the  government,  what  are  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  now  that  we  all  agree  that  it  is  to  be  perpetual  in 
future,  we  must  teach  them  to  love  the  Union  and  to  be  ready  to  stand  by 
and  defend  it,  and  I  believe  the  senators  from  New  England  will  agree 
with  me  when  I  say  we  must  teach  them  also  that  the  Union  is  a  union  of 
States,  and  that  we  must  not  destroy  the  States.  When  the  States  are 
destroyed  there  is  no  longer  the  Union  of  our  fathers.  As  the  Union  is  to 
be  indissoluble,  the  States  which  iorm  the  Union,  and  without  which  it 
cannot  be  maintained,  must  forever  remain  indestructible,  and  they  must 
continue  in  the  exercise  of  all  the  reserved  rights  which  they  now  possess 
under  the  Constitution  as  it  stands,  with  the  amendments  adopted  by  the 
States. 

Therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  teach  all  citizens,  white  and  colored,  and  to 
teach  their  children,  the  importance  of  maintaining  republican  institutions 
in  the  purity  in  which  they  originally  came  from  the  hands  of  the  framers 
of  our  Constitution,  and  to  maintain  the  ballot-box  in  its  purity  also.  I 
announced  in  my  own  State  to  the  electors  who  were  to  vote  on  my  case 
the  next  day,  that  I  was  for  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count.  I  want  to  see 
the  day  come  when  that  will  be  so  everywhere,  not  only  in  Louisiana,  South 
Carolina,  Florida,  and  Georgia,  but  in  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Ohio,  and 
Indiana  as  well.  Let  it  be  so  everywhere.  Let  us  educate  our  people, 
white  and  colored,  up  to  the  point  where  they  understand  the  proper  use 
of  the  ballot ;  then  let  it  be  free  to  all,  and  let  the  ballots  be  fairly  couuted 


APPENDIX.  613 

when  deposited.  Having  referred  to  the  struggle  that  brought  about  the 
present  state  of  things,  I  will  add  that  whatever  I  may  have  thought  of  the 
terms  you  dictated  to  us,  I  have  accepted  them,  and  I  have  all  the  while 
advocated  carrying  them  out  in  letter  and  in  spirit  in  good  faith,  in  practice 
as  well  as  in  theory.  Whenever  the  whole  mass  of  the  people  are  educated 
there  is  no  danger  in  doing  this.  Until  they  are  educated  there  will  be 
impositions  practiced  upon  ignorance  in  every  section  of  this  country,  and 
probably  in  every  State  in  the  Union. 

The  honorable  senator  from  Vermont  referred  to  the  great  good  that  was 
being  done  by  the  appropriation  made  in  1862  of  portions  of  the  public  land 
to  establish  agricultural  and  mechanical  colleges  in  the  different  States.  I 
can  bear  testimony  that  in  my  own  State  that  appropriation  has  been  most 
beneficial.  It  was  accepted  by  our  State,  the  land  scrip  sold,  and  the 
money  was  delivered  to  the  trustees  of  the  State  University,  and  they  con 
nected  with  our  university  a  college  of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts, 
which  has  been  well  conducted  and  resulted  in  great  good;  but  there  were 
certain  sections  of  our  State  not  well  content  with  the  centralization  of  it, 
as  they  termed  it,  in  one  locality,  and  it  was  asked  that  it  be  distributed 
more  justly  between  the  different  sections  of  the  State.  The  trustees  of 
the  university  agreed  that  they  would  endow  a  branch  college  at  Dahlonega 
in  the  building  of  the  old  United  States  mint  that  Congress  donated  for  the 
purpose  of  a  school,  and  they  gave  $2,000  a  year  of  the  interest  derived  from 
the  fund  toward  its  support.  Since  then  it  has  been  carried  up  to  $3,500 
per  annum  and  we  have  established  three  other  branches  of  the  university 
— one  at  Milledgeville,  one  at  Cuthbert,  and  one  at  Thomasville.  Those 
branches  are  colleges  of  a  lower  grade  than  the  university.  They  educate 
girls  and  boys — we  have  both  sexes  there  educated — up  to  the  point  where 
they  can  enter  college.  For  instance,  a  boy  who  graduates  in  one  of  them 
can  enter  the  junior  class  of  our  State  University,  and  we  have  at  this  time 
about  eight  hundred  pupils  in  those  four  branch  colleges.  They  are  located 
in  sections  where  they  can  be  easily  reached  by  our  people  generally.  There 
is  a  cheap  mode  of  board  established  there.  Mess-halls  are  resorted  to,  and 
it  is  deemed  altogether  respectable  for  a  young  man  to  board  himself  as 
best  he  can  and  go  into  the  schools.  The  amount  of  good  they  are  doing 
is  incalculable.  At  Dahlonega  the  trustees  are  authorized,  on  the  proper  ex 
amination  of  a  young  man  or  young  lady  in  the  college,  to  give  a  certificate 
authorizing  him  or  her  to  teach  in  the  public  schools  of  the  State,  and  at 
the  last  commencement  there  were  about  eighty  licensed  for  teachers. 
They  go  out  all  over  our  country  and  teach  three  months'  schools  during 
the  vacation.  In  this  way  they  make  some  money  to  enable  them  to  go 
forward  again  with  their  studies.  And  thus  there  is  a  very  great  amount 
of  good  done  by  that  college,  and  I  should  very  gladly  see  as  large  an  addi 
tion  as  possible  made  to  its  endowment. 

If  we  could  have  two  or  three  other  of  these  branches  in  different  sections 
of  our  State  we  could  add  greatly  to  the  present  advantages.  Doubtless  the 
same  may  be  true  in  the  other  States. 

The  only  real  regret  I  have  about  this  matter  is  that  the  fund  we  shall  be 
able  to  raise  from  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  and  from  the 
Patent  Office  fees  will  be  too  small  to  meet  the  demand;  but  I  trust  this  is 
the  entering-wedge,  and  that  we  may  see  our  way  clear  in  the  future,  if  this 
works  well,  to  do  still  more  for  the  cause  of  education. 

I  know  some  objection  has  been  raised  on  the  constitutional  question. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  States  alone  can  take  charge  of  this  matter;  that 
the  Federal  Government  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  education  of  the  people. 
Well,  under  the  strictest  rules  of  construction  of  the  old  State-rights  school 


614  APPENDIX. 

prior  to  the  war  possibly  that  was  so ;  but  we  do  not  live  under  the  Constitution 
that  we  lived  under  then.  The  amendments  made  at  the  termination  of 
the  struggle  have  very  greatly  enlarged  the  powers  of  this  government. 
Again,  1  think  the  constitutional  objection  cannot  apply  to  this  bill,  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  mainly  a  proposition  to  dispose  of  the  proceeds  of  the  pub 
lic  lands,  and  so  far  as  those  proceeds  are  concerned  there  never  has  been 
a  time  when  the  Government  did  not  have  the  right  to  dispose  of  them.  As 
far  back  as  1836  there  was  a  law  passed  for  the  distribution  of  the  surplus 
funds  in  the  treasury,  and  in  1841  to  distribute  the  net  proceeds  of  public 
lands,  the  Congress  recognizing  the  fact  that  they  belonged  to  the  States. 
Then  in  the  organization  of  new  States  and  Territories  large  amounts  of 
the  public  domain  have  been  set  apart  for  the  use  of  colleges  and  schools 
there,  recognizing  the  power  of  Congress  to  use  a  portion  of  the  land  for 
this  purpose. 

Then,  again,  the  act  of  1862.  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  which  appro 
priates  a  certain  amount  of  the  public  lands  in  aid  of  agricultural  colleges, 
is  another  use  of  the  public  domain  for  that  purpose  which  has  not  been 
objected  to.  After  all  that  has  been  done,  why  may  we  not  now  appropriate 
the  future  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  and  the  Patent  office  to  this  sacred 
purpose  V 

But  I  believe  there  is  another  provision  of  the  Constitution  that  may 
have  some  bearing  here.  "  The  United  States  shall  guaranty  to  every 
State  in  this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government "  is  the  language  of 
the  Constitution.  If  I  be  right  in  the  position  I  took  in  the  commencement 
of  this  argument,  that  this  government  cannot  be  perpetuated  as  a  republic 
without  the  education  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  people,  then  to  appropriate 
money  for  the  education  of  the  masses  of  the  people  would  be  a  better  mode 
of  guarantying  a  republican  form  of  government  than  to  undertake  to  make 
a  guaranty  by  the  use  of  the  army  and  the  sword. 

I  do  not  think  really  there  is "  any  constitutional  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
making  this  disposition  of  the  public  lands  for  this  very  important  purpose, 
and  it  seems  to  me  there  is  no  other  possible  disposition  that  can  be  made 
of  this  fund  in  the  future  which  can  result  in  anything  like  the  benefit  to 
the  Government  and  the  people  of  the  United  States  that  must  result 
from  the  appropriation  of  it  to  the  purposes  of  education. 

A  large  proportion  of  our  public  domain,  which  is  the  property  of  the  people, 
has  been  appropriated  by  Congress  to  railroad  corporations  and  other  pur 
poses,  looking  to  the  settlement  and  development  of  the  Territories.  And 
while  I  arn  not  prepared  to  say  that  this  may  at  the  time  have  been  an  improper 
use  of  a  portion  of  the  public  lauds,  it  seems  to  me  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  is  better  to  stop  such  appropriations  in  future  and  apply  the  proceeds 
of.  their  sale  to  the  sacred  purpose  of  educating  the  people.  We  will  in  this 
way  establish  new  guaranties  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  Union,  the  main 
tenance  of  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  the  future  peace  and  prosperity  of 
the  whole  country.  Let  us  give  to  the  whole  mass  of  our  people,  in  all 
sections  of  the  Union,  the  benefit  of  at  least  a  common-school  education; 
and  let  us  provide,  as  in  the  Prussian  system,  for  a  higher  development  of 
the  brightest  intellects  that  may  be  found  in  the  public  schools  by  such 
legislation  and  appropriations  as  will  enable  them  to  prosecute  their  studies 
till  they  have  made  themselves  masters  of  the  particular  art  or  calling  for 
which  nature  seems  to  have  fitted  them. 

It  may  be  objected  that  it  costs  large  sums  of  money  to  educate  our 
whole  people.  I  admit  it;  but  it  is  an  investment  that  pays  back  a  heavy 
rate  of  interest.  Who  is  most  likely  to  make  money,  an  educated  enlight 
ened  people,  or  an  ignorant,  degraded  people  ?  Contrast  the  financial  con- 


APPENDIX.  615 

ditionof  New  England  with  that  of  Mexico,  and  tell  me  which  accumulates 
fastest,  an  educated,  scientific  people,  or  a  people  who  do  not  enjoy  the 
benefits  of  education  or  science.  The  surest  way  to  make  money  is  to  in 
vest  large  sums  of  money  in  the  education  of  our  people  and  the  develop 
ment  of  the  whole  intellect  of  the  country. 

Then  let  us  lay  the  foundation  of  a  system  which  shall  be  improved  and 
built  up,  until  the  whole  mass  of  the  American  people  have  the  benefits 
that  will  soon  result  from  it.  This  is  the  surest  way  to  maintain  and  per 
petuate  our  republican  system  of  government,  to  develop  the  vast  resources 
of  our  country,  to  encourage  and  protect  the  accumulation  of  wealth  and  to 
transmit  the  blessings  of  good  government  to  remotest  generations. 


SPEECH  or  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN  IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
JANUARY  24,  1881,  ON  LANDS  IN  SEVERALTY  TO  INDIANS,  AND  THE 
QUESTION,  Is  HE  A  CITIZEN  UNDER  THE  FOURTEENTH  CONSTITUTIONAL 
AMENDMENT,  DISCUSSED. 

The  Senate  having  under  consideration  the  Bill  (S.  No.  1773)  to  provide  for  the 
allotment  of  lands  in  severalty  to  Indians  on  the  various  reservations,  and  to  extend 
the  protection  of  the  laws  of  the  States  and  Territories  over  the  Indians,  and  for  other 
purposes — 

Mr.  Brown  said : 

Mr.  President :  If  I  understand  the  amendment  offered  by  the  senator  from 
Massachusetts  [Mr.  Hoar]  it  is  to  confer  all  the  rights  of  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  upon  an  Indian  who  has  received  his  land  on  the  reservation 
of  his  tribe  in  severalty  under  this  Bill.  I  incline  very  strongly  to  think  that 
the  Indian  who  has  settled  himself  upon  "a  homestead  is  a  citizen  already, 
under  the  fourteenth  constitutional  amendment;  but  if  he  is  not,  I  am  pre 
pared  to  vote  to  make  him  one  whenever  he  takes  his  land  in  severalty,  and 
to  give  him  the  rights  of  a  citizen  if  he  lacks  anything.  The  history  of  our 
dealings  with  the  Indians  is  a  sad  history.  And  1  think  we  owe  something 
to  them.  When  the  white  men,  few  in  number — 

Mr.  Logan.  If  the  senator  will  pardon  me  for  a  moment,  I  should  like  be 
fore  he  goes  on  with  his  remarks  to  ask  permission  to  offer  an  amendment  to 
the  Bill  to  come  in  after  the  last  section,  so  that  the  amendment  may  be 
printed.  I  thought  perhaps  the  discussion  would  not  continue  so  long  as  it 
has,  but  as  the  Bill  will  probably  go  over  until  to  morrow  I  should  like  to 
have  the  amendment  printed.  It  is  in  the  diiection  of  the  senator's  remarks, 
providing  citizenship  for  the  Indians.  I  ask  that  the  amendment  be  printed. 

The  presiding  officer  (Mr.  Garland)  in  the  chair.  If  there  is  no  objection, 
the  amendment  will  be  received  and  ordered  to  he  printed. 

Mr.  Brown.  As  I  was  stating  when  interrupted  by  the  honorable  senator 
from  Illinois,  when  the  white  men  appeared,  few  in  number,  upon  the  eastern 
shores  of  this  continent  the  Indians  possessed  it.  They  were  powerful ;  they 
were  sovereign  ;  they  were  the  monarchs  of  this  country;  and  it  was  by  their 
toleration  that  we  settled  in  their  dominions.  There  was  no  dictating  to 
them  by  the  persons  who  first  came  here  to  settle  on  the  eastern  shores.  The 
white  men  asked,  may  we  purchase  from  you,  the  owners,  a  homestead  here? 
The  Indians  met  them  with  kindness  and  hospitality.  When  justice  has  been 
done  to  them  I  believe  they  have  usually  been  proverbially  kind.  Negotia 
tions  were  opened  and  certain  tracts  of  land  were  conveyed,  not  by  us  to  them, 
but  by  them  to  us. 

They  had  the  power  then  at  any  time  to  have  exterminated  the  settlements 
upon  the  eastern  shores  of  this  continent;  and  it  would  have  taken  armies  to 


C1G  APPENDIX. 

plant  colonies  here  that  could  have  sustained  themselves.  They  did  not  think 
proper  to  do  so.  By  their  toleration  the  white  people  poured  in  and  increased 
in  numbers  until  they  became  most  numerous,  and  then  commenced  to  dic 
tate  to  the  Indians;  and  the  stronger  we  became  and  the  weaker  they  be 
came,  the  more  illiberal  and  unjust  was  our  policy  toward  them.  It  reached 
a  point  at  a  certain  stage  when  it  was  adjudicated,  I  beiieve,  by  our  supreme 
court,  that  we  owned  the  whole  territory  and  they  were  mere  occupants.  It 
is  true  we  then  treated  them,  I  believe,  as  persons,  but  now  the  question  is 
gravely  considered  in  the  senate  and  in  the  courts  whether  they  are  pe^ons 
under  the  fourteenth  constitutional  amendment.  The  whole  history  of  our 
dealing  with  them  has,  I  think,  been  a  history  of  wrong,  mostly  on  our  part. 

A  distinguished  officer  of  the  United  States  army  when  approached  on  this 
subject  on  one  occasion  said  he  never  knew  the  Indians  violate  a  treaty,  and 
he  never  knew  the  white  men  to  observe  one.  This  may  not  be  literally  true, 
but  there  is  too  much  truth  in  it.  I  will  not  go  into  a  discussion  of  the  vari 
ous  outrages  that  have  been  perpetrated  upon  them.  As  our  people  have  ad 
vanced  farther  west  and  found  territory  they  desired  occupied  by  the  Indians 
we  have  soon  found  occasion  to  get  up  disturbances  or  difficulties  with  them 
that  led  first  to  war,  then  to  victory  on  our  part,  then  to  negotiations  and  a 
cession  of  the  territory  on  their  part. 

This  has  been  the  sad  history  of  our  dealings  with  them.  We  have  grown 
stronger  and  stronger  until  to-day  we  number  more  than  fifty  million  per 
sons.  They  have  been  reduced  all  told  as  the  last  report  shows,  excluding 
Alaska,  to  255,938. 

At  the  first  settlement  of  the  country  we  were  completely  in  their  power, 
and  they  could  dictate  any  terms  they  pleased  to  us.  And  when  justly  dealt 
by,  they  were  kind  and  indulgent  to  us.  Now  they  are  in  our  power.  We 
have  a  right,  at  least  we  have  the  power,  to  dictate  any  terms  we  choose. 
Have  we  dealt  as  liberally  with  them  as  they  did  with  us?  We  have  driven 
them  back  from  time  to  time,  from  reservation  to  reservation.  We  have 
made  treaties  with  them  that  they  are  to  hold  their  reserves  "  as  long  as  water 
runs  and  grass  grows,"  but  we  always  get  rid  of  the  treaty  when  we  are  dis 
satisfied  with  it  or  when  we  covet  the  territory  and  determine  to  have  it. 

The  Bill  now  before  us,  as  I  understand,  proposes  to  permit  them  to  take 
in  severalty  lands  in  the  proportion  mentioned  in  the  Bill  within  the  reserva 
tions  assigned  to  them.  I  favor  that  Bill.  I  believe  they  should  have  the 
same  right  that  the  white  man  has  to  take  homestead  on  their  reservation, 
and  we -should  then  give  them  a  fee-simple  title  to  it  as  we  give  to  the  white 
citizen  or  settler.  What  inducement  have  they  now  to  labor  to  acquire  prop 
erty,  to  build  houses,  to  clear  lands,  and  to  make  homes  comfortable  for  their 
future  dwelling,  when  they  know  that  they  may  be  driven  from  it  at  any 
time  when  we  choose  to  say  they  must  leave?  But  when  we  have  allotted 
the  lands  to  them  and  each  has  his  land  in  severalty,  then  he  is  entitled  to  tl.e 
protection  of  the  law;  he  can  go  forward  and  improve  his  homestead.  If  he 
knows  it  is  his,  he  has  a  stimulant  to  industry,  and  there  is  something  to  in 
duce  him  to  make  a  good  citizen  and  to  bind  him  to  good  conduct. 

The  man  who  is  a  robber  and  desires  to  possess  himself  of  the  property  of 
the  Indian  goes  upon  the  reserve,  steals  his  ponies  or  his  cattle,  and  brings 
them  away.  Is  it  unnatural  that  the  Indian  should  pursue?  Is  it  unnatural 
that  he  should  attempt  to  protect  his  rights  of  property?  He  would  be  less 
than  a  human  being  if  he  did  not  seek  to  protect  them.  The  Indian  fol 
lows  the  robber  and  the  result  generally  is  a  collision  ;  somebody  is  killed  ; 
and  then  war.  Allot  his  lands  to  him  in  severalty;  give  him  the  right  to 
build  houses,  to  clear  plantations,  to  raise  stock  upon  it,  with  the  guaranty 
of  the  Government  that  he  shall  not  be  driven  from  it,  and  we  shall  in  a  very 


APPENDIX.  617 

short  time  see  the  progress  in  the  far  West  that  we  have  seen  in  the  Indian 
Territory., 

We  will  soon  find  the  Indians  upon  their  homesteads  advancing  in  civili 
zation  ;  and  under  the  benign  influence  of  the  Christian  denominations,  we 
shall  see  Sunday  schools  and  churches  planted  among  them ;  and  instead  of 
roving  bands  without  fixed  habitations,  goaded  to  desperation  by  injustice 
and  wrong,  spreading  death  and  destruction  in  their  pathway,  we  shall  find 
them  in  the  comfortable  homes  of  civilized  man,  not  only  a  Christian  people, 
but  many  of  them  cultivated  and  honorable  citizens. 

But  the  question  is,  shall  the  Indian  be  a  citizen?  I  have  said  it  seems  to 
me  he  is  a  citizen  already  under  the  fourteenth  constitutional  amendment  as 
soon  as  he  severs  his  tribal  relation  and  takes  the  homestead  that  the  law 
now  allows  him  to  take.  The  fourteenth  amendment  is  very  broad  in  its 
provisions.  It  reads  thus  : 

"  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  and  subject  to  the 
jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein 
they  reside.  No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the 
privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States;  nor  shall  any  State 
deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law, 
nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the 
laws." 

Is  the  Indian  ?  person?  He  is  the  original  sovereign  of  this  continent, 
who  had  the  title  to  it  by  a  possession  that  may  have  run  back  a  hundred 
generations :  who  met  the  white  man  when  he  came  here  kindly  and  frater 
nally,  who  during  the  wars  that  we  have  had  with  him  ha's  shown  gallantry 
of  the  highest  order  and  oftentimes  military  genius  unsurpassed — is  he  not  a 
person? 

Was  King  Philip,  who  swayed  the  sceptre  over  six  powerful  tribes,  and 
who  when  he  felt  that  his  rights  had  been  outraged,  by  his  great  genius  and 
powers  of  organization  and  persuasion,  formed  a  league  of  all  the  tribes  of 
the  Atlantic  slope,  in  a  cause  which  they  considered  sacred,  not  a  person? 
Was  Logan,  the  great  chief  who  never  turned  away  from  his  cabin  a  white 
man  who  asked  his  protection,  and  who  never  took  an  undue  advantage  of 
an  enemy,  not  a  person?  Was  Tecumseh,  whose  military  genius  was  not 
surpassed  by  any  American  officer  he  met,  and  of  whom  the  poet  has  said : 

"  And  long  will  the  Indian  warrior  sing 
The  deeds  of  Tecumseh,  the  royal," 

not  a  person?  Are  the  educated  leaders  of  the  five  civilized  tribes,  some  of 
whom  possess  intelligence  of  the  highest  order,  not  persons?  Was  Sequoyah, 
the  author  of  the  Cherokee  alphabet  and  dictionary,  who  reduced  their  lan 
guage  to  a  system  as  complete  as  any  other  written" language,  not  a  person? 
The  idea  is  absurd.  If  they  are  not  persons  what  are  they  ?  You  hold  that 
the  meanest  and  most  ignorant  negro  who  comes  from  the  deepest  jungle  of 
the  darkest  part  of  Africa  and  plants  himself  here  is  a  person,  and  you  pre 
scribe  naturalization  laws  by  which  he  has  a  right  to  become  a  citizen. 

"Every  human  being,"  said  Governor  Horatio  Seymour,  ''born  upon  our 
continent,  or  who  comes  here  from  any  quarter  of  the  world,  whether  savage 
or  civilized,  can  go  to  our  courts  for  protection,  except  those  who  belong  to 
the  tribes  who  once  owned  this  country.  The  cannibal  1'rom  the  islands  of 
the  Pacific,  the  worst  criminal  from  Europe,  Asia,  or  Africa,  can  appeal  to  the 
law  and  courts  for  their  rights  of  person  and  property ;  all  save  our  native 
Indians,  who,  above  all,  should  be  protected  from  wrong." 

The  Indian  on  the  western  plains  who  shows  genius,  and  gallantry,  and 
manhood,  is  denied  even  an  existence  as  a  person. 


618  APPENDIX. 

Note  the  language  of  the  Constitution  : 

"  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  and  subject  to  the 
jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States." 

We  claim  that  the  jurisdiction  of  this  country  extends  to  the  Pacific  ocean. 
Was  the  Indian  born  within  that  limit?  No  one  questions  it.  He  does  not 
ask  you  for  naturalization.  He  cares  nothing  about  the  uniform  rules  you 
may  make  on  that  subject.  He  claims  his  right  as  a  birthright.  He  was 
born  in  the  United  States,  and  he  is  a  person. 

But  is  he  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States?  The  amend 
ment  requires  that  he  be  born  in  the  United  States  and  subject  to  its  juris 
diction.  That  question  has  been  expressly  decided  by  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States  in  the  tobacco  case  brought  up  from  the  Cherokee  nation 
by  Mr.  Boudinot.  The  Cherokees  claimed  under  their  tribal  relations  and 
under  an  express  section  of  a  treaty  between  them  and  the  United  States  that 
they  had  a  right  to  sell  or  dispose  of  any  of  their  property  as  they  might 
think  proper,  without  paying  any  tax  to  the  government  of  the  United  States; 
and  Mr.  Boudinot  and  his  partner  established  the  tobacco  factory  in  the  Cher 
okee  nation.  The  officers  of  the  United  States  seized  it  for  non-payment  of 
internal  revenue,  and  the  question  came  before  the  supreme  court  of  the 
United  States  for  final  adjudication  whether  the  Indian  Territory  was  sub 
ject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  and  whether  it  had  a  right  to 
collect  the  revenue.  The  Supreme  Court  held  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States  did  extend  into  the  Indian  Territory,  and  that  Congress  had 
the  power  to  annul  the  treaty  and  collect  the  revenue.  Here  then  is  the 
express  decision  by  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  in  the  Government,  that  the 
Indians  on  their  own  reservation  are  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States.  They  were  born  in  the  United  States,  they  are  subject  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  and  if  they  be  persons  there  is  no  escape 
from  the  conclusion  that  they  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  whether  the 
Government  may  choose  for  the  time  to  extend  its  criminal  laws  over  them 
or  their  reservations,  or  not.  And  being  citizens  of  the  United  States,  they 
are  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States. 

Again : 

"Nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any  person  of.  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without 
due  process  of  law;  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal 
protection  of  the  laws." 

Why  is  the  Indian  not  a  person?  Then,  if  he  is  a  person,  you  have  no 
right  to  deny  to  him  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws.  It  is  absurd  to  deny 
that  the  Indian  is  a  person.  But  it  may  be  said  that  the  next  section  of  the 
fourteenth  constitutional  amendment  disposes  of  this  question.  Let  us  see  : 

"  Representatives  shall  be  apportioned  among  the  several  States  according 
to  their  respective  numbers,  counting  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  each 
State,  excluding  Indians  not  taxed." 

Yes,  in  making  up  the  representative  population  of  the  State  you  exclude 
the  Indians  not  taxed ;  but  you  do  more  than  that  by  this  section.  1  read 
further. 

"But  when  the  right  to  vote  at  any  election  for  the  choice  of  electors  for 
President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  Representatives  in  Con 
gress,  the  executive  and  judicial  officers  of  a  State,  or  the  members  of  the 
Legislature  thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of  the  male  inhabitants  of  such  State, 
being  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  citizens  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any 
way  abridged,  except  for  participation  in  rebellion,  or  other  crime,  the  basis 
of  representation  therein  shall  be  reduced  in  the  proportion  which  the  num 
ber  of  such  male  citizens  shall  hear  to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens 
twenty-one  years  of  age  in  such  State." 


APPENDIX.  619 

If  the  Indian  is  not  a  citizen  because  we  exclude  him  in  the  count  for  rep 
resentation  on  the  ground  that  he  is  not  taxed,  then  you  must  also  exclude 
from  the  count  the  white  citizens  of  any  State  who  may  be  denied  the  right 
of  voting.  To  illustrate:  Suppose  the  population  of  a  State  be  1,000, 000, 
and  100,000  of  that  number  are  Indians  not  taxed.  When  you  go  to  make 
up  the  representative  population  of  that  State  you  would  count  it  900,000. 
Why  ?  Because  you  exclude  the  Indians  not  taxed.  Then  suppose  a  State 
excludes  from  the  ballot-box,  for  any  cause,  10,000  of  her  male  citizens  over 
twenty-one,  and  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  over  twenty-one  is  100,- 
000;  then  you  deduct  one-tenth,  or  100,000  of  the  whole  representative  popu 
lation  of  that  State,  because  10,000  of  the  voters  have  been  excluded.  I  ap 
prehend  that  the  100,000  white  people  are  still  citizens,  although  you  are  not 
allowed  in  making  up  the  representative  population  to  count  more  than  900,- 
000.  Why?  Because  you  have  disfranchised  enough  of  your  citizens  to  ex 
clude  100,000  from  the  count.  So  in  the  other  case  with  the  Indians.  You 
exclude  100,000  of  them  not  taxed  in  making  up  the  count;  but  where,  in 
what  other  part  of  the  constitutional  amendment,  is  there  an  exclusion  of  the 
Indian  from  the  rights  of  citizenship?  The  Constitution  does  not  exclude 
the  Indian  from  the  representative  count,  because  he  is  an  Indian  or  because 
he  is  not  a  citizen,  but  because  he  is  an  Indian  not  taxed.  It  is  argued  I  sup 
pose,  that  because  he  is  excluded  while  not  taxed  from  the  representative 
count,  therefore  he  is  not  a  citizen.  Then  the  10,000  white  people  excluded 
in  the  other  case  are  not  citizens  by  the  same  parity  of  reasoning.  Such 
reasoning  is  not  sound. 

Then  I  hold  that  the  Indian  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  when  born 
upon  the  soil  of  the  United  States,  and  especially  so  when  he  severs  his  tribal 
relation  and  takes  his  allotment  of  land  and  settles  down  under  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  and  pays  taxes.  It  is  true  you  exempt  his  land  from  taxes 
by  this  bill  for  a  certain  length  of  time.  During  that  period  yon  would  have 
to  exclude  him  from  the  representative  count,  but  the  moment  you  tax  him, 
then  how  does  it  stand  ?  He  is  a  person ;  he  was  born  in  the  United  States, 
and  is  subject  to  its  jurisdiction,  and  he  pays  taxes  as  a  citizen.  Why  is  he 
not  a  citizen,  and  why  is  he  not  then  counted  in  the  representative  apportion 
ment?  I  should  like  for  some  senator  to  give  a  reason  why.  But  we  cannot 
truly  say  that  the  Indians  are  not  now  taxed.  We  have  established  trading 
stations  among  them,  and  all  Administrations  have  appointed  political  favor 
ites  to  conduct  this  business.  We  do  not  permit  any  one,  under  heavy  pen 
alties,  to  go  into  their  territory  and  trade  with  them  as  the  competitor  of  the 
political  trader  appointed  by  the  Government.  They  are  compelled,  there 
fore,  to  sell  their  produce  to  those  favorites  who  are  put  there  by  our  Gov 
ernment  to  make  money  off  of  them,  and  they  are  compelled  to  buy  the 
goods  they  use  from  the  same  persons.  The  larger  part  of  the  money  raised 
to  support  this  Government  is  raised  by  a  tariff  upon  imports.  Almost  every 
Indian  tribe  purchases  from  these  favored  traders  certain  amounts  of  im 
ported  goods,  and  every  time  he  purchases  a  yard  of  cloth  manufactured  in  a 
foreign  country,  or  pound  of  sugar  or  any  other  article  made  abroad,  he  pays 
a  tax  to  this  Government.  Then  \vhy  is  he  not  a  citizen,  entitled  to  the  pro 
tection  of  the  laws  made  by  this  Government?  Wrhy  is  not  his  life  sacred, 
and  why  should  not  the  assassin  who  takes  it  wantonly  suffer  the  extreme 
penalty?  Why  is  not  his  property  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  law,  and 
why  is  not  this  protection  extended  to  him  on  his  application  ?  And  if  he  is 
illegally  imprisoned,  why  is  he  not  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  the  writ  of  ha- 
bens  corpus,  which  have  recently  been  extended  to  him  by  an  able  Federal 
judge  in  one  of  the  Western  States? 

Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  furthermore,  that  this  fourteenth  amendment  de- 


620  APPENDIX. 

clares  that  they  "  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein 
they  reside."  I  know  in  some  minds  there  is  a  difficulty  about  State  rights 
just  here,  about  Congress  declaring  anybody  a  citizen.  I  think  we  are  sim 
ply  making  a  declaration  here  in  a  statute  of  a  right  that  is  already  secured 
by  the  Constitution,  that  he  is  a  citizen  whenever  he  has  complied  with  these 
terms. 

Under  the  amendment  we  may  declare  him  a  citizen,  but  may  not  be  able 
to  count  him  in  the  representative  population  until  he  begins  to  pay  taxes 
upon  his  land.  But  when  he  does  he  is  then  a  person  born  in  the  United 
States,  and  a  tax -payer ;  and  has  all  the  rights  of  a  citizen  under  the  Consti 
tution. 

As  I  do  not  care  to  stickle  about  the  shadow  of  a  question  of  State  rights 
here,  and  as  I  hold  he  is  a  citizen  whenever  he  has  adopted  the  rules  and  con 
formed  to  the  plan  laid  down  in  this  statute  any  way,  I  am  willing  to  say  in 
the  statute  in  express  terms  that  he  is  a  citizen  with  all  the  protection  and 
duties  of  any  other  citizen.  Why  give  it  to  «very  person  of  every  race  and 
every  color  on  the  face  of  the  earth  who  will  come  here  and  comply  with  our 
laws  and  not  give  it  to  the  original  inhabitants  of  our  own  country?  He  is 
"to  the  manor  born,"  and  you  have  no  right  to  drive  him  into  the  Pacific 
Ocean  or  to  slaughter  him  with  his  women  and  children  because  he  will  not 
submit  to  the  imperious  dictates  of  any  officer  of  the  Government.  When 
you  make  a  treaty  with  him  and  assign  to  him  certain  limits  and  say,  "  This 
is  your  land,  Mr.  Indian,"  he  has  a  right  to  stay  there  and  be  protected,  and 
when  he  conforms  to  the  laws  conformed  to  by  other  citizens  and  is  made  a 
tax-payer  he  has  a  right  to  claim  citizenship,  in  the  broadest  sense,  and 
you  have  no  right  to  deny  it  to  him. 

Our  mode  of  dealing  with  the  Indian  is  in  very  striking  contrast  with  that 
adopted  by  the  British  Government.  Why  are  they  not  always  engaged  in 
war  with  the  Indian  in  Canada?  Why  is  it  that  they  live  in  peace  and  har 
mony  there?  It  is  because  the  British  Government  has  dealt  justly  and 
fairly  with  the  Indians.  It  has  not  driven  them  from  post  to  pillar,  but  has 
assigned  them  reservations,  where  they  have  made  their  homes  and  built  thf  ir 
houses  and  cleared  their  fields  and  raised  their  stock  and  erected  their  school- 
houses  and  churches.  They  have  the  rights  of  British  subjects,  and  those 
rights  are  protected.  They  are  treated  humanely  and  kindly,  and  hence  they 
are  peaceable  and  loyal  to  that  Government.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  British  Government  has  not  driven  them  to  her  remotest  boundary  to  be 
located.  They  have  permitted  them  to  take  reservations  on  the  spots  where 
they  were  born,  where  they  have  always  lived,  and  where  their  fathers  are 
buried.  I  recollect,  a  few  years  ago.  on  a  visit  to  Quebec,  that  I  admired  the 
valley  of  the  Saint  Charles  as  one  of  the  loveliest  I  ever  saw,  and  one  that 
the  white  man  might  well  covet.  But  in  going  ten  miles  from  the  city,  I 
found  in  that  beautiful  valley  on  the  river  Lorette,  which  took  its  name  from 
the  tribe,  the  remnant  of  the  tribe  of  the  Lorettes  living  on  the  territory  of 
their  birth,  and  protected  as  British  subjects,  and  they  were  as  loyal  as  any 
other  subjects  that  the  British  Government  had  in  Canada. 

I  visited  the  residence  of  the  chief  in  the  midst  of  that  magnificent  valley, 
where  I  was  received  kindly,  and  among  other  curiosities  I  was  shown  what 
were  called  the  "crown  jewels,"  prominent  among  them  a  bronze  medal  pre 
sented  to  the  chief  by  Prince  Albert,  and  a  silver  medal  presented  by  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  These  were  regarded  as  treasures  of  the  nation  and  the 
tribe  blessed  the  names  of  the  donors.  Their  hearts  swell  with  pride  when 
they  say,  "  I  am  a  British  subject."  How  marked  is  the  contrast  between 
that  state  of  things  and  what  we  witness  in  our  own  country !  There  the 
Indian  has  been  justly  and  kindly  treated  and  is  a  willing  subject  to  the  Gov- 


APPENDIX.  621 

ernment  and  a  warm  friend  to  the  white  man.  Here  he  has  been  too  often 
unjustly  and  harshly  treated,  and  he  is  the  natural  enemy  of  his  oppressors. 
There  they  are  civilized,  and  in  large  numbers  converted  to  Christianity. 

Here  on  the  plains  the  wild  Indian  is  often  butchered  because  he  has  de 
fended  his  rights  against  some  robber  who  plundered  him  of  his  prop 
erty. 

It  may  be  said  we  have  the  power  to  carry  out  this  line  of  policy.  That 
is  true.  But  have  we  the  right  to  do  it?  We  are  strong  ;  we  are  powerful. 
But  there  is  a  Being  stronger  and  much  more  powerful  than  we  are.  And  we 
should  not  forget  that  nations  as  well  as  individuals  have  to  answer  for 
wrongs  and  outrages  committed  by  them.  la  what  way  we  may  be  called  to 
answer  I  do  not  pretend  to  say.  Whether  it  will  be  by  pestilence  or  war,  or 
in  what  other  manner  we  may  be  scourged  for  our  cruelty  to  the  aborigines 
of  this  country,  I  know  not.  But  I  believe  the  crimes  committed  by  us 
against  the  Poncas,  and  in  the  massacre  of  the  Cheyennes  and  other  like  out 
rages,  will  meet  their  reward  in  national  ^punishment.  Our  course  is  con 
demned  by  the  civilization  of  the  age.  It  is  condemned  by  humanity,  and 
it  is  condemned  by  Christian  men  and  women  everywhere  who  understand 
the  facts. 

I  do  not  put  the  blame  at  the  door  of  any  particular  person  or  official.  I 
do  not  pretend  to  say  where  it  rests.  I  do  not  call  in  question  the  motives 
of  any  one,  but  I  do  say  the  acts  were  criminal;  they  cannot  be  justified. 
What  were  the  facts?  The  Cheyennes  had  been  carried  to  the  Indian  Ter 
ritory.  They  could  not  stand  the  climate  and  were  dying  fast  with  disease. 
Some  three  hundred  escaped,  and  in  midwinter,  under  the  most  adverse  cir 
cumstances,  made  their  way  back  toward  their  own  country,  and  had  gone 
several  hundred  miles  before  the  military  overtook  them.  When  summoned 
to  surrender,  they  refused  to  do  so  without  a  guaranty  that  they  should  not 
be  sent  back  to  the  Indian  Territory,  saying  that  they  would  rather  fight  till 
th«-y  died  than  to  return.  The  commanding  officer  gave  them  to  understand, 
and  they  did  understand,  that  they  should  not  be  carried  back  to  the  Terri 
tory  if  they  would  surrender.  After  the  surrender  they  were  carried  to 
Fort  Robinson,  and  an  order  was  then  sent  to  carry  them  to  the  Indian  Ter 
ritory.  They  refused  to  go,  and  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  them,  being 
all  that  survived,  were  imprisoned,  thinly  clad,  in  midwinter,  when  the  ther 
mometer  was  below  zero,  for  five  days  at  a  time  without  food  or  fire,  and 
three  days  of  the  time  without  water,  to  compel  them  to  consent  to  return  to 
the  Indian  Territory,  where  their  ranks  had  been  fast  decimated  by  dis 
eases  incident  to  the  climate,  and  when  they  preferred  death  to  a  return. 
If  we  were  determined  to  carry  out  our  dictatorial  policy  and  compel  them 
to  return  to  the  reservation,  why  did  we  not  hold  them  at  the  fort  and  treat 
them  humanely  till  we  had  provided  the  means  to  transport  them,  and  then 
send  them  under  military  escort? 

But  I  turn  from  this  sickening  theme,  and  will  not  dwell  longer  upon  it  by 
rehearsing  scenes  that  attended  the  butchery  of  men,  women,  and  children 
who  attempted,  by  violence,  to  escape  from  this  horrible  imprisonment. 

If  we  treat  the  Indians  as  they  do  in  Canada  we  may  avoid  wars.  We 
need  not  have  the  army  always  chasing  them  if  we  will  do  justice  to  them 
and  not  be  always  robbing  them.  In  my  opinion  it  is  much  better  to  expend 
a  few  millions  in  locating  them  and  giving  them  agricultural  implements,  and 
in  educating  and  civilizing  them  and  their  children,  than  it  is  to  expend  a 
hundred  millions  in  pursuing  them  over  the  plains  and  slaughtering  them  like 
wolves. 

But  it  is  said  by  those  disposed  to  give  no  quarters  to  the  Indians  that  they 
are  savage  and  cruel  in  their  mode  of  warfare,  often  slaughtering  indiscrim- 


622  APPENDIX. 

inately,  men,  women,  and  children.  This  is  unfortunately  true;  but  what 
better  could  we  expect  from  people  who  have  none  of  the  advantages  of  the 
proper  training  incident  to  civilization,  and  who  feel  that  they  are  greatly 
oppressed?  The  point  I  make,  however,  is  that  those  wars  in  which  they 
practice  cruelty  have  usually  been  provoked  by  bad  white  men  or  by  the 
agents  of  governments  at  war  with  the  United  States.  The  Indian  is  not 
naturally  disposed  to  go  to  war  with  the  white  man.  Our  early  history  shows 
that' very  clearly.  Jt  was  only  when  their  rights  had  been  trampled  upon  by 
the  white  man  that  they  took  up  arms.  The  rattlesnake  is  the  most  peace 
able  reptile  on  the  plains.  When  you  come  in  contact  with  him,  if  you  will 
not  trample  upon  him  or  practice  aggression  that  causes  him  to  believe  that 
you  intend  to  do  it,  he  will  crawl  away  and  leave  you;  but  when  you  place 
your  foot  upon  him  he  declares  war,  and  fights  with  savage  de>peration.  So 
with  these  children  of  the  forest,  once  so  strong  and  now  so  weak  and  so  near 
extinction. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  they  ar,e  savages,  and  cannot  be  civilized  arid  made 
good  citizens.  Our  experience  has  taught  us  very  differently.  On  that  point 
1  want  to  call  attention  to  two  or  three  passages  taken  from  the  rt ports  of 
the  Indian  agents  foj  the  civilized  tribes.  The  agent  says,  speaking  of  these 
civilized  tribt-s : 

"  These  people  have  recovered  slowly  from  the  effects  of  the  war,  but  they 
are  now  in  a  position,  if  not  disturbed,  to  become  a  strong  and  wealthy  peo 
ple.  Their  only  fear  is  that  the  United  States  will  forget  her  obligations, 
and  in  some  way  deprive  them  of  their  lands.  They  do  not  seem  to  care  for 
the  loss  in  money  value  so  much  as  they  fear  the  trouble  and  the  utter  anni 
hilation  of  a  great  portion  of  their  people,  if  the  whites  are  permitted  to 
homestead  in  all  portions  of  their  country,  as  is  contemplated  by  so  many  of 
the  measures  before  Congress." 

Again  he  savs: 

u  Crime  is  no  more  frequent  than  in  the  adjoining  States,  and  convictions 
by  local  authority  are  about  as  sure.  The  band  of  desperadoes,  whites  and 
Indians,  who  made  their  headquarters  in  the  western  part  of  this  agency,  and 
beyond,  and  who  were  the  terror  of  the  whole  country  last  year,  have  all  been 
killed  or  placed  in  the  penitentiary.  The  feeling  among  these  nations  is 
stronger  than  ever  for  the  enforcement  of  the  law. 

'» Tile  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  and  Baptist  denominations  have  missiona 
ries  here,  and  are  doing  good  work.  Some  of  the  missionaries  have  been 
here  for  many  years,  and  their  influence  for  good  is  great.  Their  means  for 
support  is  small,  and  they  work  hard,  and  only  those  remain  in  the  field  who 
possess  a  true  missionary  spirit.  The  church  buildings  are  not  expensive  or 
ornamental,  but  are  built  for  use.  The  Sabbath  is  well  respected  and  ob 
served.  Many  of  the  Indians  are  ordained  ministers.  Some  of  them  have 
been  educated  in  the  States,  ai  d  returned  to  labor  among  their  own  people. 

"  The  schools  of  these  nations  are  conducted  upon  the  school  system  of  the 
States.  The  English  language  is  taught  exclusively.  Many  of  the  boys  and 
girls  are  being  sent  to  the  States  to  be  educated  at  the  expense  of  the  nation. 
Many  of  the  wealthy  send  their  children  East  to  be  educated  at  their  own 
expense.  The  result  is  a  surprise  to  the  stranger  who  meets  so  many  well- 
educated  people  among  the  nations.  There  are  also  private  schools  with 
good  attendance.  1  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  solution  of  the  Indian  ques 
tion,  if  it  is  ever  solved  before  the  last  one  is  driven  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  will  be  in  the  education  of  the  Indian  children." 

It  appears,  therefore,  from  the  reports  from  the  five  civilized  tribes  that 
they  have  made  great  progress  in  education  and  they  are  probably  doing  as 
much  or  more  with  the  funds  at  their  disposal  now  for  the  education  of  their 


APPENDIX.  623 

children  than  we  are  doing.  Among  them  are  intelligent  divines,  intelli 
gent  lawyers,  intelligent  judges  ;  in  a  word  they  are  a  civilized  people,  with 
dwellings  and  farms  and  orchards  and  gardens  and  stock,  and  are  fast  rival 
ling  us  in  the  arts  of  civilization.  Why  may  not  other  tribes  reach  the  same 
elevation  with  the  same  advantages  ?  There  is  no  reason  why  it  may  not 
be  so.  Indeed  it  is  almost  a  certainty  that  it  will  be  so. 

In  the  same  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  I  find  state 
ments  in  reference  to  the  wild  tribes  that  have  been  located  there.  Even  the 
Modocs,  who  were  carried  down  under  circumstances  so  unfavorable,  are 
making,  as  the  agent  states,  very  decided  progress  toward  becoming  civilized. 
It  may  be  said,  then,  why  not  carry  out  the  policy  that  has  been  carried  out 
heretofore,  of  taking  them  from  their  homes  West,  and,  after  killing  off  a 
large  proportion,  carry  the  little  remnant  there,  and  get  them  all  together. 
I  say  it  is  cruelty ;  it  is  outrage.  Put  them  upon  reservations,  upon  their  native 
heath,  let  them  take  their  land  in  severalty  on  their  reservations,  encourage 
them  to  go  to  work,  and  when  they  have  gone  to  work  protect  them  in  their 
labor  and  in  the  property  they  acquire  by  their  labor.  In  a  word,  extend 
the  protection  of  the  law  over  them,  and  subject  them  to  its  penalties  when 
they  violate  it.  Treat  them  as  persons,  as  human  beings,  not  as  wild 
animals. 

Mr.  Teller.  The  senator  says  the  Indians  should  have  their  lands  in  sev 
eralty.  I  should  like  to  inquire  of  the  honorable  senator  if  the  progress  in 
civilization  made  by  the  nve  civilized  tribes  has  not  been  with  land  in 
common? 

Mr.  lirown.     Yes  ;  I  understand  they  hold  the  fee-simple  in  common. 

Mr.  Teller.     Why  not  pursue  the  same  course  then  with  the  other  tribes  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  have  no  doubt  in  a  very  short  time  they  will  abandon  the 
practice  of  holding  the  fee-simple  in  common.  With  their  order  of  intelli 
gence  and  enlightenment  they  will  soon  have  the  same  idea  of  individual 
rights  of  property  and  of  individual  protection  that  we  have.  It  is  true,  as 
I  understand  our  treaties,  (and  I  am  for  strict  good  faith  in  the  observance 
of  treaties),  we  have  no  right  to  compel  them  to  take  their  lands  in  severalty ; 
but  I  have  no  doubt  in  a  few  years  they  will  divide  them  in  severalty  among 
themselves.  As  we  started  out  wrong,  I  think  in  the  future  in  dealing  with 
the  different  tribes  we  should  start  right,  and  give  the  land  to  them  in  sev- 
eialty  at  the  commencement. 

Mr.  President,  I  want  this  matter  put  where  there  can  be  no  doubt  about 
it,  so  that  when  the  Indians  desire  to  conform  to  the  laws  they  shall  have 
the  right  to  do  it  under  the  protection  of  the  law. 

In  the  treaty  made  in  1854  with  the  Omahas  there  was  provision  made 
that  their  lands  might  be  allotted  in  severalty  whenever  the  President  thinks 
proper  to  do  so.  I  understand  that  they  have  sent  petition  after  petition  to 
the  President  to  permit  the  division,  and  let  them  have  their  lands  in  sever 
alty,  but  that  a  deaf  ear  has  always  been  turned  to  them.  The  time  has  not 
yet  come  when  the  President  has  in  his  discretion  concluded  that  it  was  best 
to  permit  them  to  have  those  treaty  regulations  carried  out.  I  would  make 
the  provision  imperative,  that  when  they  comply  with  certain  provisions  laid 
down  by  law  they  shall  have  a  right  to  the  patent.  Take  the  Omahas,  for 
instance.  As  they  have  not  any  land  in  severalty,  what  inducement  is  there 
for  the  industrious,  frugal,  attentive  Indian  to  labor  for  his  advancement 
and  the  advancement  of  his  family  V  If  he  undertakes  to  build  a  house  and 
clear  lands  and  raise  stock  he  knows  not  what  time  he  may  be  driven  away 
from  it.  He  knows  not  whether  under  a  new  apportionment  that  land  will 
fall  to  him  or  to  another,  or  whether  it  will  be  taken  by  the  white  man. 
Our  own  race  would  neither  build  houses,  clear  lands,  nor  make  other  im- 


G24  APPENDIX 

provements  under  any  such  uncertainty  as  to  their  right  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  their  labor  in  future. 

If  the  Omaha  says,  "  The  treaty  provides  that  I  may  have  my  land  in 
severally,"  the  reply  is,  "  You  have  never  got  the  exercise  of  the  discretion  of 
the  President  to  permit  you  to  do  it."  What  encouragement  is  there  then  ? 

I  understand  there  are  bad  Indians  in  every  tribe  and  there  are  good  In 
dians  ;  there  are  lazy  Indians  and  there  are  industrious  Indians;  and  the 
way  to  encourage  industry  is  to  let  each  man  who  labors  with  his  hands  feel 
that  he  labors  on  his  own  soil  and  is  protected  by  the  laws  of  the  country 
that  are  thrown  over  him,  and,  like  a  shield,  guaranty  him  against  robbery 
and  wrong.  Then  you  stimulate  his  industry;  he  has  something  to  work 
for ;  but  where  he  is  driven  from  post  to  pillar  at  the  will  of  the  government, 
or  an  official  of  the  government  or  of  the  army,  what  inducement  do  you 
hold  out  to  him  to  act  industriously  or  to  make  him  a  comfortable  home  or 
to  make  his  family  comfortable  and  happy  V  None  whatever.  We  hold  out 
the  reverse.  The  ancestors  of  the  present  Indians  once  held  the  whole  con 
tinent  in  fee-simple.  We  have  taken  it  from  them.  Is  it  asking  too  much 
of  us,  when  we  have  a  vast  unoccupied  territory  that  the  white  man  is  not 
yet  able  to  cultivate,  that  the  descendants  of  the  original  proprietors  of  the 
whole  should  have  the  privilege  of  locating  homesteads  on  this  vast  domain 
where  they  can  labor  for  a  livelihood  and  be  protected  in  the  fruits  of  their 
labor  V 

I  understand  it  is  the  wish  of  the  chiefs  of  many  of  the  tribes  to  continue 
the  tribal  relations.  They  are  like  all  other  human  beings,  I  suppose  ;  they 
love  power,  and  they  want  to  continue  things  as  they  are  so  that  they  may 
have  control  of  their  people.  'Therefore  they  carry  them  from  point 
to  point,  and  frequently  we  see  that  they  come  here  and  sell  out ;  the  coun 
try  is  disposed  of  by  four  or  five  men  agreeing  that  they  will  move  oft'  a 
hundred  or  a  thousand  miles  from  the  place  of  their  nativity,  at  d  all  the 
tribe  must  leave  their  homes  because  a  certain  amount  of  money  has  been 
spent  on  four  or  five  chiefs  here.  I  say  to  encourage  the  common  Indians  to 
take  their  homesteads  and  settle  down  upon  them  and  go  to  work  and  aban 
don  the  tribal  relations  and  become  peaceable  citizens  of  the  United  States,is  in 
my* judgment  the  best  solution  of  the  Indian  question.  As  long  as  they  roam 
or  are  driven  from  one  point  to  another  we  cannot  expect  they  will  settle 
down  and  become  good  citizens.  Whenever  you  hold  out  the  inducement 
and  say  to  the  Indian,  "  Take  your  homestead  here,  build  your  house,  clear 
your  plantation,  raise  your  stock,  send  your  children  to  school,  and  he  who 
comes  here  to  steal  your  pony  shall  atone  for  it  in  the  penitentiary  ;  he  who 
takes  your  life  shall  go  to  the  gallows,  and  you,  too,  shall  conform  to  the 
laws  or  suffer  the  penalties,"  you  will  find  them  or  at  least  a  large  proportion 
of  them  ready  to  do  it.  If  there  be  those  among  them  who  will  not  do  it,  subject 
them  to  the  laws  until  the  penal  statutes  properly  executed  have  brought 
them  to  subjection.  That  is  the  way  to  civilize  them,  in  my  opinion.  Do 
justice  to  them.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  other  plan  that  will  ever  solve 
this  Indian  question  short  of  their  extermination  from  the  continent. 

I  knew  a  few  of  them  in  my  own  State  who  staid  when  the  Cherokee  tribe 
left  there,  mostly  half-breeds,  some  quadroons.  They  have  taken  reserva 
tions  there,  and  are  as  good  citizens  as  any  we  have  in  the  State.  They  are 
intelligent,  they  are  law-abiding,  they  are  orderly;  part  of  them  are  good 
Christian  men  and  women,  and  they  are  exemplary  citizens.  Why  may  it 
not  be  so  elsewhere  if  we  give  them  the  same  opportunities  ? 

1  trust,  Mr.  President,  that  we  shall  pass  this  bill  in  a  shape  that  will  give 
every  Indian  a  home  on  his  reservation,  and  guaranty  it  to  him  and  his 
children  for  all  time  to  come,  and  that  the  power  of  alienation  will  be  re- 


APPENDIX.  625 

stricted  until  he  has  learned  the  rights  and  the  duties  of  an  American  citi 
zen.  After  that  let  him  and  his  posterity  take  care  of  it  or  alienate  it  as  may 
any  one  else.  Fix  a  reasonable  time  ;  exempt  their  homestead  from  taxation. 
After  that  time  there  is  no  further  exclusion  in  the  fourteenth  constitutional 
amendment  in  the  way  of  counting  them  in  the  representative  population  of 
the  States  where  they  may  reside,  and  no  reason  that  I  can  see  why  they 
may  not  be  full-fledged  citizens  and  voters. 


SPEKCH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  DFLIVERED  IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  FEBRUARY  17,  1881,  ON  THE  FUNDING  BILL. 

Mr.  Brown  said : 

Mr.  President:  So  much  has  been  said  upon  this  question  that  the 
Senate  is  doubtless  fatigued  with  the  discussion  and  they  could  not  patiently 
hear  further  speeches  of  any  great  length.  Jt  is  not  my  purpose,  therefore, 
to  enter  into  a  general  discussion  of  the  questipns  involved  in  the  issue  now 
before  us.  I  am  unwilling,  however,  to  cast  my  vote  without  stating  a  few 
of  the  reasons  which  control  my  judgment  in  the  premises. 

As  has  already  been  said  by  other  senators,  we  have  paid  off  a  large  part 
of  the  public  debt  incurred  by  the  war  within  the  last  ten  years;  and 
while  the  taxes  of  our  people  have  been  heavy  they  have  not  been  such  as 
to  prevent  us  from  moving  forward  to  a  high  tide  of  prosperity.  The 
country  as  a  whole  has  probably  at  no  time  been  more  prosperous  than  it 
now  is.  Within  the  last  twenty  years  the  area  of  production,  or  the  increase 
'in  the  acreage  of  cultivation,  has  been  enormous.  Our  population  has  in 
creased  at  a  rapid  rate,  and  it  has  already  reached  over  fifty  millions.  We 
have  a  vast  territory  of  unsurpassed  fertility.  The  American  people  are 
a  hardy,  laborious  people,  full  of  energy  and  enterprise,  ambitious  for  suc 
cess,  and  determined  to  accumulate  wealth.  During  the  last  few  years  our 
principal  crops  have  been  about  doubled  in  quantity,  and  our  facilities  for  trans- 
portation  have  been  so  largely  increased  that  all  our  productions  of  every 
character,  to  say  nothing  of  our  manufactured  articles,  find  a  ready  market 
either  at  home  or  in  foreign  ports.  Not  many  years  ago  corn  was  a  very 
common  fuel  in  parts  of  the  West  during  the  winter  season  where  wood 
was  scarce,  and  wheat  and  pork  and  other  productions  of  the  country  found 
scarcely  any  market,  leaving  the  people  on  the  fertile  plains  of  the  West, 
without  market,  with  but  little  to  stimulate  their  energy  or  enterprise, 
content  to  make  enough  produce  to  live  upon,  and  to  remain  at  home  and 
enjoy  it.  Now  we  have  some  ninety  thousand  miles  of  railroad  in  operation, 
penetrating  every  section  of  the  country  that  has  been  settled  by  our  people, 
and  pressing  forward  into  the  uncultivated  wilderness,  leading  and  induc 
ing  population  to  follow.  This  state  of  things,  together  with  the  wars  and 
oppressions  of  some  of  the  European  governments,  has  brought  to  our 
shores  a  largely  increased  number  of  immigrants,  each  of  whom  finds  a 
home  in  a  rich  country,  where  by  labor  he  can  soon  make  himself  and  his 
family  comfortable. 

A  few  years  ago  our  exchanges  were  conducted  almost  entirely  upon  the  cot 
ton  and  tobacco  crops  of  the  South.  Now  the  grain  crop  and  the  meat  crop 
of  the  West  enter  very  largely  into  the  account.  Why?  Because  the  mar 
kets  of  the  world  are  now  open  to  these  productions,  which  can  be  sent  over 
long  lines  of  railroad  at  low  rates  to  the  coast  and  then  rapidly  transported 
across  the  ocean  upon  steamships.  The  result  has  been  that  the  last  few 
years  have  shown  an  enormous  balance  of  trade  in  our  favor,  which  has 
poured  a  stream  of  gold  into  the  United  States  from  other  countries  to  pay 
40 


C26  APPENDIX. 

the  balance  due  to  us  resulting  from  the  usual  interchange  of  commodities. 
This  stream  of  gold  smd  the  large  amounts  that  are  made  at  home  and  taken 
from  our  mines  is  seeking  investment.  Large  sums  have  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  capitalists  of  great  wealth,  many  of  whom  do  not  desire  to  risk  their  fortunes 
upon  speculation  or  upon  the  chances  of  an  active  business,  and  they  naturally 
seek,  even  at  a  low  rate  of  interest,  first-class  investments  that  are  perfectly 
safe  and  free  from  taxation. 

Not  only  is  this  true  of  the  capitalists  of  large  means,  who  invest  heavily 
in  the  securities  of  the  United  States,  but  it  is  also  true  of  a  vast  number 
of  our  best  citizens  and  laboring  people,  who  are  making  something  to  invest 
and  who  desire  to  place  it  where  it  will  be  secure.  And  a  bond  on  the 
United  States,  perfectly  secure,  if  it  is  not  taxable,  which  pays  3  per  cent, 
interest,  is  a  better  investment  for  even  a  small  capitalist  than  he  finds  in 
most  of  the  channels  into  which  he  can  put  his  capital.  I  think  I  may 
venture  to  say  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  farmers  of  the  United  States, 
after  they  have  paid  all  the  expenses  attending  the  production  of  their  crops, 
and  all  the  taxes  assessed  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  the  gov 
ernments  of  the  States,  and  of  the  counties  where  they  reside,  do  not  make 
clear  more  than  3  per  cent,  upon  the  capital  invested.  The  same  is  true 
of  a  large  proportion  of  the  holders  of  real  estate  in  our  villages,  towns,  and 
cities.  Real  estate,  when  in  the  hands  of  men  who  manage  well,  where  it 
is  well  located  and  properly  improved,  pays  a  better  per  cent. 

But  in  every  city,  town,  or  village  in  the  Union  it  would  be  found  that 
much  of  the  real  estate  is  unimproved,  arid  the  owners  are  paying  tax  upon 
it  without  income.  And  of  the  improved  real  estate  there  is  a  large  propor 
tion  that  is  not  in  the  best  location  or  under  the  best  management,  that 
does  not  pay  3  per  cent,  after  all  expenses  of  repairs,  insurance,  and  State, 
county,  and  municipal  taxation  have  been  paid.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  the 
whole  capital  invested  in  railroads  or  in  mining  in  this  country  has  paid  3  per 
cent,  net  to  the  owners.  Some  railroads  and  some  mines  have  paid  largely, 
but  I  speak  of  the  average,  of  the  whole  sum  invested.  And  our  people  in 
this  condition  are  beginning  to  calculate  and  properly  to  estimate  their  true 
situation.  Hence  it  is  that  whenever  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  have 
been  offered,  as  on  a  late  occasion,  to  the  populace,  they  have  taken  them 
readily  at  the  ruling  prices  even  as  low  as  4  per  cent,  when  our  bonds 
brought  no  such  premium  as  they  now  bring.  And  I  have  no  hesitancy  in 
saying  that  if  this  loan  is  offered  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and 
is  placed  within  their  reach  in  the  different  cities  and  larger  towns  all  over  the 
Union  for  as  much  as  thirty  days  after  having  been  advertised,  that  the  coun 
try  will  be  astonished  at  the  amount  that  will  be  taken  by  citizens  of  small 
means,  who  desire  to  lay  by  something  that  they  can  calculate  upon  as 
positively  certain,  and  that  is  absolutely  free  from  the  demands  of  the  tax 
gatherer. 

Senators  doubt  whether  we  can  place  bonds  redeemable  after  five  years 
at  the  option  of  the  Government,  but  which  the  Government  is  not  under 
obligation  to  redeem  until  the  end  of  twenty  years,  usually  called  five- 
twenties,  upon  the  market  successfully  at  3  per  cent.  I  do  not  entertain 
any  doubt  on  this  subject.  Fifteen  years  ago  if  the  United  States  wanted 
to  borrow  money  they  had  to  pay  6  per  cent.  Then  came  a  loan  of  5  per 
cent.,  that  was  readily  taken  ;  and  a  loan  at  4^,  and  then  a  4  per  cent, 
bond,  and  now  the  4  per  cent,  bonds  are  selling  in  the  market  at  113  to  114. 
This  shows  the  increased  confidence  of  our  people  in  our  public  securities, 
and  their  increased  ability  to  purchase  them.  And  the  immense  increase  in 
the  productions  and  the  manufactures  of  the  country,  and  the  vast  increase 
in  the  balance  of  trade  in  our  favor,  have  placed  in  the  hands  of  our  people 


APPENDIX.  627 

the  means  to  gratify  their  disposition  to  invest  in  the  bonds  of  their  Govern 
ment  at  a  rate  which,  while  it  seems  low,  pays  them  a  better  income  with 
absolute  certainty  than  they  can  find  elsewhere. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  English  consols,  which  at  3  per  cent, 
have  been  most  of  the  time  a  little  under  par.  Yet  it  is  admitted  that  with 
in  the  last  few  years  they  have  reached  par.  It  is  said,  however,  that  this 
is  on  account  of  the  long  term  they  have  to  run,  or,  rather,  on  account  of  the 
fact  that  they  run  perpetually ;  and  the  owner  is  simply  entitled  to  his  3  per 
cent,  interest  on  the  investment.  That,  with  a  certain  class  of  wealthy 
men  who  desire  to  invest,  is  in  their  favor,  and  causes  them  to  bear  a  better 
price.  But  another  large  class  who  would  rather  see  the  end  of  the  loan  oc 
casionally,  and  know  a  particular  day  in  the  future,  when  they  can  demand, 
not  what  may  be  the  market  price  of  the  consol,  but  the  par  value  of  it, 
would  prefer  that  it  should  have  some  fixed  period  to  run. 

But  there  is  another  reason  why  United  States  bonds  are  naturally  worth 
more  in  the  market  than  British  consols.  The  incomes  from  consols  are 
taxable  ;  our  bonds  are  absolutely  free  from  taxation.  Again,  this  Govern 
ment  has  a  territory  immensely  larger  and  more  productive  than  the 
British  Government  possesses.  I  do  not  speak  now  of  the  British  colonies, 
many  of  which,  when  you  deduct  the  expense  of  their  war*,  are  not  very  re 
munerative  to  their  mother  country  ;  but  I  speak  of  the  domain  that  proper 
ly  belongs  to  the  British  Government,  and  con.-^titutes  its  home  territory. 
There  is  not,  therefore,  room  with  them  for  the  great  expansion  that  we 
have  in  this  country.  There  is  nothing  like  so  large  a  population  in  the 
British  Isles  as  we  have  here.  And  while,  on  account  of  the  fact  that  the 
country  is  much  older,  there  has  been  a  larger  accumulation  of  wealth  in 
proportion  to  numbers,  there  is  no  reasonable  prospect  that  the  wealth  of 
that  country  will  remain,  as  now,  in  excess  of  the  wealth  of  this  country  in 
proportion  to  numbers. 

But  there  is  still  another  significant  fact.  The  British  Government,  with 
all  its  strength  and  its  naval  power,  is  all  the  time  engaged  in  war  with 
somebody,  which  compels  it  to  maintain  large  armies  and  navies.  Those 
wars  are  expensive,  arid  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  the  British  Islands  there 
is  a  growing  discontent  with  the  government. 

At  this  very  time  the  Irish  question  is  one  of  great  difficulty,  and  no  one 
can  say  that  the  inhabitants  ot  the  British  Islands  may  not  be  cutting  each 
other's  throats  within  the  next  six  months.  The  tenants  and  peasantry 
everywhere  in  the  islands  are  becoming  restless  at  the  present  land  laws  and 
the  present  high  rents  they  have  to  pay.  This  restlessness  is  also  permeating 
the  laboring  masses  in  the  iron  and  coal  mines  and  the  manufacturing  districts ; 
and  stable  and  powerful  as  the  British  Government-  has  been  for  a  long  while 
its  prospects  for  future  peace,  prosperity,  and  stability  are  not,  probably,  as 
great  as  those  of  the  United  States.  Its  old  land  sy.-tem  and  its  aristocracy 
are  in  danger.  We  have  passed  through  our  internal  struggle.  It  is  not  at  all 
probable  that  we  shall  have  another  such  struggle  within  acentury  or  probably 
centuries  to  come.  All  patriots  unite  in  the  hope  that  we  may  never  have 
another.  Our  country,  then,  with  a  well  established  government,  and  with 
resources  unequalled  by  any  other  country,  offers  to  the  world  assurances  of 
peace,  prosperity,  stability,  and  ability  to  pay,  that  neither  the  British  Gov 
ernment  nor  any  other  government  offers. 

We  feel  that  we  have  an  exemption  from  future  foreign  wars 'possessed  by 
few  other  governments.  Prior  to  the  late  war  between  the  States,  this  Gov 
ernment  was  considered  by  the  leading  governments  of  Europe  as  a  second 
class  power  in  a  military  point  of  view.  But  our  own  struggle  developed  on 
each  side  immense  strength,  gallantry,  and  skill.  The  Southern  Confederacy, 


628  APPENDIX. 

notwithstanding  the  great  disadvantages  under  which  it  labored,  brought 
into  the  field  its  half  a  million  of  gallant  men.  The  Northern  States,  after  a 
long  struggle  of  four  years,  brought  into  the  field  an  army  of  sufficient  power 
to  crush  the  Confederate  armies  and  dictate  terms  of  peace.  We  Lave  now 
laid  down  our  past  differences.  The  two  armies  and  the  two  sections  are 
now  united,  and  in  case  of  a  foreign  war  the  troops  who  fought  under  oppos 
ing  banners  in  the  late  struggle  would  rally  together,  as  a  united  force, 
grand  and  invincible,  under  the  old  flag  of  the  Union.  Our  Government, 
with  all  its  sections  and  all  the  States  again  cordially  united,  can  put  5,000,- 
000  men  into  the  field  if  the  exigencies  should  require  it.  And  while  we  lack 
a  navy,  and  on  that  account  might  be  exposed  to  temporary  inconvenience 
in  case  of  a  foreign  war  with  a  naval  power,  still  the  final  result  could  not  be 
doubtful.  It  is  not  the  interest  of  any  foreign  power  to  attack  us  with  our 
present  united  strength,  nor  is  it  our  disposition  unjustly  to  attack  any  other 
power.  Therefore  we  have  a  freedom  from  war  and  the  expenses  of  large 
armies  and  navies  for  a  long  period  to  come,  which  it  is  not  likely  Great 
Britain  or  any  other  of  the  great  powers  will  enjoy.  We  naturally  have  a 
right  therefore  to  expect,  these  points  being  all  understood,  that  capitalists 
and  persons  generally  who  seek  investment  would  pay  a  little  higher  price 
for  United  States  bonds  than  they  would  for  the  securities  of  any  other 
government. 

In  view  of  our  vast  territory,  our  great  population,  our  immense  resources, 
our  unbounded  facilities  for  transportation,  our  rapidly  increasing  crops,  our 
growing  manufactures,  our  limitless  mineral  wealth,  the  growth  of  our 
educational,  moral  and  religious  institutions,  our  freedom  from  prospective 
wars,  the  heavy  balance  of  trade  in  our  favor,  and  for  other  reasons  that  I 
might  assign,  but  which  I  will  not  weary  the  Senate  by  giving  at  present,  I 
shall  vote  for  a  3  per  cent,  bond,  redeemable  at  any  time  after  five  years  and 
payable  at  the  end  of  twenty.  And  I  do  not  entertain  the  slightest  doubt 
that  the  bonds  can  be  negotiated  in  the  market  and  disposed  of  at  par  with 
out  any  difficulty. 

One  word  about  another  point  connected  with  the  bill  before  I  take  my 
seat.  On  pages  three  and  four  I  find  the  following  language :  "And  the 
expense  of  preparing,  issuing,  advertising,  and  disposing  of  the  bonds  and 
Treasury  notes  authorized  to  be  issued  shall  not  exceed  one-half  of  1 
per  cent." 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this,  and  what  is  the  amount  here  given  ?  It 
means  that  this  one-half  of  1  per  cent,  upon  the  whole  amount  is  to  be  given 
or  used  for  the  preparation  and  negotiation  of  the  bonds. 

In  other  words  it  means  that  we  are  to  pay  for  the  printing,  executing, 
advertising  and  disposing  of  the  bonds  one-half  of  1  per  cent.  The  House  of 
Representatives  fixed  it  at  one-fourth  of  1  per  cent.  ;  but  the  Finance  Com 
mittee  of  the  Senate  has  thought  proper  to  change  it  to  one-half  of  1  per  cent., 
and  we  were  told  by  the  honorable  chairman  of  the  committee,  on  day  before 
yesterday,  in  substance,  that  he  would  not  desire  to  take  the  responsibility  of 
possibly  defeating  the  loan  by  refusing  to  pay  as  much  as  one-halt  of  1  per  cent, 
for  negotiating  it ;  and  he  called  upon  senators  to  know  whether  they  would  de 
sire  to  incur  such  responsibility.  For  one,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  responding 
that  I  will  with  pleasure  take  the  responsibility  of  voting  to  pay  a  smaller  sum 
for  that  service.  What  is  the  sum  we  propose  to  pay  ?  The  whole  issue  of  bonds 
and  Treasury  notes  which  are  interest-bearing,  which  it  is  proposed  to  put 
upon  the  market,  amounts  to  $700,000,000.  One-half  of  1  per  cent,  for  pre 
paring  and  negotiating  the  bonds  is  to  be  paid  on  this  whole  amount. 
What  is  it  ?  The  snug  little  sum  of  $3,500,000.  Now,  I  will  be  pardoned 
for  expressing  the  belief  that  it  will  not  cost  half  a  million  to  pay  for  engrav- 


APPENDIX.  629 

ing,  printing,  issuing,  and  advertising  these  securities.  Then  what  do  we 
pay  the  other  three  millions  for?  For  disposing  of  the  bonds  ? 

In  other  words,  we  give  that  amount  as  a  bonus;  or,  in  steamship  phrase, 
which  has  been  so  often  used  here  within  the  last  few  days,  we  give  it  as  a 
subsidy  to  a  certain  syndicate  of  bankers  for  the  trouble  of  negotiating  this 
loan  for  us. 

Now,  if  I  were  not  a  senator,  I  should  like  very  much  to  take  this  contract, 
and  guaranty  the  negotiation  of  the  whole  loan  at  par.  And  rather  than 
miss  the  contract  I  might  be  willing  to  pay  out  of  this  bonus  or  subsidy,  if 
it  becomes  necessary,  to  the  national  Democratic  executive  committee  or  to 
the  national  Republican  executive  committee,  whichever  may  be  in  power  and 
have  the  right  to  expect  it,  the  sum  of  a  million  of  dollars  to  aid  in  conduct 
ing  the  campaign  of  1884,  if  party  exigencies  should  require  it.  And  I 
should  feel  then  that  I  had  made  the  handsome  sum  of  about  two  millions 
for  my  trouble.  And  if  I  could  not  succeed  with  the  present  syndicate,  with 
$700,000,000  of  United  States  securities  under  my  control,  I  could  readily 
form  one  with  which  I  would  succeed.  And  if  my  syndicate,  after  the  popu 
lace  had  been  served,  should  have  the  good  fortune  to  take  a  large  propor 
tion  of  the  bonds,  I  should  not  entertain  any  doubt  that  within  the  next 
twelve  months  we  would  make  more  than  another  one-half  of  one  per  cent, 
in  premiums  upon  the  bonds  so  taken. 

But  we  are  warned  by  senators  that  if  we  should  offer  a  3  per  cent,  bond 
and  the  negotiations  should  fail,  and  we  were  unable  to  dispose  of  it  at  par, 
we  should  lose  within  the  next  year  $12,000,000  in  interest,  being  the  differ 
ence  between  the  rate  we  are  now  paying  on  the  bonds  and  the  rate  of  3£ 
per  cent.  And  this  is  held  over  us,  probably  not  as  a  rod,  but  as  a  strong  rea 
son  why  we  should  issue  a  3^  per  cent,  bond  instead  of  a  3  per  cent.  But 
there  is  another  side  to  this  picture.  Suppose  we  should  issue  a  3^  per  cent, 
bond,  when  we  could  readily  sell  a  3  per  cent,  bond,  what  would  this  cost  us? 
It  would  be  an  addition  of  three  and  a  half  millions  per  annum  to  the  inter 
est  we  would  pay  on  the  new  loan.  If  the  bond  is  a  5-20  we  would  be 
obliged  to  pay  interest  on  it  at  this  rate  for  five  years.  That  would  amount  to 
$17,500,000.  And  if  we  could  not  at  the  end  of  the  five  years  exercise  the 
option  given  to  the  Government,  and  redeem  the  bond  for  another  five 
years,  it  would  add  $17,500,000  more  to  the  burdens  of  the  people.  In  other 
words,  in  the  event  we  should  issue  a  3^  per  cent,  bond,  when  we  could  ne 
gotiate  a  3  per  cent,  bond,  we  would  pay  out  of  the,  taxes  raised  from  the 
people  $35,000,000  more  interest  in  ten  years  than  we  would  pay  upon  the 
3  per  cent.  loan.  And  there  would  be  no  way  of  getting  rid  of  $17,500,000 
of  this  amount,  and  we  would  be  obliged  to  pay  it.  Therefore  the  chances 
for  loss  to  the  Treasury  are  greater  if  we  issue  a  3^  per  cent,  bond  than  if  we 
issue  a  3  per  cent.  bond.  In  the  one  case  we  might  possibly  lose  $12,000,000 
of  interest;  in  the  other  case  we  would  lose  $17,500,000  of  interest;  and  if 
the  bonds  should  run  ten  years  we  would  lose  $35,000,000  in  interest.  Tak 
ing  into  the  account  the  chances  in  favor  of  the  negotiation  of  a  3  per  cent, 
loan,  the  prospects  for  loss  are  much  greater  in  the  event  we  determine  to 
issue  a  3J  per  cent.  bond. 

But  it  is  intimated  that  the  credit  of  the  Government  would  suffer  in  that 
case.  Why  so  ?  It  would  simply  show  that  we  had  not  been  able  to  do 
that  which  other  nations  have  not  been  able  to  do — float  at  par  a  3  per  cent, 
bond.  But  how  would  this  injure  our  credit?  Would  it  make  our  four  per 
cents,  now  in  the  market  less  valuable  ?  The  only  effect  would  be  that  we 
must  continue  to  pay  the  present  rate  of  interest  on  the  bonds  until  another 
loan  is  offered  to  the  country  at  a  rate  that  could  be  negotiated. 

But  I  am  so  thoroughly  satisfied  that  there  will  be  no  difficulty  about  the 


630  APPENDIX. 

negotiation  of  a  3  per  cent,  loan  that  I  shall,  as  already  stated,  not  hesitate 
to  cast  my  vote  in  favor  of  3  per  cent.  We  have  no  right  to  tax  the  labor  of 
this  country  or  the  property  of  this  country  to  pay  the  capitalists  or  anybody 
else  a  higher  rate  of  interest  than  the  lowest  rate  at  which  the  bonds  of  the 
Government  can  be  readily  negotiated. 

And  if  we  retain  section  5  of  the  bill  as  it  came  from  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  and  compel  the  national  banks  in  future  to  deposit  the  3  per  cent, 
bonds,  and  no  others,  as  security  for  their  issues,  we  will  make  assurance 
doubly  sure. 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  DELIVERED  IN  THE  SEN 
ATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  MARCH  28,  1881,  IN  REPLY  TO  SENATOR 
MAHONE,  OF  VIRGINIA,  ON  THAT  PECULIAR  COINCIDENCE. 

The  Senate  having  under  consideration  the  resolution  submitted  by  the  Senator  from 
Massachusetts  [Mr.  Dawes]  for  the  election  of  officers  of  the  Senate. 

Mr.  Brown  said : 

Mr.  President:  I  had  hoped  I  should  see  the  speech  of  the  senator  from 
Virginia  [Mr.  Mahone]  which  was  delivered  yesterday,  in  the  Record  this 
morning.  I  predicated  that  hope  on  the  fact  that  the  senator  seemed  to  read 
his  speech,  not  from  written  manuscript  as  is  often  done,  but  from  printed 
slips.  The  natural  supposition  wa.s,  therefore,  that  it  had  been  revised  and 
that  there  was  no  good  reason  why  it  should  not  go  into  the  Record  this 
morning  after  such  careful  preparation.  I  was,  however,  disappointed  in' 
that  reasonable  expectation,  and  I  am  left,  to  make  some  remarks  in  reply 
to-day  without  having  that  rather  remarkable  production  before  me. 

One  of  the  points  the  senator  dwelt  upon  with  most  satisfaction  was  what 
he  considered  a  dissection  of  my  own  record.  Possibly  it  is  not  very  inter 
esting  to  the  country,  although  the  senator  thought  proper  to  bring  it  before 
the  country  and  grossly  to  misrepresent  it.  He  took  the  position  that  I  had 
been  inconsistent.  I  must  admit  that  most  men  who  have  been  long  in  pub 
lic  life  have  sometimes  been  placed  in  positions  that  appear  to  be  inconsistent 
with  each  other,  and  I  must  admit  that  the  position  that  I  now  occupy  on 
certain  questions  is  not  the  position  I  occupied  at  the  commencement  of  the 
war,  now  known  as  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  I  went  into  that  contest  to 
maintain  slavery  and  State  sovereignty.  These  were  the  two  cardinal  points 
upon  which  we  planted  ourselves.  I  sincerely  believed  we  were  right  in  both. 
The  war,  however,  has  settled  both  questions.  Slavery  is  abolished  and  I  am 
now  content  that  it  is  abolished.  Then  I  was  a  pro-slavery  man.  To  that 
extent,  therefore,  I  may  be  said  to  be  inconsistent,  or  to  have  changed  posi 
tion,  growing  out  of  the  results  of  the  war.  I  honestly  and  earnestly  advo 
cated  then  and  believed  in  State  sovereignty.  The  results  of  the  war  and 
the  amendments  to  the  Constitution  have  so  changed  our  situation  that  I 
cannot  and  do  not  contend  to-day  that  the  States  are  sovereign  in  the  sense 
in  which  I  then  claimed  that  they  were  sovereign.  Therefore,  on  these  ques 
tions  I  may  be  properly  said  to  be,  as  most  Southern  men  are,  inconsistent. 
I  do  not  contend  now  for  what  I  claimed  then. 

The  senator  said,  as  he  is  a  readjuster,  that  I  had  a  very  happy  faculty  of 
readjusting  myself  to  fit  the  circumstances.  I  do  not  know  with  how  much 
justice  I  might  claim  that  faculty  ;  but  there  is  one  point  of  readjustment  I 
can  never  attain.  I  would  be  wholly  unable  to  readjust  myself  so  as  to  oc 
cupy  the  position  that  the  senator  from  Virginia  occupies  to-day  before  this 
Senate  and  this  country.  I  may  readjust  myself  to  many  circumstances,  but 
I  could  not  afford  to  be  a  party  to  that  kind  of  readjustment.  If  he  enjoys 


APPENDIX.  631 

either  the  distinction  or  the  notoriety  he  has  lately  attained,  I  confess  I  rather 
pity  than  envy  him. 

The  senator  would  have  you  believe  that  I  was  a  very  ardent  rebel.  I  plead 
guilty  to  that  charge  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term.  When  I  went  into  that 
contest  I  went  in  deliberately,  with  my  mind  made  up  that  I  was  right.  I 
was  a  secessionist,  and  when  I  saw  that  my  State  had  determined  to  secede 
I  did  not  choose  to  have  any  other  power  occupy  the  forts  or  arsenals  of  that 
State,  as  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  occupied  Fort  Sumter  at 
Charleston.  Hence,  I  took  the  responsibility  to  seize  those  forts  and  hold 
them;  and  situated  as  I  then  was,  I  considered  it- my  duty. 

He  was  a  little  wrong  on  one  point,  however,  when  he  stated,  if  I  under 
stood  him  correctly,  that  I  seized  the  arsenal  at  Augusta  before  the  State 
seceded.  That  was  a  day  or  two  afterward;  but  I  will  give  him  the  full 
benefit.  If  it  had  been  necessary  to  have  done  it  to  protect  the  arms  that 
were  there  and  preserve  them  for  our  cause,  I  would  have  seized  them  in  ad 
vance;  I  have,  no  hesitation  about  that.  I  went  into  the  contest  like  the 
Bostonians  did  in  the  Revolution.  They  threw  the  tea  overboard  and  fought 
the  battle  of  Lexington  before  hostilities  had  been  declared ;  they  saw  the 
contest  had  to  come ;  they  prepared  for  it.  They  took  time  by  the  forelock 
and  did  all  they  could  to  strengthen  their  position. 

That  is  what  I  did  at  the  commencement  of  the  war  we  now  term  the  re 
bellion.  I  have  no  regrets  about  it.  Situated  as  I  was  then,  with  the  sur 
roundings  at  that  time,  and  engaged  in  the  cause  I  was  at  the  time,  I  did 
what  I  should  do  again  under  like  circumstances.  In  other  words,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  I  considered  that  the  facts  and  circumstances  by  which  I  was 
surrounded  not  only  justified  my  action  then,  but  made  it  my  duty  to  do  what 
I  did. 

But  the  honorable  senator  says  that  1  had  ambition  for  the  presidency  of 
the  Confederate  States.  There,  as  in  some  other  cases,  his  statement  is  very 
wide  of  the  facts.  There  happen  to  be  living  witnesses  to-day  who  know 
that  I  positively  refused  to  permit  my  name  to  be  used  for  any  Confederate 
position  whatever.  I  had  attained — he  says  I  am  ambitious — a  point  of  am 
bition  that  he  did  not  attain  in  Virginia,  and  failing  to  attain  it  he  conceived 
the  idea  of  abandoning  the  Democracy.  I  was  governor  of  my  State  at  the 
time;  I  sought  no  higher  position;  my  ambition  was  gratified.  The  people 
of  my  State  honored  me  with  that  position  not  only  once,  but  for  four  suc 
cessive  terms  by  four  different  elections.  That  was  honor  enough  to  satisfy 
the  ambition  of  a  reasonable  man.  It  fully  satisfied  mine  at  the  time.  There 
fore  the  senator  is  much  mistaken  when  he  says  I  was  ambitious  for  any  Con 
federate  otfice.  I  had  no  disappointed  ambition  on  that  question,  as  he  seems 
to  have  in  the  matter  of  the  governorship  of  his  own  State. 

The  senator  made  the  further  charge  that  I  was  the  first  to  confiscate 
private  property  at  Savannah.  This  charge  is  without  foundation.  A  citi 
zen  of  Georgia  had  purchased  two  hundred  stands  of  muskets  in  New  York 
after  Georgia  had  seceded,  but  before  there  was  any  war  or  any  blockade. 
The  chief  of  police  of  the  city  of  New  York,  who  was  understood  to  act  under 
the  authority  of  the  Governor  of  that  State,  seized  the  guns  and  would  not 
permit  them  to  be  sent  to  Georgia.  I  presented  that  fact  to  the  Governor  of 
New  York  and  demanded  their  immediate  release;  and  as  they  were  not 
promptly  released,  I  ordered  all  the  ships  belonging  to  citizens  of  New  York 
in  the  harbor  of  Savannah  to  be  seized  and  held  until  the  guns  were  delivered, 
and  no  longer.  I  notified  the  authorities  of  New  York  that  Mr.  Gazaway  B. 
Lamar,  of  that  city,  was  my  agent  to  receive  the  guns.  After  some  days' 
delay  I  was  informed  by  Mr.  Lamar  that  they  had  agreed  to  release  the  guns. 
I  then  released  the  ships;  but  before  they  had  all  left  the  harbor  I  was  noti- 


632  APPENDIX. 

fied  that  the  authorities  of  New  York  again  refused  to  permit  the  guns  to  be 
sent  forward,  and  I  then  ordered  the  ships  to  be  detained  till  they  were  sent. 
Not  many  days  afterward  the  guns  were  shipped  to  Savannah,  and  I  then 
released  the  ships  of  the  citizens  bf  New  York.  This  is  doubtless  the  confis 
cation  to  which  the  senator  refers.  A  mere  statement  of  the  facts  is  a  suffi 
cient  refutation  of  the  charge.  I  required  the  guns,  which  were  the  property 
of  a  citizen  of  Georgia,  to  be  sent  forward,  and  I  held  the  ships  until  they 
were  sent,  and  then  discharged  them.  The  guns  were  seized  in  violation  of 
right  and  of  the  comity  usual  between  States.  The  ships  were  seized  to  be 
held  until  the  guns  were  delivered.  I  had  as  much  right  to  hold  them  as  the 
authorities  of  New  York  had  to  hold  the  guns,  and  I  did  it  until  I  had  accom 
plished  my  object.  I  had  no  other  remedy  but  the  one  to  which  I  resorted, 
and  I  made  that  effective. 

But  the  senator  says  that  when  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy  began  to 
wane  I  withdrew  with  my  militia  from  the  starry  cross.  This  is  what  he  is 
reported  in  the  New  York  Herald  this  morning  to  have  said.  Lhave  to  quote 
his  language  from  recollection  and  from  the  best  sources  in  my  power,  as  he 
has  not  thought  proper  to  give  it  to  us  in  the  Record.  There  again  he  is 
misinformed  about  the  facts,  or  he  wilfully  misrepresents  the  facts.  I  never 
withdrew  with  my  militia  from  the  Confederate  cause.  True,  I  differed 
with  the  Confederate  authorities  on  the  conscript  question.  ]  had  gone,  as 
I  have  already  stated,  into  the  contest  to  maintain  slavery  and  State  sover 
eignty.  When  the  Confederate  Congress  passed  the  conscript  act  I  felt, 
whether  right  or  wrong,  that  we  had  not  much  State  sovereignty  left  when 
we  gave  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States  the  power  to  organize  regi 
ments  of  conscripts,  and  to  appoint  every  officer  down  to  a  second  lieutenant. 

There  was  a  long  correspondence  between  me  and  the  President  of  the 
Confederate  States  on  that  question;  but  while  I  refused  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  the  execution  of  the  conscript  act  in  Georgia,  I  notified  him  that 
under  the  other  provisions  of  that  act  I  would  not  throw  the  slightest  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  its  execution  by  him.  And  let  me  here  state  that  there  was 
never  a  single  instance  during  the  struggle  when  the  President  of  the  Con 
federate  States  called  on  me  for  troops  of  a  character  furnished  by  any  other 
Confederate  State,  or  such  as  were  subject  to  Confederate  service,  that  I  did 
not  furnish  or  tender  not  only  the  quota  called  for,  but  a  larger  quota  than 
he  called  for — not  a  single  instance. 

Now,  as  to  my  withdrawing  the  militia.  When  General  Sherman's  army 
invaded  Georgia  I  called  out  a  class  of  our  people  who  were  not  subject  to 
conscription,  and  had  not  been  called  out  in  large  numbers  by  the  other  Con 
federate  States;  I  called  the  old  men  up  to  fifty-five  years  of  age  and  the 
boys  down  to  sixteen,  and  I  required  the  clerks  of  the  courts,  the  sheriffs,  the 
ordinaries,  the  tax  collectors  and  receivers,  and  all  the  other  officers  of  every 
character  to  go  with  them,  to  unite  in  regiments,  electing  their  own  officers ; 
and  I  raised  of  that  class  not  subject  to  conscription  about  ten  thousand  men 
that  I  placed  under  that  grand  old  hero,  General  Johnston,  as  soon  as  possible 
after  Sherman  had  invaded  the  State.  They  remained  under  his  control 
until  he  was  superseded  by  General  Hood ;  and  then  I  placed  them  under 
General  Hood's  control.  They  stayed  in  the  trenches  around  Atlanta  until 
the  city  was  surrendered,  and  both  Johnston  and  Hood  placed  on  record 
high  commendation  of  their  gallantry  and  the  distinguished  service  they 
rendered  in  the  defence  of  that  city  and  of  the  State. 

When  General  Hood  made  his  march  to  the  west  he  did  not  desire  to  carry 
this  class  of  militia  with  him  ;  the  boys  and  the  old  men  could  not  have  stood 
his  hard  march,  and  they  had  only  been  organized  of  a  class  not  subject  to 
conscription,  for  the  defence  of  their  own  State.  When  he  left  Georgia  for 


APPENDIX.  633 

Tennessee  General  Sherman  turned  upon  his  heel  and  marched  for  the  sea- 
coast.  I  kept  that  militia  force  under  arms  and  annoyed  him  all  I  could  on 
his  passage  through  the  State.  General  Gustavus  W.  Smith,  a  distinguished 
officer  of  the  old  army,  was  the  major-general  in  command  of  them,  and 
when  I  sent  them  around  by  rail  to  Savannah,  when  Sherman  was  on  his 
march  through  the  State,  General  Smith  asked  me  if  it  became  necessary  to 
throw  them  into  any  other  State  whether  I  consented,  and  I  told  him  without 
hesitation  to  do  so;  and  history  records  the  fact  that  he  carried  them  across 
into  South  Carolina,  and  they  fought  there  the  battle  of  Honey  Hill  and  won 
a  victory  over  a  regular  Federal  force.  They  were  then  returned  to  Georgia, 
and  I  surrendered  those  gallant  troops  after  Lee  and  Johnston  had  surren 
dered. 

That  is  the  way  and  that  was  the  time  that  my  militia  were  withdrawn 
from  the  starry  cross.  I  was  in  the  field  with  them,  among  the  last  who 
stood  by  the  cau?e.  The  battle  of  Griswoldville  was  fought  by  them  against 
part  of  Sherman's  troops  as  they  went  through  Georgia,  one  of  the  bloodiest 
of  the  war  for  the  numbers  engaged.  This  was  the  way  of  their  withdrawal 
from  the  cause  of  the  starry  bars.  They  came  at  my  call  to  defend  their 
State,  and  they  remained  under  arms  in  its  defence  until  the  armies  of  the 
Confederacy  had  been  surrendered.  In  the  mean  time  they  had  fought  a 
battle  and  gained  a  glorious  victory  upon  the  soil  of  our  beloved  sister  State 
of  South  Carolina. 

It  may  not  be  known  to  the  senator,  but  it  is  very  well  known  to  the  Gen 
eral  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States  to-day,  that  while  he  was  invading 
Georgia  and  pressing  us  to  the  very  last  ditch  he  sent  a  messenger  to  invite 
me  to  a  conference  with  him,  with  a  view  to  an  adjustment,  and  I  declined 
to  hold  it,  saying  I  had  no  power  to  speak  for  the  Confederacy,  and  that 
Georgia,  having  gone  into  the  contest  with  her  Confederate  sisters,  would  be 
the  last  to  retire  and  leave  them  in  the  lurch.  No ;  I  was  not  untrue  to  the 
Confederate  cause ;  I  spurn  the  imputation  ;  nor  were  the  troops  of  Georgia 
untrue.  The  militia  of  Georgia  acted  gallantly  in  its  defence  till  the  last 
moment.  Therefore  that  charge  made  by  the  honorable  senator  falls  to  the 
ground  as  grossly  unjust  and  absolutely  untrue. 

But  the  senator  says  at  the  end  of  the  war  I  acted  with  the  Republican 
party  for  a  time.  I  stated  that  the  other  day.  There  was  nothing  new  in  it. 
I  also  stated  the  other  day  the  reasons  why  I  did  it.  It  has  never  been  ques 
tioned  that  I  did  it.  He  says,  however,  that  when  the  Democracy  went  after 
me  he  retired.  There  is  a  little  mistake  just  there  in  dates.  If  I  understand 
the  senator  from  Virginia  correctly,  he  never  retired  from  the  Democracy, 
nor  was  he  ever  lacking  in  his  zeal  for  the  Democracy,  until  he  was  beaten 
for  governor,  in  the  Democratic  convention  of  1877.  I  returned  to  the  De 
mocracy,  or  they  returned  to  me,  whichever  you  choose  to  call  it,  in  1872, 
when  they  planted  themselves  upon  the  reconstruction  platform  and  nomi 
nated  Greeley,  and  I  have  acted  steadily  with  them  from  that  day  until  this, 
in  no  instance  varying  from  my  loyalty  to  the  party  or  failing  to  stand  by  its 
organization  and  its  principles.  I  do  not  think  the  senator  quit  it  until  his 
defeat  for  governor.  He  felt  possibly  a  little  of  that  ambition  that  he  errone 
ously  attributes  to  me  when  he  says  that  I  wanted  to  be  President  of  the 
Confederate  States.  He  did  want,  if  'we  may  judge  him  by  his  acts,  to  be 
Governor  of  Virginia,  and  failed.  Up  to  that  period  who  had  ever  heard 
that  he  was  a  readjuster?  Since  that  period,  if  he  is  correctly  reported — I 
do  not  know  whether  he  is  or  not,  but  I  take  the  evidence  before  me  and  pre 
sume  it  to  be  correct — he  did  not  oppose  the  payment  of  the  thirty-two  mill 
ions  of  debt  by  Virginia,  but  only  advocated,  even  after  that  period,  I  believe 
it  was,  a  reduction  of  the  interest  to  three  per  cent.  I  will  ask  the  clerk  to 


634  APPENDIX. 

read  a  slip  that  I  send  him,  which  is  reported  to  be  an  extract  from  the  speech 
of  General  William  Mahone,  at  Mozart  Hall. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

**  Impoverished  and  disheartened  as  are  our  people,  onerous  and  oppressive 
as  is  the  present  rate  of  taxation,  opposed  as  I  have  been  and  still  am  to 
Buch  increase,  thereof,  and  certain  as  I  am  that  such  increase  to  some  extent 
must  be  necessary  after  1880,  yet  to  secure  the  great  object  of  a  settlement 
of  this  question  and  to  avoid  that  direst  of  all  calamities  to  the  State,  a 
repudiation  of  its  obligations,  unless  some  settlement  can  be  arrived  at 
upon  terms  at  least  possible,  though  difficult  of  endurance,  I  would  earnestly 
advise  this  people  to  accept  a  permanent  settlement  at  3  per  cent.,  believing 
that  they  could,  if  called  upon,  see  that  the  quiet  and  repose  gained  thereby 
would  counterbalance  the  hardships  of  an  increase  which  they  are  so  little 
able  to  bear.  I  would  use  my  best  endeavors  to  secure  a  vote  of  the  people 
sanctioning  a  settlement  at  3  per  cent,  for  forty-five  years  on  the  basis  of 
$32,977,090.02.  And  this  settlement  being  ratified,  I  would  enforce  it  by 
t'ie  Legislature  and  courts,  whose  powers  I  believe  to  be  fully  adequate 
thereto.  I  would  do  so  because  I  believe  it  to  be  right,  because  I  believe 
it  is  the  only  way  to  avoid  consequences  we  would  all  regret  deeply,  because 
I  believe  it  is  to  the  best-  interest  of  the  bondholders  and  the  tax-payer, 
and  because  I  believe  it  is  a  duty  we  owe  to  the  Commonwealth  of  Vir 
ginia." 

Mr.  Brown.  If  that  be  the  correct  extract  from  the  speech  of  the  senator 
from  Virginia  at  Mozart  Hall,  he  stood  then  for  the  payment  of  a  debt  of  $32,- 
000,000  and  over,  with  3  per  cent,  interest.  He  was  not  then  a  readjuster,  and 
possibly  his  position  on  that  subject  since  may  be  as  inconsistent  as  some  of  my 
inconsistencies  to  which  he  has  referred,  an^  in  that  connection  let  me  refer 
to  one  or  two  other  of  his  charges. 

He  says  I  accepted  the  position  of  chief  justice  of  my  State  from  a  carpet 
bag  governor.  While  I  was  acting  with  the  Republican  party  1  did  accept 
the  position  of  chief  justice  of  my  State  from  the  governor  and  senate  of 
Georgia.  The  gentleman  who  occupied  the  position  of  governor  at  the 
time  it  is  true  was  a  Northern  man  by  birth,  but  he  had  been  many  years  in 
Georgia  before  the  war  and  was  president  of  a  railroad  company  in  'Georgia 
at  the  time  he  was  elected  governor,  and  I  believe  also  superintendent  of 
an  express  company.  He  was  a  business  man  there  and  not  regarded  as  a 
carpet-bagger  at  the  time. 

However,  the  senator  says  that  I  then  resigned  that  position  and  accepted 
the  presidency  of  a  railroad  company.  That  is  true.  1  had  a  twelve  years' 
term  as  chief  justice  ;  I  had  served  less  than  three  years  when  my  health 
began  to  fail  on  account  of  the  labor  and  close  confinement,  and  I  did  resign 
the  high  position  I  held  and  took  charge  of  a  railroad  as  president.  But 
the  history  of  the  railroad  of  which  I  am  president  and  that  of  the  one  of 
which  the  senator  from  Virginia  has  been  president  are  a  little  different. 
The  one  I  took  charge  of  has  been  a  financial  success;  I  have  taken  care  of 
the  interest  of  its  stockholders ;  I  have  made  the  stock  good  to  them ;  I  have 
paid  its  bonds  and  coupons  promptly  as  they  fell  due,  and  it  is  doing  well 
to-day.  The  railroad  of  which  the  honorable  senator  from  Virginia  was 
president  I  think  has  not  so  well  served  the  interest  of  the  stockholders,  or 
even  of  all  the  bondholders,  as  it  has  gone  into  bankruptcy  and  had  to  be 
sold  out  for  its  debts.  That  is  the  difference  between  the  senator  from  Vir 
ginia  and  myself  on  the  railroad  question.  [Laughter.] 

The  senator  turned  a  period  or  two  upon  the  subject  of  bargains,  and 
seemed  a  little  in  fear  of  competition  in  that  line.  But  I  beg  to  assure  him 
that  he  has  no  reason  to  apprehend  danger  on  that  subject.  Neither  I  nor 


APPENDIX.  635 

any  other  senator  is  likely  at  any  time  to  be  his  competitor  when  there  is 
occasion  for  bargain  and  sale.  He  went  out  of  his  way  to  state  that  there 
was  dissatisfaction  with  my  appointment  to  the  senate  at  the  time  it  was 
made  by  Governor  Colquht,  of  Georgia,  and  gave  by  indirection  his  sanc 
tion  to  a  groundless  charge  that  there  was  some  sort  of  an  improper  under 
standing  between  me,  Governor  Colquitt,  and  General  Gordon  on  that 
subject.  Our  -enemies  fabricated  a  well-known  falsehood,  alleging  that 
there  was  an  improper  understanding  between  us.  We  each  stamped  it  as 
a  falsehood  and  sent  the  denial  with  the  evidence  to  the  country.  As  stated 
by  the  senator  from  Virginia,  there  were  two  or  three  indignation  meetings 
held  in  Georgia,  gotten  up  by  a  few  of  our  enemies,  to  denounce  Governor 
Colquitt  on  account  of  my  appointment.  The  people  of  Georgia  were  indig 
nant  at  the  injustice  done  by  those  meetings.  We  both  appealed  to  the 
people,  Governor  Colquitt  as  a  candidate  for  governor,  and  I  as  a  candidate 
for  United  States  senator.  There  is  no  allegation  in  any  quarter  that  any 
body  was  prevented  from  voting.  No  one  pretends  to  deny  that  there  was 
a  free  vote  and  a  fair  count.  Every  qualified  voter  in  the  State  who  de 
sired  to  do  so  came  to  the  polls.  My  position  was  fully  denned.  I  announced 
myself  in  favor,  as  I  have  been  for  years,  of  the  strictest  conformity  to  the 
reconstruction  measures,  in  the  utmost  good  faith,  and  of  scrupulous'fidelity 
in  the  execution  of  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  amendments  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  with  the  protection  of  every  legal  right 
of  every  citizen.  What  was  the  result?  Governor  Colquitt  was  re-elected 
as  the  executive  of  our  State  by  a  majority  of  55.0  0,  and  I  was  elected  to 
this  senate  by  over  two-thirds  of  the  representatives  of  the  people.  The 
gentleman  is  welcome  to  all  he  can  make  out  of  that  charge.  There  was 
no  sailing  under  false  colors.  I  ran  as  a  Democrat  upon  this  liberal,  progres 
sive  line  ;  I  was  elected  as  a  Democrat  upon  that  line,  and  I  expect  in  good 
faith  to  so  continue. 

But,  Mr.  President,  the  senator  from  Virginia  was  very  indignant  yester 
day  ;  he  was  hurling  bnck  at  everybody  on  this  side  of  the  House  the  state 
ment  that  there  had  been  any  bargain  or  contract  between  him  and  the 
Republicans.  I  have  not  asserted  it.  I  did  say  the  other  day  in  debate 
that  the  air  was  full  of  rumors  of  that  character.  I  think  no  gentleman 
who  walks  the  streets  of  the  city  of  Washington  or  reads  the  newspapers  of 
the  Union  to-day  will  doubt  that  that  statement  was  correct.  Not  only  is 
the  air  full  of  rumors,  but  it  is  on  every  tongue  that  there  has  been  a  con 
tract  of  that  sort.  I  have  not  said  it  was  true,  but  I  take  it  the  statement 
I  made  and  the  obstructions  that  I  threw  in  the  way  of  carrying  out  the 
contract,  if  it  exists,  must  have  had  some  effect.  I  think,  in  a  word,  I  did 
hit  cock  sparrow,  for  it  is  said  the  feathers  flew,  and  it  seems  that  the  ball 
has  left  a  little  sore. 

But  first  the  senator  palliates  his  position  on  repudiation  by  saying  that 
other  States  have  been  guilty  of  repudiation.  Well,  other  Southern  States 
have  thrown  off  certain  burdens  that  were  put  upon  them  during  the  recon 
struction  period  by  carpet-baggers,  as  they  think,  or  by  the  reconstruction 
Legislatures,  where  those  in  power  thought  the  debt  was  not  an  honest  one. 
But  Virginia  can  plead  no  such  palliation.  I  do  not  understand  that  her 
debt  was  increased  to  any  considerable  extent  during  the  reconstruction 
period.  Her  debt  is  the  old  debt  of  Virginia,  for  which  she  received  value 
dollar  for  dollar.  She  got  it  in  the  building  of  railroads,  her  various  inter 
nal  improvements,  etc.  She  made  the  debt  when  there  was  no  question 
about  the  consideration,  and  it  would  seem  that  she  is  less  justifiable  in  re 
pudiating  a  portion  of  it  than  other  Southern  States  would  be  in  repudiating 
a  portion  of  the  reconstruction  debt  where  they  got  no  just  consideration  for  it. 


636  APPENDIX. 

So  much  for  repudiation  in  Virginia. 

The  senator  says  there  has  been  no  contract  between  him  and  the  Repub 
licans.  I  do  not  affirm  that  there  has  been,  but  I  reiterate  what  I  have  said 
before,  the  air  is  full  of  rumors  to  that  effect,  and  I  believe  to-day  that  a 
very  large  majority  of  the  American  people  are  of  the  opinion,  whether 
truly  or  not,  that  there  has  been  such  a  contract.  Well,  going  on  the  supposi 
tion  that  it  exists,  let  us  see  what  are  the  evidences  of  it.  A  strong  chain  of 
circumstances,  connecting  well  with  each  other,  is  the  most  conclusive  kind 
of  proof.  Many  a  man  has  been  convicted  of  high  crime  upon  circumstan 
tial  evidence,  and  justly  convicted.  Without  any  assertion  as  to  whether 
there  has  been  a  contract  or  not,  let  me  refer  to  some  of  the  proofs  that 
seem  to  establish  that  fact. 

In  the  first  place  the  senator  from  Virginia  was  a  Democrat,  a  true  Dem 
ocrat,  as  he  always  convinced  his  people  up  to  the  time,  as  I  have  already 
stated,  of  his  defeat  for  governor  by  the  Democratic  convention.  After  that 
it  is  true  he  commenced  finding  fault;  and  although  he  took  position  for 
paying  $32, 000,000 of  debt  at  3  percent.,  he  afterward  changed  that,  because 
it  was  necessary  to  make  a  stronger  point  against  the  Democrats  of  Virginia, 
and  he  took  a  position  for  readjusting  that  amount  and  for  reducing  it  in 
round  numbers  $12,000,000.  The  first  was  to  be  a  readjustment  with  the  con 
sent  of  the  creditors,  taking  off  one-third,  as  I  understand,  for  West  Vir 
ginia.  The  last  readjustment,  if  I  understand  the  question,  was  $12,000,000 
more  to  be  stricken  off  absolutely  without  consulting  the  creditors,  or  with 
out  their  consent.  The  Republicans  formerly  called  that  repudiation.  In 
fact,  in  my  own  State  to-day,  though  she  does  not  owe  $12,000,000,  if  she 
were  to  strike  off  $10,000,000  at  one  stroke  of  the  pen  without  consulting 
the  creditors,  I  presume  the  Republican  presses  of  the  North  and  of  the  South 
would  say  that  Georgia  had  repudiated  that  much.  We  might  call  it  read 
justment  ;  but  they  would  still,  insist  that  it  was  repudiation. 

But  I  have  never  understood  yet  that  the  Republican  party  approved  of 
the  repudiation  by  the  other  Southern  States  of  the  debt  contracted  during 
the  reconstruction  period  for  which  no  consideration  was  paid.  No ;  I  think 
the  Republican  party  has  stood  par  excellence  as  a  party  of  debt-payers. 
They  have  held  that  all  debts  ought  to  be  paid  everywhere ;  and  it  does 
seem  the  spectacle  is  a  little  novel  when  they  take  up  a  repudiationist  and 
a  Democrat  as  their  candidate  for  an  important  office  in  the  senate.  People 
will  naturally  say  this  needs  explanation. 

But  let  us  go  along  with  this  case.  When  the  honorable  senator  from 
Virginia  came  to  Washington  nobody  here  knew,  at  least  the  public  did  not 
know,  what  position  he  was  going  to  occupy.  He  had  always  claimed  to  be 
a  Democrat  in  his  State  up  to  1877,  and  though  he  had  separated  from  the 
organization  after  that  time  and  established  a  readjusting  party,  yet  when 
the  two  candidates  for  president  were  put  into  the  field  last  summer,  and 
he  had,  as  we  thought  generally  we  had,  good  reason  to  believe  that  General 
Hancock  would  be  elected,  and  would  have  the  distribution  of  the  patron 
age,  he  rallied  under  the  Hancock  banner,  and  his  man  Riddleberger  stood 
with  him.  Yes,  they  were  the  very  essence  of  Democracy;  they  were  the 
the  leaders,  as  they  claimed,  of  the  Democracy  of  the  Old  Dominion. 

And  it  is  said — 1  do  not  know  that  fact — that  communications  between 
those  leaders  of  the  Virginia  Democracy,  General  Mahone,  Mr.  Riddleber 
ger,  and  others,  were  kept  up  with  the  Democratic  executive  committee, 
and  even  with  General  Hancock,  holding  out  the  idea  that  they  were  the 
true  Democracy  and  could  carry  Virginia  for  him.  But  we  cannot  always 
tell  what  the  tide  of  fortune  will  do.  It  turned  the  other  way  this  time, 
and  contrary  to  our  hopes  and  expectations  the  Republican  candidate  was 


APPENDIX.  637 

elected.  Then  tbe  senator  from  Virginia  was  silent  on  his  Democracy  until 
he  came  here  ;  no  one  seemed  to  be  able  to  locate  him.  After  he  got  here,  the 
air  was  full  of  rumors  that  there  were  conferences  going  on  all  the  time 
between  him  and  certain  Republican  leaders,  aud  it  was  said  on  all  sides 
again  and  again — I  cannot  say  with  what  justice — that  Mr.  Gorham,  who  is 
now  nominated  tor  secretary  of  this  body,  was  in  very  constant  communi 
cation  with  him  ;  that  they  were  good  friends,  so  much  so  that  some  of  the, 
newspapers  have  even  said  that  Mr.  Gorham  was  his  political  wet-nurse. 
[Laughter.]  I  do  not  know  anything  about  whether  that  is  true,  but  it  is 
evident  they  were  great  friends,  as  everybody  admits. 

Negotiations  or  interchange  of  visits,  or  whatever  they  might  have  been, 
went  on  between  him  and  various  parties  until  there  was  a  Republican 
caucus.  The  same  rumor  is  that  while  the  Republican  senators  were  meet 
ing  in  one  room  caucusing  the  honorable  senator  from  Virginia  was  in  another 
room  in  this  building,  and  that  there  was  frequent  communication  between 
them,  a  going  back  and  forth,  consultation,  as  it  seemed  to  be  understood. 
What  was  the  result?  The  result  was  that  Mr.  Gorham,  this  special  friend 
of  the  senator  from  Virginia,  was  nominated  for  secretary  of  the  senate. 
And  who  is  Mr.  Gorham?  1  understand  he  was  once  secretary  of  the  sen 
ate  and  an  ardent  Republican.  Since  that  time,  if  the  newspapers  are  to 
be  credited,  he  went  to  his  State,  California,  bolted  the  Republican  organi 
zation,  supported  Dr.  Glenn,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  and 
was  in  effect  read  out  of  the  Republican  party  there.  Still  he  was  the 
intimate  friend  of  the  senator  from  Virginia,  and  when  the  caucus  ad 
journed  it  soon  came  to  light  that  he  had  been  taken  up  by  the  Republicans 
again,  rebaptized  again  into  the  faith  I  presume,  and  nominated  as  their 
choice  above  all  men  for  secretary  of  this  senate. 

Again,  Mr.  Riddleberger — and  I  presume  he  is  a  very  clever  gentleman — 
who  had  been  a  Democrat  all  the  time,  as  I  understand,  in  Virginia,  and  in 
the  late  contest,  though  a  readjuster,  was  not  only  a  Hancock  man,  but  one 
ot  the  electors  for  the  State  at  large  for  Hancock  and  English,  who  worked 
and  did  all  he  could  to  defeat  your  candidates.  He  was  the  right-hand  man 
of  the  senator  from  Virginia;  and  when  the  caucus  adjourned  it  soon  came 
to  light  that  by  some  marvellous  sort  of  change — I  do  not  know  how;  a 
sort  of  hocus-pocus — he  had  become  one  of  the  leading  Republicans  of  the 
United  States,  transformed  in  a  very  short  time,  and  he  had  been  selected 
in  preference  to  all  living  men,  out  of  about  four  and  a  half  millions  of  Re 
publicans  in  the  United  States.  Yes,  Mr.  Riddleberger  had  been  agreed  on 
by  the  senatorial  caucus  of  the  Republican  party  and  presented  as  the 
Republican  candidate  for  the  sergeant-at-arms  of  this  senate. 

1  say  a  man  has  a  right  to  change  his  opinions.  I  have  exercised  that 
right  in  the  past,  I  admit.  I  may  do  it  again  in  the  future,  whenever  I 
think  I  ought  to  do  it.  A  man  is  a  Bourbon  who  never  changes ;  but  it  is 
not  usual,  1  must  say,  for  a  new  convert  who  has  just  now  changed  over  to 
be  so  much  favored  by  the  party  with  whom  he  has  just  united.  I  do  not 
know  for  what  distinguished  services,  but  for  some  good  reason,  no  doubt, 
Mr.  Riddleberger,  of  Virginia,  this  life-long  Democrat,  this  Hancock  elector 
for  the  State  at  large,  is  chosen  by  the  senatorial  caucus  of  the  Republican 
party  as  their  first  choice  for  the  position  of  sergeant-at-arms. 

It  may  be  I  have  been  a  little  too  fast ;  that  I  have  got  a  little  ahead.  I 
have  shown  the  result  of  the  Republican  caucus  possibly  without  showing 
the  consideration,  as  I  am  now  proving  the  bargain.  Before  that  time  there 
was  an  election  here  for  the  committees  of  the  senate.  We  being  in  power 
oil  this  side  had  attempted  to  organize  those  committees.  You  on  that  side 
had  filibustered  for  nearly  two  weeks,  because  you  were  not  ready,  and  we 


638  APPENDIX. 

could  not  go  on  with  the  regular  business  of  the  senate.  When  you  reached 
the  time,  however,  that  you  filled  all  your  Republican  vacancies  and  the 
senator  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Mahone]  had  come  fully  into  your  embrace,  you 
were  then  ready,  and  you  went  forward  with  the  organization  of  the  com 
mittees.  As  committees  were  necessary,  we  offered  no  dilatory  resistance. 

Mr.  Conkling.     Will  the  senator  allow  me  to  inquire  one  moment — 

Mr.  Brown.     No,  sir,  I  will  not  permit  any  interruption. 

Mr.  Conkling.  I  will  accept  that  if  the  senator  wishes  it  to  stand  there. 
I  was  about  to  ask  him  to  correct  a  statement  of  his  own,  but  if  he  does  not 
wish  to  be  corrected  I  certainly  shall  not  interrupt  him. 

Mr.  Brown.     If  I  have  made  any  misstatement,  I,  of  course,  yield. 

Mr.  Conkling.  I  thiuk  the  honorable  senator  made  a  grave  misstatement, 
and  I  feel  quite  sure  an  inadvertent  one. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  yield  with  great  pleasure  if  for  the  purpose  of  correcting  a 
misstatement. 

Mr.  Conkling.  I  understood  the  senator  to  assert  that  this  side  of  the 
chamber  for  two  weeks  had  filibustered. 

Mr.  Brown.     I  said  for  nearly  two  weeks. 

Mr.  Conkling.  The  senator  is  equally  inexact.  I  rose  to  remind  the  hon 
orable  senator  that  without  any  motion  on  the  other  side  to  take  up  the 
resolution  to  which  he  refers,  organizing  the  senate,  a  good  many  days 
elapsed,  and  that  it  was  not  until  the  week  when  the  seats  became  full  that 
delays  were  suggested  on  this  side ;  so  that  instead  of  its  being  a  delay  for 
two  weeks  or  nearly  two  weeks  it  was  for  less  than  one  week.  I  think  the 
senator  would  hardly,  upon  his  attention  being  called  to  it,  like  to  make  so 
broad  and  I  think  so  unjust  a  statement. 

Mr.  Brown.  Whether  I  am  right  or  the  senator  is  right  as  to  the  exact 
time  the  Record  will  show.  Of  course  I  have  no  disposition  to  misstate 
the  case. 

Mr.  Conkling.     So  I  supposed. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  from  New  York,  however,  will  not  deny  that 
there  was  filibustering  on  his  side  to  prevent  the  election  of  the  committees. 
I  may  be  in  error  about  the  length  of  time. 

Mr.  Conkling.  If  the  senator  will  not  feel  it  an  imputation,  I  will  with 
great  respect  to  him  deny  that  there  was  filibustering,  and  I  will  affirm  that 
in  place  of  there  being  filibustering  there  was  some  earnestness  of  protest 
on  this  side  against  proceeding  at  a  day  so  late  as  it  had  then  come  to  be, 
when  senators  who  had  been  elected  to  vacant  chairs  were  some  of  them 
already  on  their  way  to  this  capitol;  but  I  think  that  protest  and  that 
remonstrance  fell  very  far  short  of  what  I  understand  to  be  filibustering ;  so 
that  without  meaning  to  do  it  offensively  to  the  senator  at  all,  I  do  respect 
fully  deny  that  there  was  filibustering.  • 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  from  New  York  calls  the  same  thing  by  a  differ 
ent  name,  and  I  am  willing  for  him  to  have  his  own  opinion  about  it.  It  is 
very  evident  that  motions  to  adjourn  and  motions  to  go  into  executive  ses 
sion  alternately  were  made  here  by  the  senator  from  Pennsylvania  from  day 
to  day.  We  call  it  filibustering;  we  did  at  the  time.  I  believe  that  is  what 
you  call  it  now  when  we  interpose  such  objections.  Therefore,  I  still  say 
that,  according  to  my  interpretation  of  that  sort  of  conduct,  it  was  filibus 
tering.  It  was  delay ;  it  was  fighting  for  time  to  get  the  power  to  carry  out 
the  purpose.  You  would,  I  suppose,  call  it  filibustering  when  done  by  the 
Democrats,  and  an  effort  to  secure  delay  when  done  by  the  Republicans. 
We  call  the  same  thing  by  the  same  name  in  both  cases. 

But  I  will  proceed  with  rny  narrative.  I  am  going  on  with  the  evidence  of 
this  contract,  and  I  do  not  care  to  be  interrupted  unless  I  should  inadvert- 


APPENDIX.  639 

ently  make  some  error  in  my  statement.  We  heard  the  senator  from  Vir 
ginia  yesterday  three  hours,  and  nobody  interrupted  him  once. 

Mr.  Conkling.     I  beg  the  honorable  senator's  pardon. 

Mr.  Brown.     Not  at  all. 

Mr.  Conkling.  The  senator  from  Georgia  is  speaking  extemporaneously, 
and  as  he  is  a  very  practical  debater  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  it  would 
be  a  serious  inconvenience  to  him  to  have  his  attention  called  to  an  inad 
vertent  inaccuracy  of  statement. 

Mr.  Brown.  It  has  not  been  by  any  means.  The  senator  and  I  only  differ 
about  the  accuracy  of  the  statement  as  it  is  a  question  of  time.  I  may  have 
said  that  it  went  on  for  a  little  longer  than  was  the  case.  The  Record  may 
show  that  I  am  right,  or  it  may  show  that  the  senator  is  right  on  that  par 
ticular  point.  He  is  entitled  to  his  opinion  and  his  recollection  of  that,  and 
so  am  I.  That  point  is  not  at  all  important  in  this  instance. 

We  did  reach  a  time  when  we  carne  to  a  vote  on  the  question  of  the  organi 
zation  of  the  committees  of  the  senate.  There  were  thirty-seven  Democrats 
and  thirty-seven  Republicans  in  this  chamber.  The  vice-president  is  a 
Republican.  The  senator  from  Virginia  had  always  been  a  Democrat  up  to 
the  end  of  the  Hancock  and  Garfield  campaign,  if  we  may  judge  him  by  his 
conduct  and  profession  during  that  campaign.  Coming  here  trom  that  sort 
of  field,  with  that  kind  of  precedent  and  course  of  conduct,  with  those  ante 
cedents,  he  left  the  Democratic  party  and  voted  with  the  Republicans  for 
the  organization  of  every  committee  just  as  they  proposed  to  organize  the 
committees.  Every  vote  that  he  has  cast  in  this  chamber  since  that  time 
has  been  on  the  same  line.  He  has  never  voted  with  the  Democracy  a 
single  time. 

>.ow,  when  we  take  into  the  account  the  two  things  and  put  them  together, 
it  is  a  peculiar  coincidence,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  that  the  senator  from  Vir- 

S'nia,  always  a  Democrat  up  to  a  very  late  period,  should  vote  with  the 
epublicans  on  the  organization  of  every  committee,  and  that  he  should  con 
tinue  to  vote  with  them  on  every  issue  since  that  time;  and  then  in  a  very 
short  time  afterward,  that  they  should  meet  in  caucus  and  nominate  his  inti 
mate  friend  (rorham,  who  had  bolted  their  party  a  year  or  two  ago  and  been 
read  out,  and  Riddleberger,  who  had  always  been  a  Democrat,  a  Hancock 
elector,  who  was  his  bosom  friend  and  his  right-hand  man,  and  should  put 
them  forward  here  as  the  Republican  candidates, — I  say,  there  is  a  very 
peculiar  coincidence  about  it,  to  say  the  least.  It  may  have  been  no  bargain; 
it  may  not  have  been  even  a  capital  understanding;  but  I  will  call  it  a  coin 
cidence.  It  is  just  one  of  those  things  that  happen  sometimes  in  life,  I  sup- 
po-e ;  but  there  is  something  about  it  peculiar  that  it  should  happen  under 
such  circumstances. 

But  there  is  another  point  about  it  which  is  a  little  peculiar.  It  has  not 
been  the  habit  of  the  senate  to  reorganize  the  officers  of  the  senate  at  an 
executive  session.  There  was  one  exception  to  that  rule  in  1853,  when,  the 
tradition  says,  there  was  a  man  in  one  of  the  positions  who  did  not  give 
satisfaction,  who  was  not  considered  worthy,  and  they  took  the  matter  up  at 
that  executive  session  and  went  into  a  reorganization,  dismissed  him,  and 
put  another  man  in  his  place  belonging  to  the  same  party,  and  re-elected  all 
of  the  other  officers.  Therefore,  according  to  the  precedents,  it  is  not  usual 
at  this  time  to  reorganize  the  officers  of  the  senate.  It  is  usual  to  wrait  until 
the  business  session  of  the  two  houses.  But  after  the  peculiar  coincidence 
that  I  have  spoken  of  it  seems  to  become  essentially  necessary  in  this  case — 
supremely  important — that  we  should  reorganize  the  officers  of  the  senate 
now  and  elect  these  two  special  friends  of  the  senator  from  Virginia. 

True,  as  I  stated  the  other  day,  there  are  very  important  nominations 


640  APPENDIX. 

before  us  that  it  is  the  custom  of  the  senate  to  act  on  at  tliis  time.  We  are 
called  together  by  the  president  of  the  United  States  lor  that  very  purpose. 
That  is  what  we  are  here  for.  There  is  a  vacancy  upon  the  supreme  bench 
of  the  United  States,  and  I  am  informed  that  court  adjourned  to-day  for 
want  of  a  quorum.  There  is  a  vacancy,  as  1  have  stated  heretofore,  in  the 
court  of  claims.  There  is  a  vacancy  in  the  position  of  the  circuit  judge  of 
the  fifth  judicial  circuit,  where  in  my  own  town  the  term  is  running  and  the 
judge  ought  to  be  there.  The  cfistrict  judge  is  sick,  and  not  able  to  attend 
to  the  duties.  A  judge  from  another  State  is  there  to  do  district  judge's 
duty,  and  the  United  States  circuit  judge  is  needed  there  to  hold  his  court. 
Public  ministers  and  other  important  officers  have,  been  nominated,  and  it  is 
our  duty  to  act  upon  the  nominations.  But  these  matters  are  insignificant 
compared  with  the  overwhelming  importance  of  electing  a  secretary  of  the 
senate  and  a  sergeant-at-arms  who  are  the  bosom  friends  and  right-hand 
men  of  the  senator  from  Virginia.  These  other  matters  that  I  speak  of  may 
be  important  questions,  but  they  sink  into  insignificance  compared  with  the 
great  importance  of  electing  these  officers  here  contrary  to  general  usage. 
That  is  another  coincidence  in  this  matter — another  peculiarity  about  it. 

Again  I  ask,  why  in  the  first  place  should  these  two  men  have  been 
selected  by  the  Republican  caucus  over  everybody  else  under  these  peculiar 
circumstances ;  and  then  why  should  this  stubborn  fight  be  made  for  their 
ratification  over  all  the  other  important  nominations  before  us,  and  over  the 
importance  of  three  or  four  treaties  with  foreign  powers?  There  is  another 
coincidence  that  is  a  little  peculiar ;  it  happens  so,  I  suppose  ;  still  the 
people  of  the  United  States  will  naturally  inquire  why  these  things  are  so. 
Why  is  it  so?  The  people  of  the  United  States  are  an  inquisitive  people; 
they  will  look  into  this  sort  of  thing.  We  have  an  energetic  press ;  they  are 
always  inquiring;  and  now  these  cpincidences  that  are  denied  to  be  a  con 
tract  have  been  taken  up  by  them,  and  all  around  they  say  it  was  a  contract, 
and  some  of  them  even  say  it  was  a  corrupt  bargain.  J  have  not  said  so,  but 
I  see  it  in  the  papers. 

I  presume  it  is  these  peculiar  coincidences  that  cause  people  to  think  there 
was  a  bargain  and  sale  here.  There  is  one  point  about  it,  however,  if  it  is 
a  bargain,  (and  all  these  facts  and  circumstances  look  very  much  that  way,) 
we  do  not  on  this  side  of  the  house  intend  to  be  parties  to  it.  If  there  has 
been  a  bargain  and  sale  here,  arid  the  contract  has  been  carried  out  on  one 
side,  we  will  not  help  to  deliver  the  goods  to  the  other  side.  We  will  stay 
here  a  long  time  first. 

We  have  just  reasons  for  remaining  here  to  prevent  the  turning  out  of 
good  officers  of  the  senate  (when  you  have  halt'  of  them  and  we  half)  in 
violation  of  the  general  usage ;  but  we  have  still  higher  reasons,  yes,  infi 
nitely  higher,  for  preventing  the  consummation  of  what  looks  to  the  country 
to  be,  what  the  people  of  the  United  States  believe  to  be,  a  contract  for  the 
election  of  these  men  on  account  of  a  consideration  received  by  the  other 
side.  If  there  has  been  such  an  arrangement,  whether  it  is  to  be  dignified 
by  the  term  contract  or  not,  then  I  believe  we  reflect  the  popular  will  when 
we  stay  here  and  say  we  will  never  be  a  party  to  it  nor  see  it  consummated 
while  we  have  power  to  prevent  it.  I  believe  we  are  right  when  we  stay 
here,  and  call  the  attention  of  the  American  people  to  this  extraordinary 
coincidence. 

All  this  may  be,  as  I  have  said,  mere  happen-so,  but  it  does  not  look  right. 
There  is  something  about  it  that  I  do  not  fancy.  It  reminds  me  of  a  story 
that  it  may  not  be  quite  proper  to  relate  here,  of  a  'coon  and  a  polecat, 
sometimes  called  the  skunk.  It  is  said  that  a  'coon  left  his  house  one  day 
and  went  in  quest  of  food.  On  his  return  he  found  some  other  animal  down 


APPENDIX.  641 

in  the  hollow  of  the  tree  where  his  home  was.  He  thought  it  was  a  cat,  and 
challenged  it  by  saying,  "A  cat?"  "No,"  said  the  polecat ;  "  I  am  a  'coon." 
Said  the  'coon,  "  You  don't  look  like  a  'coon."  He  replied,  •*  But  I  am  a 
'coon."  Said  the  'coon,  "  You  don't  talk  like  a  'coon."  He  repeated,  "  But 
I  am  a  'coon."  "Ugh,"  said  the  'coon,  "you  don't  smell  like  a  'coon,  and 
you  are  not  a  'coon."  [Laughter.]  This  transaction  does  not  look  like  it 
was  a  proper  transaction,  an<l  it  does  not  smell  like  a  clean  transaction,  and 
we  do  not  intend  to  be  a  party  to  it.  We  will  do  all  in  our  power  to  prevent 
its  consummation. 

It  may  be  that  all  this  ado  about  it  is  without  foundation,  but  I  think  if 
this  matter  were  put  on  trial  before  a  jury  of  the  country  aud  the  issue  was 
whether  the  contract  could  be  established,  we  might  apply  to  it  the  usual 
rules  of  evidence  for  practice  and  have  no  hesitation  in  going  before  a  jury 
and  claiming  a  verdict.  I  am  not  sure  that  we  could  not  go  further.  1  am 
not  very  fresh  from  my  reading  of  Blackstone,  Starkie,  and  some  of  the  older 
authorities,  but  if  I  recollect,  I  think  it  is  in  Starkie  on  Evidence,  probably 
in  reference  to  criminal  cases,  the  rule  is  laid  down  that  the  evidence  must 
not  only  be  consistent  with  the  hypothesis  of  the  guilt  of  the  prisoner,  but 
inconsistent  with  every  other  reasonable  hypothesis.  I  think  the  evidence 
here  is  not  only  consistent  with  the  hypothesis  of  a.  contract,  but  it  seems  to 
my  mind  to  be  inconsistent  with  every  other  reasonable  hypothesis.  There 
fore,  applying  the  rules  in  a  criminal  case  to  it,  1  think  we  should  convict 
the  defendants,  the  parties  to  the  contract. 

I  think  I  can  see  in  the  sedate  manner  and  grave  appearance  of  some  of 
my  friends  on  the  other  side  of  this  chamber  that  they  feel  they  are  a  little 
in  the  condition  of  the  man  who  caught  the  wolf.  After  scuffling  with  it  a 
good  while  he  called  upon  his  friends  to  come  and  help  him  let  it  loose.  Or 
it  may  be  that  you  are  a  little  nearer  the  condition  of  the  man  who  won  the 
elephant  at  a  raffle.  He  got.  him,  but  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  him, 
and  he  was  in  great  trepidation  about  it.  You  have  won  the  elephant  in 
this  case,  and  it  seems  to  me  you  are  not  in  very  good  condition  to  get  rid 
of  him,  for  if  you  do  not  stand  by  his  friends  and  elect  them  to  office  he  may 
turn  upon  you  and  rend  every  chairman  of  you,  and  turn  you  all  off  from 
the  heads  of  the  committees. 

Possibly  I  am  wrong  about  that.  It  may  be  that  you  are  in  the  better 
condition  of  the  astronomer  who  looked  through  his  telescope  at  the  moon, 
and  after  gazing  at  it  for  a  time  he  told  his  friends  that  he  saw  a  large  ele 
phant  upon  the  surface  of  the  moon.  His  friends  said,  "That  is  impossible." 
The  astronomer  looked  again.  "Yes,"  said  he,  "  there  is  a  large  elephant 
on  the  surface  of  the  moon  ;  I  not  only  see  it,  but  I  saw  it  move  just  that 
minute."  His  friends  gathered  around  him  then  and  there  was  great  excite 
ment,  and  it  was  a  very  great  problem  how  it  could  have  come  there  or  why 
it  had  never  been  seen  before.  At  length  some  one  looking  carefully  found 
that  there  was  a  mouse  between  the  lenses  of  the  instrument,  and  it  turned 
out  that  instead  of  having  found  an  elephant  on  the  surface  of  the  moon,  the 
astronomer  had  a  mouse  in  his  telescope.  [Laughter.]  I  think  it  is  possible 
that  my  friends  on  the  other  side  have  not  the  elephant  they  think  they  have 
caught.  I  believe  they  could  let  him  loose,  and  possibly  in  the  end  it  would 
turn  out  instead  of  a  huge  elephant  to  be  the  diminutive  form  of  a  little 
mouse. 

I  know  the  condition  may  be  somewhat  embarrassing,  and  I  do  not  wish 
to  see  our  friends  on  the  other  side  embarrassed.  But  this  peculiar  coin 
cidence,  this  strange  state  of  things  that  has  come  along  here,  that  nobody 
can  account  for,  that  made  our  friends  over  there  the  chairmen  of  the  differ 
ent  committees  that  are  generally  given  to  the  majority,  that  gave  them  the 
41 


642  APPENDIX. 

control  of  the  committees  and  business  of  the  senate,  that  gave  the  senator 
from  Virginia  tlie  chairmanship  of  the  committee  he  desired,  that  put  him 
on  several  other  important  committees,  that  was  followed  by  the  nomination 
of  his  friends,  one  of  them  a  Democrat,  for  these  offices — I  f^ay  this  strange 
coincidence  may  be  and  doubtless  is  somewhat  embarrassing,  and  I  sympa 
thize  with  our  friends  in  their  embarrassment,  but  I  must  still  reiterate  that 
we  cannot  afford  to  make  ourselves  parties  to  it,  and  while  we  dislike  to  sub 
mit  to  the  personal  inconvenience  of  remaining  here,  or  to  subject  those  on 
the  other  side  to  that  inconvenience,  we  feel  it  is  our  duty  to  stay  here  what 
ever  time  may  be  necessary  to  prevent  the  consummation  of  what  the  public 
believe  to  be  a  bargain  and  sale,  or  at  least  to  prevent  the  election  of  these 
caucus  candidates  who  have  been  nominated  under  this  strange  coincidence. 

SPEECH  OF  HONORABLE  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  DELIVERED  IN 
THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  APRIL  14,  IbSi,  ON  A  FKEE 
BALLOT  AND  A  FAIR  COUNT.  COLORED  CITIZENS  IN  THE  SOUTH  HAVE 

GREATER  FREEDOM  OF  BALLOT  THAN  A  LARGE  CLASS  OF  WHITE  CITI 
ZENS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND  HAVE.  THE  EFFORT  OF  THE  REPUBLICANS 

TO  RECONSTRUCT  AND  RADICALIZE  THE  SOUTH  DISCUSSED.  INDEPEN 
DENT  DEMOCRATS  OF  THE  SOUTH,  SUPPORTING  INDEPENDENT  CANDI 
DATES  BECAUSE  THEY  WKRE  NOT  CONTENT  WITH  THE  CAUCUS  SYSTEM 
AS  PRACTICED,  DID  NOT  START  TO  FOLLOW  INDEPENDENT  LEADERS  IN 
TO  THE  REPUBLICAN  CAMP,  AND  WOULD  NOT  DO  so  IF  INVITED. 
RIGHTS  OF  THE  COLORED  CITIZENS  DISCUSSED.  THE  RKPUBLICAN 
PARTY  HAS  DONE  JUSTICE  NEITHER  TO  THEM  NOR  TO  THE  WHITE 
REPUBLICANS  OF  THE  SOUTH.  SOME  INTERESTING  FIGURES. 

The  Senate  having  under  consideration  the  resolutions  submitted  by  MB.  DAWES  in 
relation  to  the  election  of  officers  of  the  Senate — 

MR.  Brown  said: 

MR.  President:  At  the  end  of  what  was  known  or  must  now  be  classed 
as  the  war  of  the  rebellion  because  it  was  unsuccessful,  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  was  in  the  hands  and  under  the  control  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  I  admit  they  had  very  difficult  problems  to  deal  with  in.  reorgan 
izing  the  machinery  of  government  and  putting  it  into  operation  again. 
Whether  they  dealt  wisely  or  unwisely  has  been  a  question  for  the  people  to 
determine  and  is  yet  a  question  of  debate.  They  thought  proper  to  pass 
what  were  termed  the  reconstruction  bills  into  laws.  Those  acts  disfran 
chised  and  drove  from  the  ballot-box,  in  the  elections  for  the  conventions 
that  were  to  form  constitutions  for  the  Southern  people  to  live  under,  proba 
bly  two  hundred  thousand  of  the  most  intelligent,  cultivated,  and  educated 
people  of  the  South,  including  all  persons  who  had  ever  taken  an  oath  in  any 
office  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  had  afterward  in 
any  way  whatever  aided  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  I  fell  in  that  class,  and  I 
stood  by  and  saw  my  negroes,  or  those  that  had  been  mine,  vote  in  the  elec 
tion  for  members  of  the  convention  who  were  to  form  a  constitution  under 
which  I  was  to  live  while  I  was  excluded  from  the  polls.  There  may  have 
been— I  do  not  say  there  was  not — "  a  fair  count "  then,  but  there  was  not  a 
very  "free  ballot."  It  was  free,  however,  to  all  the  males  of  the  colored  race 
who  were  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  upward.  They  all  had  the  right  to 
come  to  the  ballot-box  and  exercise  the  suffrage ;  I  think  they  were  generally 
there. 

At  a  subsequent  period,  however,  the  grave  question  arose  as  to  whether 
these  mere  acts  of  Congress  were  enough  on  this  subject,  and  it  was  found 


APPENDIX.  643 

by  the  Republican  party  that  it  was  necessary  to  propose  a  constitutional 
amendment  that  would  guaranty  to  all  persons,  without  regard  to  race,  color, 
or  previous  condition  of  servitude,  equal  rights  at  the  ballot-box. 

These  measures  were  regarded  very  hard  measures  by  the  people  of  the 
South.  I  thought  so;  but  having  taken  part  in  what  is  to  be  termed  the  re 
bellion,  I  recognized  the  Government  of  the  United  States  as  my  conqueror, 
and  when  these  terms  were  dictated  I  acquiesced  in  them  and  advised  my 
people  to  do  so,  and  I  think  they  committed  an  error — but  there  is  a  differ 
ence  of  opinion  about  that — in  not  promptly  accepting  those  terms.  1  think 
the  mistake  we  made  when  you  put  the  suffrage  into  the  hands  of  the  colored 
race  was  that  we  indicated  displeasure  at  it.  The  colored  people  were  our 
friends,  and  we  were  their  friends;  but  when  our  people — and  it  was  the 
most  natural  thing  on  earth  that  they  should  have  taken  the  course  under  all 
the  circumstances — thought  proper  to  make  an  issue  on  this  question ;  and 
ti-e  carpet-bagger — and  by  that  term  I  do  not  mean  the  Northern  man  who 
came  South  for  any  honest  purpose,  but  the  man  who  could  not  have  been 
elected  constable  in  Massachusetts  or  Ohio,  who  came  down  to  the  South 
simply  for  the  purpose  of  taking  charge  of  the  colored  people  and  securing 
their  support  for  the  promotion  of  his  ambition  or  his  interest — when  the  car 
pet-bagger  took  our  former  slaves  into  the  out-houses  or  school-houses  at 
night  and  swore  them  into  the  Union  Leagues,  they  were  taught  to  believe 
that  on  that  question  our  people  were  not  their  friends  ;  and  it  was  probably 
very  natural  that  they  followed  this  class  of  Northern  men  who  said  to  them, 
"  The  Government  of  the  United  States  -has  given  you  the  right  of  suffrage 
and  we  are  here  to  see  that  you  have  it." 

At  that  day  I  took  position  for  absolute  acquiescence  in  the  reconstruction 
measures,  and  in  the  dictation  of  my  conqueror.  I  said  the  terms  were  hard, 
but  I  believed  it  was  better  to  accept  them  promptly;  I  recognized  your 
power  to  dictate  them,  and  I  thereupon,  after  the  passage  of  the  fifteenth 
amendment,  took  position  for  *'  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count  "  in  Georgia 
and  all  over  the  South,  and  I  have  stood  there  from  that  day  to  this,  and  I 
stood  there  at  a  time  when,  to  say  the  least,  it  was  a  matter  of  some  incon 
venience  to  a  man  to  stand  there. 

My  friend  on  my  left  ask",  where  did  the  senator  from  Virginia  stand?  I 
understand  him  to  ask  where  did  the  new  Republican  senator  from  Virginia 
then  stand?  I  do  not  know.  I  was  noticing  Georgia  matters  then  more 
than  Virginia  matters;  but  I  had  always  been  under  the  impression  that  he 
stood  with  the  Democracy  at  the  time  when  I  temporarily  separated  myself 
from  them  upon  that  issue,  and  that  he  then  voted  with  those  opposed  to  the 
reconstruction  measures. 

Times  have  changed.  The  past  year  I  entered  the  senate  under  an  ex 
ecutive  appointment.  There  were  those  in  Georgia  to  whom  that  appoint 
ment  was  very  distasteful  and,  as  I  stated  the  other  day,  there  were  popular 
demonstrations  in  two  or  three  counties  against  the  governor  of  the  State 
for  having  tendered  me  that  appointment.  The  governor  appealed  to  the 
people  upon  that  issue,  and  I  appealed  to  them  aNo,  and  announced  myself 
a  candidate  for  election  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  What  was  the 
result?  Two  Democrats  ran  for  the  office  of  governor;  both  planted  them 
selves  fairly  and  squarely  on  the  line  of  "a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count,"  and 
I  think  I  may  say  with  perfect  propriety  that  at  no  time  in  any  State  in  this 
Union  has  there  been  a  fairer  election  or  a  fairer  count.  No  one  has  com 
plained,  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  of  either  party,  that  anybody  was  excluded 
from  the  polls  who  had  a  right  to  come  there,  or  that  there  was  coercion,  or 
that  there  was  any  unfairness  of  any  character.  Members  of  the  Legislature 


644  APPENDIX. 

were  elected  in  the  same  manner ;  and  when  the  Legislature  met,  standing 
as  I  did  before  them  as  a  Democratic  candidate  for  the  United  States  senate, 
I  received  a  majority  of  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  Legislature;  every  Re 
publican  in  the  body  and  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  Democratic  members  voted 
for  me. 

Then  I  affirm  in  the  senate  chamber  to-day  that  the  Democracy  of  Georgia 
stand  fairly  and  squarely  upon  the  doctrine  of  "  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair 
count,"  and  that  they  practice  it.  My  colleague  has  announced  the  same 
doctrine.  There  is  no  division  among  us  on  that  question,  and  it  is  not 
probable  that  there  can  ever  again  be  such  a  division.  All  that  is  said  in 
reference  to  any  unfairness  in  elections  there,  or  any  disposition  on  the  part 
of  the  Democracy  of  that  State  to  drive  from  the  ballot-box  any  one  entitled 
to  vote,  is  gratuitous  and  unfounded. 

The  honorable  senator  from  Connecticut  [Mr.  Hawley],  in  his  very  able 
and  eloquent  speech,  the  other  day,  on  the  Republican  side  of  this  chamber, 
said  : 

"  The  South,  the  solid  South,  declares  that  the  fifteenth  amendment  is  a 
failure,  that  it  cannot  be  executed  in  letter  and  spirit." 

I  deny  it.  With  all  due  respect  to  my  honorable  friend  I  say  the  South, 
the  solid  South,  occupies  no  such  ground,  and  takes  no  such  position.  There 
is  no  place  on  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day  in  any  civilized  government  where 
there  is  a  freer  ballot ;  and  there  is  no  question  about  it  that  the  fifteenth 
amendment  is  acknowledged  to  be  binding,  and  in  practice  that  it  is  faith 
fully  carried  out. 

The  same  honorable  senator  said  : 

"I  come  back  to  the  great  fact  which  you,  sir,  and  T,  and  every  man  in 
this  land  must  accept,  and  may  as  well  make  up  his  mind  this  hour  to  ac 
cept,  now  and  hereafter,  that  universal  suffrage  is  the  law  of  the  world  of  late, 
and  is  the  irreversible  law  of  this  Republic  to-day." 

J  deny  that,  too.  Universal  suffrage  is  not  the  law  of  the  world  at  present, 
and  never  was,  nor  is  it  the  law  of  any  civilized  government  in  the  world. 
Universal  suffrage  is  not  the  law  of  this  Republic  to  day,  and  never  has  been. 
1  admit  it  is  manhood  suffrage  in  most  of  the  Southern  States,  and  each 
male  citizen,  twenty-one  years  of  age,  without  regard  to  race,  color,  or  pre 
vious  condition  of  servitude,  may  go  to  the  polls  and  vote;  but  it  is  not  the 
law  of  Connecticut;  it  is  not  the  law  of  Massachusetts,  and  it  is  not  the  law 
of  Rhode  Island. 

Senators  from  those  States  have  said  and  said  properly,  that  the  States 
have  a  right  for  themselves  to  regulate  this  question.  That  they  have  a 
right  to  say  what  restrictions  or  qualifications  shall  be  put  upon  suffrage,  I 
admit;  and  much  as  State  rights  may  have  trailed  in  the  dust,  and  much  as 
they  may  have  been  overridden  and  downtrodden,  I  am  glad  to  see  Massa 
chusetts  and  the  other  New  England  States  come  up  and  take  the  lead  in  the 
affirmance  of  that  doctrine.  I  desire  to  do  no  injustice  to  your  States.  As 
I  have  already  said  on  this  floor,  I  admire  your  industry,  I  admire  your 
thrift,  I  admire  your  enterprise,  I  especially  admire  your  educational  sys 
tems,  your  colleges,  your  universities,  all  that  you  have  done  for  the  civiliza 
tion  of  the  country  and  of  the  age  in  which  we  live.  I  admit  that  you  are 
a  great  people,  and  that  you  are  a  powerful  people  ;  but  while  that  is  true, 
and  you  have  ample  time  to  attend  to  your  own  business  and  do  it  well,  I 
think  you  appropriate  a  little  too  much  of  your  time  in  attention  to  other 
people's  business.  Now  if  you  would  only  be  content  that  other  people  of 
other  States  exercise  the  same  privileges  and  rights  that  you  claim  for  your 
selves  on  that  subject,  to  regulate  this  question  for  themselves,  and  if  you 
would  be  content  for  us  to  carry  out  an  important  principle  of  the  constitu- 


APPENDIX.  645 

tion  of  Massachusetts— I  do  not  say  whether  a  wise  one  or  not— probably  we 
should  all  get  along  better.  In  the  constitution  of  Massachusetts  I  find  this 
language : 

"  Wisdom  and  knowledge  as  well  as  virtue  diffused  generally  among  the 
body  of  the  people  being  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  their  rights  and 
liberties ;  and  as  these  depend  on  spreading  the  opportunities  and  advan 
tages  of  education,  in  the  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  among  the  dif 
ferent  orders  of  the  people,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Legislatures  and 
magistrates  in  all  future  periods  of  this  Commonwealth  to  cherish  the  in 
terests  of  literature,  and  the  sciences,  and  all  seminaries  of  learning,  etc. — 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  chapter  5." 

Here  you  lay  down  the  doctrine  that  wisdom,  knowledge,  and  virtue  dif 
fused  generally  among  the  body  of  the  people  are  necessary  to  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  people.  If  you  had  permitted  us  to  apply  that  rule  in  the 
South,  we  should  have  had  less  difficulty.  You  have  put  upon  us  by  your 
legislation  an  immense  mass  of  ignorant  voters.  They  have  not  wisdom, 
they  have  not  knowledge,  some  of  them  even  have  no  virtue,  as  is  the  case 
in  every  community.  These  are  not  diffused  among  them ;  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case  it  cannot  be ;  and  yet  how  anxiously  you  guard  their 
rights  to  go  to  the  polls  to  make  laws  for  us  and  to  regulate  our  affairs.  You 
have,  it  may  be  wisely  or  unwisely,  excluded  them  from  the  polls  in  your 
States.  They  must  have  something  of  this  wisdom,  something  of  this 
knowledge,  something  of  this  virtue  there,  before  you  permit  them  to  go  to 
your  polls.  Why  ?  Because  I  presume  you  are  not  willing  to  trust  your 
rights,  your  liberties,  your  property,  all  that  is  dear  to  you,  the  very  organ 
ization  of  society  itself,  in  the  hands  of  the  more  ignorant  and  less  virtuous 
part  of  your  people.  And  in  order  to  protect  yourselves  there  and  protect 
your  property,  what  have  you  been  compelled  to  do?  You  have  in  carrying 
out  that  very  idea  I  admit — I  wish  to  do  you  no  injustice — placed  a  wall  of 
constitutional  steel  between  the  men  who  would  exercise  manhood  suffrage 
in  Georgia  and  excluded  and  driven  them  from  the  ballot-box.  Your  con 
stitution  says  that  no  male  citizen  shall  vote  until  he  can  read  your  constitu 
tion  in  the  English  language  and  write  his  name.  Your  constitution  and 
your  laws  further  say — 1  do  not  remember  whether  that  is  a  constitutional 
or  statutory  provision,  and  I  will  not  misrepresent  it — that  he  must  have  re 
sided  twelve  months  in  your  State,  if  he  is  a  citizen  coming  in  from  another 
State,  before  he  can  vote ;  he  must  have  paid  a  tax  assessed  against  him 
within  the  last  two  years,  and  he  must  be  neither  a  pauper  nor  under 
guardianship. 

Now,  what  is  a  pauper  in  your  State  ?  I  have  not  found  the  direct  defini 
tion,  because  I  may  not  be  as  familiar  with  your  laws  as  I  ought  to  be  with 
our  own,  but  I  have  found  a  description  of  a  pauper,  as  I  suppose,  correctly, 
where  it  is  provided  who  may  enter  an  almshouse,  and  I  there  find  this 
designation : 

"  Paupers  in  Massachusetts  are  poor  and  indigent  persons  who  are  main 
tained  by  or  receive  alms  from  city  or  town ;  who,  bring  able  of  body  to  work, 
and  not  having  estate  or  means  otherwise  to  maintain  themselves,  refuse  or 
neglect  to  work  ;  who  live  a  dissolute,  vagrant  life,  and  exercise  no  ordinary 
calling  or  lawful  business;  who  spend  their  time  and  property  in  public  houses, 
to  the  neglect  of  their  proper  business ;  or  who,  by  otherwise  misspending 
what  they  earn,  to  the  impoverishment  of  themselves  and  families,  are  likely 
to  become  chargeable  to  the  city,  etc." 

Mr.  Hoar.     Mr.  President — 

Mr.  Brown.  I  will  permit  a  reply  after  I  am  through  ;  but  I  prefer  not  to 
be  interrupted. 


646  APPENDIX. 

Mr.  Hoar.     Mr.  President — 

Mr.  Brown.  I  decline  to  yield.  If  I  misstate  any  matter  connected  with 
Massachusetts  the  senator  will  have  a  fair  opportunity  to  correct  me  when 
he  gets  the  floor.  I  do  not  state  that  this  is  the  definition  of  a  pauper;  I 
only  find  that  to  get  into  the  Massachusetts  alinshou.^e — and  that  is  where 
a  pauper  generally  goes — these  seem  to  be  the  qualifications.  But  at  least 
there  is  a  class  of  people  there  who  are  known  as  paupers.  It  will  not  be 
denied.  Now,  whether  that  is  the  correct  definition  of  a  pauper  or  not,  cer 
tainly  all  who  fall  within  the  correct  definition  of  a  pauper  are  excluded 
from  the  ballot-box.  There  may  be  many  or  there  may  be  few.  But  they 
are  an  excluded  class. 

Then,  in  ..reference  to  spendthrifts  :  There  is  a  class  of  persons,  as  I  un 
derstand,  in  Massachusetts  who  are  spendthrifts,  as  is  the  case  in  every  com 
munity  unfortunately.  You  have  a  provision,  probably  a  very  wise  one, 
there,  for  appointing  guardians  for  those  spendthrifts.  The  word  "  spend 
thrift,"  as  your  law-books,  1  believe,  say,  includes  every  one  who  is  liable  to 
be  put  under  guardianship  on  account  of  excessive  drinking,  gaming,  idle 
ness,  or  debauchery,  and  who  spends  his  property  in  these  vices.  I  suppose 
you  execute  your  laws  faithfully,  and  if  you  do,  all  those  who  indulge  in 
drink  to  excess,  or  indulge  in  gambling  to  excess,  or  in  idleness  to  excess,  or 
in  debauchery  to  excess,  and  thereby  misspend  their  property,  are  under 
guardianship  as  spendthrifts,  and  they,  too,  are  driven  from  the  ballot-box  in 
Massachusetts ;  it  is  doubtless  a  good  long  list.  There  may  not  be  many 
paupers.  I  may  be  wrong  and  the  senators  may  be  right,  and  they  will  cor 
rect  that  if  necessary  when  the  proper  time  comes,  in  reference  to  the  class 
of  persons  I  have  been  referring  to  as  paupers,  but  you  certainly  have  some 
paupers.  If  you  did  not  have  them  you  would  not  make  the  exception  in 
the  statute  and  say  they  should  not  come  to  the  ballot-box ;  you  certainly 
have  a  class  of  spendthrifts  that  you  have  provided  guardians  for,  and  they 
are  embraced  under  your  statute  with  persons  who  indulge  in  the  vices 
already  stated — 

Mr.  Hoar.     The  senator  is  mistaken. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  prefer  not  to  be  interrupted  now.  If  I  have  the  wrong 
page,  or  the  wrong  statute,  then  I  still  plant  myself  on  the  other  statute 
which  gives  the  correct  definition,  not  being  as  familiar  with  the  Massachu 
setts  laws  as  the  Massachusetts 'lawyers  are.  You  do  have  a  class  of  people 
who  are  spendthrifts,  who  are  driven  from  the  ballot  box;  you  do  have  a 
class  of  people  who  are  paupers,  who  are  driven  from  the  ballot-box — 1  do 
not  say  how  many  there  are ;  you  do  have  a  class  of  people  who  have  not 
been  twelve  months  in  your  State  who  were  voters  in  other  States  before 
they  come  there ;  you  do  have  a  class  of  people  who  if  they  have  not  paid 
their  tax  are  driven  from  the  ballot-box ;  you  do  have  a  class  of  people  who 
cannot  write  their  names  and  are  therefore  driven  from  the  ballot-box  ;  you 
do  have  another  class  of  people  who  cannot  read  the  constitution  of  Massa 
chusetts  in  the  English  language,  and  therefore  they  are  driven  from  the 
ballot-box.  There  is  quite  a  numerous  list  of  disqualified  classes. 

Now,  on  the  principle  laid  down  a  little  while  ago  that  the  people  of  Mas 
sachusetts  and  New  England,  being  a  thrifty  people,  whom  I  admire  very 
much,  with,  as  already  stated,  ample  time  to  attend  to  their  business  and  a 
good  degree  of  time  to  attend  to  other  people's,  I  incline  to  think  that  you 
have  attended  pretty  well  to  your  part  of  it  in  excluding  classes  that  you 
think  might  be  dangerous  to  your  institutions  at  home  from  the  ballot-box. 
I  do  not  know  how  many  there  are  excluded;  I  have  to  be  governed  by  the 
statement  of  others  on  that  subject,  for  I  am  not  familiar  with  the  state  of 
things  there.  I  can  form  an  estimate,  however,  from  the  data  at  my  com- 


APPENDIX.  647 

mand.  I  read  from  a  speech  delivered  by  the  senator  from  Rhode  Island  [Mr. 
Anthony]  during  the  last  session  of  Congress,  who  is  apt  to  be  very  accurate,  I 
believe,  and  I  suppose  very  good  authority  on  that  side  of  the  house.  He  says : 

"A  distinguished  citizen  of  Massachusetts  has  declared  that  the  tax  and 
educational  qualifications  in  that  State  disfranchised  a  hundred  thousand  of 
its  inhabitants,  fifty  times  as  many  as  the  census  returns  render  as  disquali 
fied  by  the  real-estate  qualification  in  Rhode  Island.  This  gentleman  esti 
mates  that  by  the  enforcement  of  the  fourteenth  amendment  the  represen 
tation  of  Massachusetts  would  be  reduced  from  eleven  to  eight." 

That  is  taken  from  the  statement  made  by  the  senator  from  Rhode  Island 
in  this  chamber  during  the  last  session  of  Congress.  I  do  not  know  whether 
he  was  right  or  not.  I  have  so  much  admiration  for  his  character  and  for 
his  accuracy  that  I  will  not  dispute  the  point  with  him ;  I  will  take  it  for 
granted  that  the  senator  from  Rhode  Island  was  right,  and  that  he  believed 
that  the  estimate  made  by  this  distinguished  citizen  of  Massachusetts  was 
not  very  far  wrong,  or  he  would  not  have  introduced  it  here  in  his  argument. 
If  that  be  true,  then  there  are  100,000  of  the  male  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age  who  are  barred  out  by  the  constitutional  in- 
closure  that  you  have  put  around  your  ballot  box,  and  cannot  go  to  it;  they 
cannot  approach  its  sacred  precincts.  But  the  number  may  not  be  ll)0,0l>0; 
that  distinguished  citizen  of  Massachusetts  may  have  been  in  error.  I  heard 
that  question  canvassed  somewhat  the  other  day  when  the  honorable  senator 
from  Florida  [Mr.  Call]  was  discussing  this  question.  I  think  there  it  came 
down  to  the  point,  if  I  recollect  correctly,  where  you  admitted  in  round 
numbers  18,000  of  your  citizens  of  foreign  birth  and  native  born  who  are 
excluded  from  the  ballot-box  on  account  of  their  inability  to  read  and  write 
as  required  by  your  constitution  and  laws.  That  is  my  recollection  of  it. 
Eighteen  thousand  is  a  good  round  number  to  be  driven  from  the  ballot-box. 

All  this,  as  I  have  stated,  may  be  entirely  necessary  in  your  opinion  for 
the  protection  of  your  property  and  your  rights,  and  for  the  preservation  of 
your  State  institutions;  and  I  am  not  assailing  your  right  on  that  point; 
but  I  only  say  that  there  is  probably  no  State  in  the  Union  that  has  so  many 
qualifications  on  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  probably  none  that  bars  so  many 
of  the  male  citizens  of  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  upward  from  the  polls. 
It  is  true,  as  the  honorable  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Dawes]  stated 
a  few  days  ago,  that  the  provision  of  the  constitution  in  reference  to  reading 
and  writing  did  not  apply  to  those  who  were  voters  at  the  time  it  was 
adopted  ;  but  that  was  about  twenty-three  years  ago ;  so  that  I  suppose  those 
who  were  then  voters  have  in  a  great  measure  passed  away,  audit  does  apply 
to  much  the  greater  portion  now. 

Just  in  that  connection  let  me  state  another  fact.  You  are  very  exacting 
about  the  right  of  the  negro  to  vote  in  the  South.  If  my  State  to-morrow 
were  to  apply  the  rule  of  suffrage  that  is  applied  in  Massachusetts  to  the 
colored  people  of  Georgia,  we  should  drive  more  than  eight  tenths  of  the 
whole  number  from  the  polls.  Take  the  colored  citizens  of  Georgia  to-day 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  let  them  move  to  Massachusetts,  as  they 
have  a  right  to  do,  because  they  are  entitled  to  all  the  rights,  privileges,  and 
immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States — let  them  locate  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  you  drive  eight  tenths  of  them  from  the  polls,  and  will  not  let 
them  vote.  Why?  Because  they  cannot  read  the  constitution  of  your  State 
in  the  English  language,  and  they  cannot  write  their  names  ;  and  therefore 
it  is  very  well  to  give  the  negroes  of  the  South  the  right  of  manhood  suffrage 
and  to  insist  upon  it,  but  it  will  not  do  in  Massachusetts.  I  do  not  know 
how  many  of  the  colored  race  there  are  there  that  are  disfranchised.  All 
who  come  within  any  of  the  exceptions  I  have  mentioned  are,  however. 


648  APPENDIX. 

Bnt  I  say,  take  the  Southern  colored  men  and  transfer  their  citizenship  to 
Massachusetts,  and  as  they  have  had  no  chance  to  learn  to  read  and  write, 
if  they  were  there  now,  as  they  cannot  labor  for  their  living  and  learn, — 
indeed  many  of  them  are  not  trying  to  do  it, — they  would  be  driven  from 
the  polls  there  by  scores  and  hundreds  and  thousands.  We  have  but  a  single 
qualification  with  us,  and  that  is  the  tax  qualification,  which  you  have.  We 
turn  none  away  for  any  other  cause  unless  they  be  insane  persons  or  con 
victed  felons,  and  most  of  the  Southern  States  do  not  even  have  that 
qualification. 

Mr.  Dawes.     How  much  is  that  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  There  is  a  small  number.  If  there  were  one  hundred  in  the 
last  gubernatorial  election  in  Georgia  excluded  from  the  polls  in  consequence 
of  the  non-payment  of  the  tax  I  have  never  heard  of  it,  and  I  do  not  believe 
there  were  so  many. 

There  is  another  point  I  will  notice,  Mr.  President.  All  this  ado  about 
suffrage  has  but  one  object :  it  is  to  try  to  republicanize  the  South  by  the 
use  of  the  negro.  We  might  as  well  deal  plainly  about  the  facts.  Let  us 
examine  the  negro  question  a  little.  You  did  not  enter  into  the  war  for  the 
purpose  of  setting  the  negro  free.  He  is  not  indebted  to  any  of  your  good 
intentions  at  the  time  you  entered  the  struggle  for  his  freedom.  *  You  dis 
tinctly  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  that  was  not  one  of  the  objects  even  of 
making  war  on  the  Southern  States.  The  reason  given,  and  no  doubt  the 
one  you  meant  at  the  time,  was  the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  the  exe 
cution  of  the  laws.  Within  a  day  or  two  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  you 
saved  the  Border  States  to  your  cause,  greatly  to  our  regret  at  the  time,  by 
passing  almost  a  unanimous  resolution  of  both  houses  here,  the  purport  of 
which  was  that  it  was  not  your  object  in  waging  war  to  make  conquest  or  to 
interfere  with  the  institutions  of  the  Southern  States.  Had  you  not  done  so, 
you  could  neither  have  carried  Maryland  nor  Kentucky  nor  Missouri  with 
you,  and  the  termination  of  the  struggle  might  have  been  different 

Then  you  were  not  making  war  for  the  benefit  of  the  negro.  And  near 
the  end  of  the  struggle,  on  a  very  noted  occasion,  after  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a 
necessary  war  measure  had  issued  his  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  at 
Hampton  Roads  conference,  as  recorded  by  Mr.  Stephens  in  the  second 
volume  of  his  History  of  the  War  between  the  States,  at  a  time  when  all  the 
parties  except  Mr.  Lincoln  were  in  life — and  I  have  never  seen  its  correct 
ness  denied — Mr.  Lincoln  indicated  very  clearly  to  the  Southern  commis 
sioners  that  while  he  would  take  back  nothing  of  his  proclamation,  it  was  a 
doubtful  question  to  be  left  to  the  courts  whether  anybody  was  set  free 
except  the  negroes  who  had  fallen  within  your  lines  and  had  taken  part  with 
you;  in  other  words,  whether  the  emancipation  applied  to  the  colored  people 
within  our  lines.  He  even  went  so  far  in  the  kindness  of  his  heart  and  the 
generosity  of  his  nature — and  probably  no  man  ever  had  more  of  either — as 
to  indicate  his  willingness  that  $400,000,000  be  paid  to  Southern  slaveholders 
for  their  slaves  if  peace  could  then  be  restored.  Mr.  Seward  is  reported  as 
having  said  at  the  time  that  he  would  be  willing  that  an  amount  as  large  as 
the  balance  of  the  necessary  expenditure  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war  should 
be  paid  for  the  negroes.  It  is  true  the  Confederate  government  did  not 
accept  those  terms,  nor  were  they  tendered  in  an  authoritative  shape,  but 
only  spoken  of  in  the  conversation  as  terms  that  might  be  agreed  upon  if 
the  war  could  then  cease.  But  I  refer  to  these  facts  to  show  that  the  great 
object  of  the  war,  even  up  to  the  close  of  it,  was  not  the  emancipation  of  the 
negroes.  It  was,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  had  said,  the  restoration  of  the  Union  and 
the  execution  of  the  laws. 

As  another  evidence  that  Mr.  Stephens  has  not  mistaken  this  matter,  in 


APPENDIX.  649 

his  place  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  a  noted  occasion,  the  uncover 
ing  of  F.  B.  Carpenter's  picture,  February  12,  1878,  he  used  these  remarks, 
and  I  have  not  seen  them  challenged : 

"  Emancipation  was  not  the  chief  object  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  issuing  the 
proclamation.  His  chief  object,  the  ideal  to  which  his  whole  soul  was 
devoted,  was  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  Let  not  history  confuse  events. 
That  proclamation,  pregnant  as  it  was  with  coming  events,  initiative  as  it 
was  of  ultimate  emancipation,  still  originated  in  point  of  fact  more  from 
what  was  deemed  the  necessities  of  war  than  from  any  pure  humanitarian 
view  of  the  matter.  Life  is  all  a  mist,  and  in  the  dark  our  fortunes 
meet  us." 

That  has  not  been  challenged.  Therefore  I  take  it  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  even 
near  the  end  of  the  war  when  he  was  holding  the  Hampton  Roads  conference, 
did  not  make  the  emancipation  a  sine  qua  non.  He  had  other  objects  in  his 
mind.  Providence  set  the  colored  man  free  and  not  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.  You  did  not  expect  it,  and  we  did  not  expect  it  when  we 
entered  into  the  contest;  but  God  in  his  mercy  and  in  his  benign  providence 
interfered  and  struck  the  shackles  from  the  hands  of  the  race  and  made 
them  free,  and  I  am  glad  to-day  that  it  is  so;  I  was  not  then. 

What  was  your  next  step  ?  You  did  not  apply  to  the  Southern  States  the 
rule  of  the  Massachusetts  constitution,  that  wisdom  and  knowledge  and 
virtue  diffused  generally  among  the  people  were  necessary  to  the  preservation 
of  their  rights  and  liberties.  You  did  not  apply  the  Massachusetts  rule  of 
suffrage  to  the  Southern  States.  Instead  of  doing  that,  as  already  stated,  in 
the  election  for  delegates  who  were  to  form  our  constitutions,  you  disfran 
chised  the  great  mass  of  Southern  intelligence,  and  you  turned  all  the  negro 
males  of  twenty-one  years  and  upward  loose  to  the  polls.  I  do  not  say  it 
was  not  wise  for  you  to  adopt  the  rule  you  did  for  your  home  government, 
but  if  it  was  wise  in  Massachusetts,  was  it  unwise  to  do  it  in  Georgia?  You 
may  say  that  the  South  had  been  in  rebellion,  and  that  that  made  a  differ 
ence.  I  give  you  all  the  benefit  of  that.  Possibly  you  were  justified  to  some 
extent  in  applying  a  different  rule,  but  was  it  not  your  natural  expectation, 
and  should  it  not  have  been  the  understanding  of  every  one,  that  when  the 
colored  race  were  given  the  ballot  for  their  own  protection,  if  you  saw  they 
needed  it  for  'hat,  that  they  should  then  be  left  to  the  usual  rules  applied  to 
other  citizens? 

I  want  to  be  candid  and  intend  to  be  ;  I  admit  that  there  were  outrages 
soon  after  the  close  of  the  war.  I  only  wonder  there  had  not  been  more. 
Look  at  the  situation.  A  proud  wealthy  people  had  entered  into  a  contest 
in  which  they  had  been  conquered  and  had  lost  probably  a  greater  amount 
of  property  than  almost  any  other  people  of  like  number  ever  lost  in  a  war, 
coming  out  at  the  end  of  it  almost  destitute,  with  brothers,  fathers,  husbands, 
the  cause  they  had  been  attached  to,  lost;  everything  lost  Then  the  con 
queror  dictated  terms  of  the  character  I  have  mentioned,  taking  the  slaves, 
without  education,  and  placing  them  over  us,  driving  us  from  the  ballot-box 
and  turning  them  loose  to  it.  Was  it  wonderful  that  we  thought  this  up 
heaval  was  sapping  the  very  foundations  of  society?  And  was  it  wonderful, 
under  these  circumstances,  that  there  should  have  been  restlessness,  that 
there  should  have  been  Ku  Klux,  that  there  should  have  been  every  effort 
to  try  to  maintain  something  like  society  organized  under  the  usual  rules 
that  apply  in  other  States? 

But  that  day  has  passed.  There  were  outrages,  I  admit  it;  now  there  is 
as  free  a  ballot  as  there  is  in  any  State  in  this  Union.  It  has  taken  years  to 
reach  it.  There  are  still  outrages  that  may  occur  there  (not  in  reference  to 
the  ballot,  however)  as  there  may  occur  outrages  in  Massachusetts  or  in  any 


650  APPENDIX. 

other  State ;  but  we  execute  the  laws  there,  and  we  are  for  disposing  of  the 
Ku  Klux  in  any  manner  that  is  necessary  to  apply  the  remedy  if  they  should 
raise  their  heads  again.  Only  last  year,  near  Cochran,  Georgia  —  the  case 
went  the  rounds  in  the  newspapers  —  not  with  any  view  to  politics,  as  we 
understand  there,  but  on  account  of  some  grudge  that  some  unworthy  men 
had  against  a  very  worthy,  steady,  clever  old  colored  man,  they  put  on  their 
masks,  and  they  surrounded  his  cabin  at  night  with  arms  in  their  hands, 
and  demanded  that  he  deliver  himself  up.  He  had  a  double-barrelled  gun, 
it  was  loaded,  he  was  a  good  shot,  he  aimed  well,  and  he  fired  both  barrels 
and  killed  one  at  each  fire;  and  there  they  lay  in  his  yard  the  next  morning 
with  their  masks  on.  His  course  was  applauded  by  all  the  white  people  of 
Georgia,  so  far  as  I  know;  the  newspapers  commented  favorably  on  it,  and 
expressed  the  hope  that  it  might  always  be  so  when  desperadoes  gathered 
around  the  home  of  the  humblest  colored  or  white  man  at  night;  and  I  hope 
such  may  be  the  fate  of  all  who  may  attempt  it.  He  was  never  even 
arrested;  there  was  nothing  done  with  him,  no  legal  steps  were  taken 
against  him  whatever;  I  do  not  know  that  he  remained  in  the  community, 
but  everybody  said  he  did  right.  It  may  have  been  that  he  was  afraid  to 
remain  on  account  of  the  revenge  possibly  of  the  friends  of  those  who  had 
been  killed ;  he  probably  thought  it  prudent  to  move  from  there,  as  it  would 
have  been  in  Massachusetts  under  similar  circumstances,  but  his  act  met  the 
approval  of  the  people  of  Georgia.  In  a  county  of  upper  Georgia,  on  account 
of  a  Ku  Klux  outrage,  three  men  were  convicted  on  circumstantial  evidence 
of  being  guilty,  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary. 

Outrages  have  occurred  in  Massachusetts.  I  remember  years  ago  that  the 
whole  country  was  shocked  by  a  report  that  a  highly  cultivated  man  there,  a 
man  occupying  a  high  position — I  refer  to  Dr.  Webster — had  for  a  paltry 
sum,  probably  two  or  three  hundred  dollars,  killed  his  fellow-man,  a  man  of 
good  standing  in  society,  and  to  conceal  him  had  even  mutilated  the  body  and 
attempted  to  dissolve  it  by  lime  and  other  chemicals. 

Mr.  Dawes.     And  he  was  hung  for  it. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  says  he  was  hung  for  it.  I  was  going  to  give 
you  full  credit  for  that;  but  I  want  to  draw  a  comparison  between  that  and 
a  case  that  occurred  in  Georgia  at  a  much  later  period.  You  executed  the 
law,  I  grant,  and  you  did  right.  Some  three  or  four  years  ago,  in  Floyd 
county,  Georgia,  in  which  is  the  city  of  Rome,  a  man  named  Johnson,  of  one 
of  the  best  families  of  our  State,  a  young  man,  reckless  and  somewhat  dissi 
pated,  killed  a  young  negro  boy  under  circumstances  of  very  decided  cruelty. 
He  was  put  upon  hi.s  trial.  All  the  influence  of  family  and  otherwise  that 
could  reasonably  be  brought  to  bear  was  brought  in  his  favor  and  able  coun 
sel  defended  him.  The  jury  found  him  guilty.  Strong  appeals  were  made 
by  strong  family  influences  to  the  governor  to  commute  the  sentence  or  par 
don  him.  He  refused  and,  as  your  man  did  in  Massachusetts,  he  atoned  for 
his  offence  on  the  gallows  ;  he  was  hanged  by  the  neck  until  he  was  dead. 
Yes,  you  execute  your  criminal  laws  where  one  white  man  kills  another.  So 
do  we,  and  we  execute  them  where  a  white  man  kills  a  negro  ;  and  so  we 
should.  You  see,  then,  that  our  community  is  as  orderly  as  yours  is,  we 
execute  the  laws  as  promptly  and  as  faithfully  as  you  do,  and  the  ballot-box 
is  as  free. 

Thus  much  in  reference  to  how  the  colored  men  got  the  ballot  and  as  to 
the  execution  of  the  laws.  I  am  inclined  to  think,  and  I  may  be  wrong 
there,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  judge  wrongly,  that  in  giving  universal  suffrage 
under  those  circumstances  possibly  you  had  a  little  eye  to  power.  There  may 
have  been  at  least  a  thought  of  party  power  in  it,  that  it  was  the  best  way  to 
republicauize  those  States,  that  it  was  the  best  way  to  get  control  of  them 


APPENDIX.  651 

for  the  Republican  party.  I  do  not  say  that  was  the  object,  for  I  have  no 
right  to  judge  harshly  the  motives  of  others.  At  least  you  gave  the  negroes 
the  ballot  under  circumstances  that  you  would  not  give  it  to  them  at  home, 
and  at  a  time  when  you  did  not  give  it  to  them  at  home.  I  have  here  another 
little  sentence  from  the  speech  of  Senator  Anthony  that  I  wish  to  read  in 
this  connection.  Even  of  the  great  State  of  New  York,  which  is  so  well  and 
so  wisely  governed,  this  is  what  Senator  Anthony  says : 

"Many  of  the  Northern  States  adhered  to  their  discrimination  against  col 
ored  citizens  till  the  results  of  the  war  compelled  its  abandonment,  and  all 
the  Southern  States  retained  or  established  it.  In  New  York  the  proposition 
to  admit  colored  citizens  to  equal  rights  of  suffrage  was  submitted  to  a  sep 
arate  vote,  with  the  constitution  of  1846,  and  was  rejected.  It  was  submitted 
again,  in  an  amendment  in  1860,  and  again  in  1868 —  after  the  passage  of 
the  reconstruction  acts,  you  will  please  bear  in  mind— "and  was  both  times 
rejected.  It  was  not  adopted  until  1874,  when  the  fifteenth  amendment  to 
the  Federal  Constitution  had  removed  the  disqualification  and  established 
the  equality  of  the  whites  and  the  blacks  in  the  suffrage." 

Therefore  it  was  not  simply  the  love  of  the  colored  man  that  prompted  the 
giving  of  the  suffrage  in  the  Southern  States.  Even  in  that  great  State,  as 
I  say,  they  refused  absolutely  to  give  the  colored  man  the  ballot  for  years 
after  it  had  been  given  in  the  South  and  they  were  exercising  it  there. 

Again,  I  incline  to  think  under  all  the  circumstances  that  you  have  not  dealt 
as  liberally  with  these  colored  people  as  you  might  have  done.  There  are 
fifty  million  people  in  round  numbers  in  the  United  States.  Of  that  number 
the  Republican  party  lacks  nearly  160,000  voters  of  being  half,  according  to 
the  Political  Almanac.  So,  then,  the  Republican  party  represents  a  popula 
tion  of  about  twenty-four  millions  in  the  United  States.  There  are  six  mill 
ion  five  hundred  and-odd  thousand  of  the  colored  race,  more  than  one-fourth, 
if  they  are  all  Republicans,  of  the  entire  Republican  party  of  this  Union. 

How  many  of  the  offices  have  you  given  them?  What  have  you  done  for 
them?  The  last  administration  did  give  Hon.  Frederick  Douglass,  who  is  a 
man  of  great  intelligence  and  power,  the  position  of  Marshal  of  the  District 
of  Columbia;  but  if  the  reports  be  correct,  he  was  not  invited  to  do  all  the 
honors  at  the  White  House  that  have  generally  been  performed  by  the  Mar 
shal  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  And  rumor  says,  I  do  not  know  whether 
it  is  true,  that  now  he  will  have  to  give  way  to  a  white  man  who  can  attend 
to  all  those  honors  and  duties.  I  admit  there  is  some  palliation  in  that,  be 
cause  it  has  been  reported  that  the  white  man  is  to  come  from  that  poor  and 
neglected  State  of  Ohio  that  never  gets  anything.  That  may  be  a  reason  for 
the  change.  What  high  positions  have  you  given  them?  Are  none  of  them 
intelligent  enough  to  fill  them  ?  I*see  before  me  now  a  distinguished  gentle 
man,  Mr.  Bruce,  who  occupied  with  dignity,  urbanity,  and  character,  a  seat 
on  this  floor  I  believe  for  six  years.  You  have  seven  cabinet  ministers. 
More  than  one-fourth  of  the  whole  Republican  population  of  the  United 
States,  if  all  the  colored  people  are  to  be  counted  as  Republicans,  is  colored ; 
and  yet  there  is  no  man  among  them  who  is  considered  worthy  by  your  party 
to  represent  that  fourth  in  the  cabinet  of  seven.  What  high  positions  have 
you  given  them?  Occasionally  they  have  had  the  position  of  mail  route 
agent,  and  occasionally  a  post-office,  but  what  have  you  done  for  them?  I 
think  not  a  very  liberal  part. 

Allow  me  to  say  here  that  in  my  opinion  the  Democracy  have  learned  some 
wisdom  by  experience.  I  do  not  adopt  the  term  that  I  have  heard  to-day, 
"  Bourbon  "  Democrat ;  I  do  not  know  that  I  am  one ;  I  am  on  a  more  liberal 
line  probably  than  some  have  been.  I  stand  by  the  execution  of  the  different 
Constitutional  amendments,  and  for  carrying  out  every  right  of  the  citizen 


652  APPENDIX. 

in  the  strictest  good  faith  ;  but  I  think,  as  I  have  already  stated,  the  Demo 
crats  have  learned  wisdom  by  experience,  and  you  need  not  be  astonished 
when  they  meet  in  grand  council  again  as  you  have  neglected  to  do  justice 
to  these  people  that  they  should  do  it.  There  will  be  no  more  trouble  about 
a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count  then.  If  you  will  not  do  right  by  them  we  will. 
That  is  my  opinion  ;  that  is  my  advanced  position.  I  am  a  Democrat  on  that 
line. 

Mr.  Hoar.     Will  you  do  it  any  way  ? 

Mr.  Dawes.  My  colleague  wants  to  know  if  you  are  going  to  do  it  any 
way? 

Mr.  Brown.     I  said  I  would  under  any  circumstances. 

Mr.  Hoar.     You  said  you  would  if  we  would  not. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  will  not  do  it  simply  for  a  party  purpose.  I  will  advocate 
it  because  I  think  it  is  right  to  do  justice  by  them.  That  is  not  quite  all. 
You  have  not  been  very  liberal  to  the  Republicans  of  the  South  without 
regard  to  race  or  color.  There  was  once  an  eminent  man-  I  believe,  in  this 
Capitol  who  said  something  about  the  cohesive  power  of  public  plunder. 
I  do  not  use  that  phrase,  however.  But  there  is  a  cohesive  power  about  ex 
ecutive  patronage  that  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with  keeping  a  party  in  power 
sometimes.  Your  party,  one  hundred  and  fifty-odd  thousand  in  the  minor 
ity  of  the  popular  vote  in  the  United  States,  has  almost  the  entire  hundred 
thousand  Federal  appointments,  and  as  you  need  them  North,  you  do  not 
send  many  of  them  South.  You  complai  n  that  you  cannot  build  up  the  Repub 
lican  party  there.  No,  and  as  long  as  you  take  all  the  offices  for  yourselves,  and 
as  long  as  those  that  you  give  down  there  are  given  to  carpet-baggers 
or  to  those  who  have  no  native  influence  there,  you  will  not  build  up 
one. 

I  have  taken  pains  to  look  a  little  into  this  question.  I  do  not  vouch  for 
the  correctness  of  the  figures  that  I  now  use,  as  I  did  not  make  them  myself, 
but  I  use  them  as  such  an  approximation  to  accuracy  as  to  illustrate  properly 
the  principle  I  am  discussing.  I  directed  one  of  my  secretaries  to  take  up 
the  Official  Register,  the  latest  I  had,  for  1879.  lrou  will  remember  that 
along  down  in  the  columns  of  that  you  will  see  the  name  of  the  officer,  from 
what  State  appointed,  and  where  he  was  born  ;  and  it  is  a  little  remarkable 
to  see  among  those  given  to  Georgia  how  many  there  are  who  were  not  born 
there,  and  how  many  there  are  who  were  never  heard  of  there.  I  suppose  that 
is  upon  the  principle,  however,  that,  Georgia  not  having  much  share  in  the 
spoils,  when  an  applicant  came  here  and  a  senator  or  representative  found 
that  the  places  were  full  from  his  State  and  this  office-seeker  reported  from 
Georgia,  he  was  put  down  there.  At  least  I  cannot,  on  inquiry,  locate  a 
good  number  of  them  as  having  ever  beeji  known  in  Georgia.  But  taking 
them  all  now  as  Georgians  and  taking  my  figures  as  approximately  correct, 
which  I  am  satisfied  they  are,  you  have  not  been  very  liberal  in  bestowing 
patronage  down  there.  If  you  want  to  rally  the  people  and  form  a  party 
there  you  ought  to  deal  as  justly  by  them  as  you  do  by  the  Republicans  else 
where.  I  respectfully  state  that  I  do  not  think  you  have  done  so.  As  my 
secretary  has  made  the  list,  those  employed  in  the  executive  department 
and  in  the  Secretary  of  State's  office,  and  f  suppose  connected  with  the  work 
there,  number  98,  or  did  at  the  time  the  Official  Register  was  published,  and 
of  the  98  there  were  2  charged  to  Georgia,  but  neither  born  there. 

Mr.  Dawes.     One  was  Fitzsimons. 

Mr.  Brown.  That  comes  a  little  lower  down.  In  the  department  of 
state  there  are  367  appointments ;  from  Georgia  4.  In  the  war  department 
1,507;  from  Georgia  14.  In  the  navy  department  347;  from  Georgia  1, 
and  he  was  born  in  Georgia.  In  the  post-office  department  485 ;  from 


APPENDIX.  653 

Georgia  9;  6  of  them  born  elsewhere.  In  the  treasury  department,  not 
counting  laborers.  10,099  appointees;  from  Georgia  157;  and  81  of  them 
born  elsewhere.  1  learn  that  there  are  about  two  thousand  here  in  the 
treasury  department  proper,  and  therefore  that  is  the  better  rule  to  apply. 
On  inquiry  I  learn  that  under  the  statute,  if  it  is  construed  as  we  think  is 
the  plain  meaning  of  it,  Georgia  would  be  entitled  to  60  ;  and  when  I  in 
quired  I  found  she  had  81.  la  the  department  of  agriculture  there  are  73; 
from  Georgia  1,  and  he  was  born  elsewhere.  In  the  department  of  the 
interior  3,924;  from  Georgia  7 ;  born  elsewhere  5;  2  natives.  In  the  de 
partment  of  justice  321;  from  Georgia  2 ;  born  elsewhere  2.  In  the  judi 
cial  department  2,008;  from  Georgia  51;  born  elsewhere  27.  I  suppose 
they  locate  Fitzsimons  there.  In  the  Government  printing  office  1,136  are 
employed  ;  from  Georgia  1,  and  that  one  born  elsewhere.  In  the  govern 
ment  of  the  District  of  Columbia  472 ;  from  Georgia  none.  My  own  idea 
of  it  is  that  if  you  did  not  have  these  hundred  thousand  officers  you  would 
have  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in  keeping  your  party  together,  and  certainly 
a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in  triumphing  with  that  party. 

Mr.  Dawes.  Your  colleague  says  there  are  not  any  Republicans  down 
there.  What  could  we  do  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  You  have  driven  them  out  of  the  field  by  your  injustice  to 
them.  No,  gentlemen,  you  have  not  done  justice  to  them.  If  there  is  any 
thing  in  your  civil-service  re'orm  there  ought  to  be  a  competitive  examina 
tion  and  a  Democrat  let  in  once  in  a  while.  I  have  insisted  on  that  before 
some  of  the  departments,  but  I  find  the  first  inquiry  to  be,  "  Is  he  a  Repub 
lican  ?  "  After  that  is  ascertained  he  might  have  a  chance  at  a  competitive 
examination.  It  does  not  seem  to  apply  to  a  colored  man  ;  I  notice  here,  it 
is  generally  a  white  Republican,  and  most  of  those  from  Northern  States, 
who  gets  these  benefits.  I  say  you  should  give  some  of  the  offices  to  the 
Democrats;  but  it'  }ou  will  not  do  that,  then,  as  the  Republicans  of  my 
State  have  no  representative  on  this  floor  but  my  colleague  and  myself,  I 
demand  justice  for  them,  and  that  they  receive  the  proportion  of  the  official 
patronage  that  Georgia  is  justly  entitled  to.  If  you  will  not  grant  this,  com 
plain  no  more  of  your  inability  to  maintain  the  Republican  party  in  Geor 
gia. 

You  gave  the  colored  people  the  ballot  to  enhance  your  power,  and  you 
have  not  dealt  generously  by  them  since  they  have  had  the  ballot.  I  appre 
hend  at  the  next  election  you  will  scarcely  count  them  solid  for  the  Repub 
lican  party.  I  admit  that  I  will  be  glad  to  see  the  day  when  race  lines  shall 
be  no  longer  drawn,  when  the  people  of  this  country  shall  divide  upon  prin 
ciple,  upon  finance,  upon  tariffs,  upon  banks  and  currency  and  other  such 
issues  as  may  come  before  us ;  but  as  long  as  you  attempt  in  the  South  to 
displace  the  more  intelligent,  the  more  moral  and  upright  class  of  people; 
the  property-holders,  and  put  those  who  are  the  more  idle,  the  more  illiterate, 
and  the  more  vicious  on  top,  you  will  always  find  a  solid  South. 

I  know  you  build  hopes  now  upon  Virginia  since  the  Republican  senator 
from  Virginia  [Mr.  Mahone]  has  abandoned  the  Democracy  and  become 
a  Republican.  You  expect  that  he  will  carry  with  him  the  readjusters  of 
Virginia.  Doubtless  many  of  them  will  go;  but  permit  me  to  predict  that 
there  is  many  an  honest  old  Democrat  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia  who, 
when  he  separated  from  the  regular  Democratic  party  upon  the  debt-paying 
question,  did  not  feel  that  he  had  started  over  into  the  Republican  camp, 
and  when  he  finds  that  the  senator  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Mahone]  is  leading 
him  there  and  has  joined  the  Republicans  himself,  and  that  out  of  from  one 
to  two  hundred  votes  that  he  has  cast  in  this  body  he  has  cast  every  one 
with  you  and  not  one  with  the  Democrats,  the  hard-fisted  old  Democrat 


654  APPENDIX. 

there  will  begin  to  inquire,  "How  is  this?  My  leader  has  abandoned  the 
principles  we  started  in  upon,  as  I  understood  them ;  I  did  not  start  into 
the  Republican  camp,  and  I  am  not  going  there."  I  understand  the  policy 
and  I  have  a  right  to  comment  upon  it,  because  it  has  been  announced  here 
that  you  throw  this  support  to  the  senator  from  Virginia  and  his  friends 
with  a  view  of  uniting  the  elements  there  that  can  give  the  Republican 
party  the  power,  aud  it  has  been  further  very  strongly  intimated  to  us  that 
this  work  was  to  go  on  into  the  other  Southern  States. 

In  my  State  we  have  had  divisions  among  the  Democrats.  In  the  seventh 
and  ninth  congressional  districts,  the  mountain  portion  and  the  stronghold 
of  the  Democracy,  a  large  wing  of  the  Democrats  revolted  against  what  they 
considered  corruption  or  trickery  in  the  party  caucuses;  independent  candi 
dates  came  out,  gentlemen  of  ability  and  worth,  and  led  them  against  the 
regular  nominees.  What  was  the  result?  The  Republicans  fell  in  with  the 
independents,  as  is  usual  in  such  a  case,  and  these  gentlemen  were  elected 
and  they  have  served  ably  and  well  here.-  But  permit  rne  to  tell  you  now  in 
behalf  of  those  independent  Democrats  at  home  they  did  not  start  into  your 
camp  when  they  started  to  follow  the  independent  candidates,  and  they  are 
not  going  there.  It  has  been  said  that  the  independent  leaders  from  my 
State  have  been  very  kindly  received  in  very  high  quarters  here,  and  the 
support  of  the  Government  has  probably  been  tendered  to  them,  or  at  least 
intimations  of  that  character  given,  for  them  to  lead  down  there  and  over 
turn  the  regular  Democracy.  If  that  has  been  so,  for  their  benefit  you  had 
better  keep  it  a  secret,  for  when  it  is  known  by  the  Democrats  in  the  mountains 
of  Georgia  that  they  are  in  league  with  the  Republican  party  or  that  there  is  any 
purpose  to  lead  them  into  it,  the  Democrats  will  drop  these  independent  leaders 
and*  they  will  have  no  chance  for  re-election.  But  I  will  not  do  those  leaders 
the  injustice  to  believe  that  these  reports  are  true  or  that  they  would  at 
tempt  to  overturn  the  Democratic  party  and  build  up  the  Republican  party. 

As  long  as  the  independents  can  lead  the  independent  wing  of  the  De 
mocracy  and  you  are  willing  to  tie  on  as  the  tail  to  the  kite,  they  can  be 
elected  as  independents ;  but  when  the  effort  is  to  carry  them  over  into  the 
Republican  ranks  or  to  defeat  the  Democratic  party,  they  will  not  go.  Now 
and  then  an  ambitious  man  who  wants  office  may  go;  now  and  then  an 
aspiring  young  man  may  go ;  but  whenever  it  is  understood  that  your  pur 
pose  is  to  reconstruct  the  South  again  and  to  place  the  lower  strata  in  intelli 
gence  of  our  people  above  the  higher,  in  other  words,  to  place  the  ignorance 
and  vice — for  there  is  generally  more  vice  among  the  ignorant — above  the 
intelligent,  the  wise,  and  the  property-holders,  and  when  that  bugle-note  is 
sounded  down  there,  you  will  find  that  the  young  men  will  not  feel  flattered 
with  their  associates  when  they  go  over  into  your  camp ;  you  will  simply 
drive  our  people  back  to  solidity  again. 

My  honorable  friend  from  Connecticut  [Mr.  Hawley]  turned  a  fine  period 
or  two  on  that  subject  the  other  day,  and  I  should  like  to  refer  to  it.  He 
speaks  of  a  senator  who  said  about  the  commencement  of  the  last  presiden 
tial  campaign,  "  We  come  to  you  with  138  votes,  and  we  ask  you  to  name 
us  a  man  who  can  bring  us  47  more;  "  and  he  adds : 

"  That  short  paragraph  went  from  hamlet  to  hamlet  and  from  Maine  to 
California;  it  was  rung  nightly,  travelling  with  the  curfew  bell  from  Maine 
to  California,  and  its  full  meaning  was  comprehended." 

1  admit  that  the  very  fact  that  the  South  was  spoken  of  as  solid  gave  the 
Republicans  a  rallying  cry  for  a  solid  North.  Suppose,  however,  a  Republi 
can  had  gotten  up,  as  J  have  no  doubt  many  a  one  did  in  the  Northern 
States  in  the  campaign,  and  said,  "  Here  are  fourteen  States  solid  for  the 
Republican  party,  nobody  doubts  that  they  will  vote  Republican,  to  wit,  Iowa, 


APPENDIX.  655 

Kansas,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Nebraska,  New  Hampshire,  Ohio,  Penn 
sylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Colorado,  and  Maine; 
here  we  present  you  149  votes.  Name  a  man  who  can  bring  3(5  from  the 
doubtful  States,  and  we  can  elect  him. "  That  is  simply  analogous  to  the 
other  case. 

You  have  never  known  a  political  division  yet  where  there  were  not  certain 
States  that  were  solid  on  each  side.  The  South  under  the  old  state  of 
things  was  generally  Democratic.  Who  doubted  before  the  war  that  Massa 
chusetts  would  vote  the  Whig  ticket  under  the  old  division?  Who  ques 
tioned  that  Kentucky  would  go  Whig  when  Henry  Clay  led  it?  An  intelli 
gent  people  always  know  before  the  campaign  is  opened  that  there  are 
certain  States  that  will  be  solid  on  each  side,  and  that  the  contest  is  to  be 
lor  the  doubtful  States. 

That  is  what  the  solid  South  means.  As  long  as  you  have  a  majority  of 
States  North  or  of  States  with  the  help  of  a  tew  doubtful  States  that  can 
put  you  in  the  majority,  and  you  seek  to  use  that  majority  to  overturn  our 
institutions,  and  put  the  ignorance  and  vice  of  the  South  in  control  over  the 
intelligence  and  virtue  and  property  of  the  South,  so  long  as  we  believe  your 
solid  North  means  that,  you  drive  us  to  be  solid ;  we  cannot  disband  with 
self-respect ;  we  can  not  do  it  with  safety.  Put  yourselves  in  our  condition  and 
would  you  do  it  ?  You  could  not  afford  to  do  it.  You  would  not  do  it  in  Mas 
sachusetts  ;  you  would  do  it  in  no  State  in  this  Union.  Whenever  you  are  no 
longer  solid  at  tl  e  North  and  we  hear  no  more  about  republicanizing  certain 
States,no  matter  what  the  means  may  be,  we  shall  soon  cease  to  be  solid.  Pre 
sent  us  issues  of  the  character  1  mentioned  awhile  ago,tarift',  banks,  etc.,  and  let 
those  be  the  only  questions,  and  we  will  divide  as  soon  as  you  will,  and  without 
regard  to  color  lines.  But  it  seems  to  be  the  policy  without  any  regard  to  what 
will  be  the  consequences  to  say  that  you  must  republicanize  those  States, 
whether  they  desire  to  be  Republican  or  not,  and  to  do  that  you  must  have 
every  ignorant  colored  man  vote  that  you  would  not  permit  to  vote  in  your 
States;  and  then  if  we  by  kind  treatment  or  any  of  the  appliances  that  vou 
use  at  home  vote  them,  and  you  do  not  carry  the  election,  there  is  a  great 
complaint  over  it. 

Let  me  say  another  thing  in  connection  with  the  colored  men.  You  made 
a  mistake,  and  1  apprehend  you  see  it,  so  far  as  party  power  was  concerned 
when  you  gave  them  the  ballot.  Taking  the  census  of  1670  and  counting 
the  then  ratio  of  representation,  the  colored  people  of  the  United  States 
represented  thirty-six  members  in  Congress  and  thirty-six  members  in  the 
electoral  college.  With  that  stricken  out  you  would  have  had  an  easy  tri 
umph.  Add  that  to  the  power  of  the  South  and  you  do  not  have  an  easy 
one.  Count  the  same  vote  now  ;  take  the  census  of  1880.  We  do  not  yet 
know  what  the  ratio  of  representation  will  be,  but  count  it  at  three  hundred 
and  seven,  and  then  there  is  within  a  fraction  of  forty  representatives  of 
the  colored  race,  nearly  all  from  the  South.  You  made  a  mistake,  which  I 
apprehend  you  would  not  make  again  if  you  eould  recall  it,  when  you  gave 
us  this  additional  power  there;  and  having  made  it  possibly  you  have  re 
gretted  it;  but  you  cannot  retrieve  it  by  attempting  to  force  into  power  the 
elements  of  the  character  that  I  have  mentioned,  which  you  exclude  from 
the  ballot-box  at  home  over  the  elements  in  our  State  such  as  control  matters 
in  yours. 

1  have  already  referred  to  the  remarks  of  the  senator  from  Connecticut 
[Mr.  Hawley]  that  the  solid  South  pronounced  the  fifteenth  amendment  a 
lailure.  We  do  not.  Colored  suffrage  is  not  only  established,  but  with  us 
it  shall  remain  established.  You  gave  it  to  us  against  our  will  at  the  time, 
at  a  great  risk  to  society,  but  we  have  struggled  through  the  embarrassment 


656  APPENDIX. 

and  reached  a  point  where  the  two  races  are  acting  harmoniously,  kindly, 
and  in  friendship  together.  You  have  given  us  about  forty  members  of 
Congress  that  we  would  not  have  had,  and  about  forty  members  of  the  elec 
toral  college  that  we  would  not  have  had,  and  you  can  never  take  them 
from  us.  It  takes  three-fourths  on  a  constitutional  amendment  to  get  rid 
of  that,  and  there  is  not  a  Southern  State  that  will  ever  agree  to  it.  We 
have  found  that  we  can  work  in  harmony  and  in  fraternal  relations  with  the 
colored  race  who  were  raised  with  and  by  us.  They  have  found  that  we  are 
their  best  friends.  We  intend  to  work  in  harmony  with  them,  and  we 
intend  to  hold  the  power  that  you  in  an  unfortunate  moment  for  your  party 
gave  us,  and  we  will  never  relinquish  it. 

A  good  deal  however  has  been  said  about  a  fair  count  as  well  as  a  free 
ballot.  I  do  not  deny  that  you  count  fair  in  Massachusetts  and  elsewhere  in 
New  England.  1  do  deny  that  you  have  a  free  ballot  there.  I  have 
commented  on  Massachusetts.  A  word  in  reference  to  Connecticut.  If  the 
Senator  from  Rhode  Island  [Mr.  Anthony]  makes  a  true  statement  in  refer 
ence  to  it,  and  I  quote  from  him  in  regard  to  Connecticut,  a  man  twenty-one 
years  of  age  and  upward  must  be  able  to  read  and  must  be  of  good  moral  char 
acter  before  he  can  vote.  The  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Dawes]  says 
that  does  not  exclude  anybody.  I  do  not  know;  I  believe  the  Connecticut 
people  are  very  good  people.  I  spent  some  time  with  them  in  my  college 
days ;  I  was  treated  kindly  by  them  ;  I  have  no  unkind  expression  to  use  in 
reference  to  them,  but  I  presume  it  is  a  misfortune  of  every  community,  no 
matter  how  steady  may  be  the  habits  of  the  land,  to  have  some  immoral 
people.  I  have  applied  at  the  Census  Office.  I  could  not  get  the  illiteracy 
of  Connecticut  or  of  Massachusetts  in  the  case  of  persons  over  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  for  it  is  not  yet  ready,  as  the  Superintendent  tells  me,  but  1 
take  it  for  granted  that  there  is  a  considerable  number  of  men  in  Connecticut 
who  cannot  read,  and  there  are  at  least  a  few  immoral  men  there.  They  are 
excluded  by  the  laws  of  Connecticut  from  the  ballot.  Therefore  there  is  not 
a  free  ballot ;  in  other  words,  there  is  not  universal  suffrage  in  Connecticut ; 
there  is  not  manhood  suffrage  there.  In  Rhode  Island  the  same  is  true,  as 
is  admitted  by  all.  There  is  a  property  qualification  there  lor  naturalized 
citizens.  The  senator  from  Rhode  Island  [Mr.  Anthony]  stated  that  there 
are  two  thousand  excluded  from  the  polls  there.  Then  it  is  not  a  free  ballot 
when  even  two  thousand  citizens  are  driven  away  from  the  polls;  it  is  not  a 
free  ballot  when  a  hundred  thousand,  if  that  be  the  number  in  Massa 
chusetts,  are  driven  away  from  the  polls,  or  eighteen  thousand  if  that  be  the 
number. 

In  reference  to  that  good  old  Granite  State  of  New  Hampshire  the  senator 
from  Rhode  Island  [Mr.  Anthony]  says  that  both  parties  resisted  the  repeal 
of  the  Catholic  test  there  until  1877.  No  man  there  until  that  time  could 
hold  the  office  of  governor  of  the  State  or  member  of  the  Legislature  unless 
he  professed  the  Protestant  religion.  In  other  words,  a  Catholic,  no  matter 
how  intelligent  he  might  be,  could  not  hold  either  of  those  high  offices  be 
cause  of  his  religious  faith.  We  have  nothing  of  that  in  the  South.  There 
fore,  I  say  we  have  a  freer  ballot  there  than  3*011  have  in  New  England,  and 
we  have  "as  fair  a  count  there  as  you  have.  Though  there  may  have  been 
some  trouble  about  a  fair  count  at  an  earlier  period  for  the  reasons  that  I 
have  mentioned,  it  is  not  so  now. 

The  honorable  senator  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Cameron]  said  the  other 
day  in  his  speech  : 

44  For  all  true  men  who  uphold  the  laws,  the  Republican  party  has  confi 
dence,  respect,  and  co-operation." 

Again  he  says : 


APPENDIX.  657 

"  We  have  no  prejudices  on  account  of  old  conflicts.  Whoever  is  right  at 
the  present  time  is  our  friend,  and  we  are  his." 

I  suy>  that  is  a  noble  sentiment.  He  does  not  go  back  then  to  the  period 
when  there  may  have  been  any  difficulty  about  a  free  ballot  or  any  difficulty 
about  a  fair  count.  He  inquires  what  is  it  now,  and  he  has  to  do  that  to 
maintain  his  position  in  reference  to  the  Republican  senator  from  Virginia. 
We  meet  him  there,  and  we  have  a  right  to  claim  his  confidence  and  respect. 
I  claim  it  for  the  Democracy  of  Georgia,  because  we  stand  right  on  that 
platform  to-day  ;  I  claim  it  for  myself,  and  I  claim  the  patronage  of  the  Gov 
ernment  tor  my  State  on  that  line. 

But  the  honorable  senator  from  Connecticut  [Mr.  Hawley]  need  another 
expression  that  might  possibly  exclude  me  from  these  benefits.  He  used  this 
language : 

"  When  he," — speaking  of  a  Southern  senator — "  takes  his  seat  on  this  side 
and  tells  you  that  he  does  not  care  for  your  caucus,  that  what  you  do  in  there 
is  a  matter  of  total  indifference  to  him,  I  shake  hands  with  him,  Mahone  or 
anybody  else;  and  the  more  of  them  the  more  welcome." 

The  reason  why  I  cannot  claim  this  good  promise,  then,  of  the  senator 
from  Pennsylvania  is  that,  while  1  stand  for  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count 
and  a  faithful  execution  of  the  reconstruction  measures  and  the  constitutional 
amendments,  and  will  fight  with  you  there  to  the  end  of  the  chapter,  I  did 
not  comply  with  the  other  prerequisite — I  did  not  take  my  seat  on  that  side. 
Gentlemen,  I  was  not  elected  to  go  on  that  side ;  I  deceived  nobody  in  my 
campaign  ;  I  took  the  advanced  position  on  the  night  before  my  election,  as 
my  colleague  has  told  you  ;  I  laid  down  in  the  broadest  terms  that  I  would 
stand  for  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count,  that  I  would  stand  for  doing  justice 
to  the  colored  race,  that  I  would  recommend  some  of  them  for  office,  and  that 
I  was  for  the  faithful  execution  of  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
amendments.  I  am  entitled,  then,  to  the  promise  of  the  senator  from  Penn 
sylvania  if  I  had  not  come  under  the  exclusion  of  the  senator  from  Con 
necticut,  whose  requisition  is  that  the  senator  shall  take  his  seat  on  that 
side. 

But  you  have  not  always  had  a  fair  count,  I  think  ;  at  least,  if  you  have, 
the  majority  has  not  ruled  under  that  count,  lu  1876  Mr.  Tilden  carried  a 
popular  vote  of  over  a  quarter  of  a  million,  and  if  I  know  anything  1  know 
that  he  honestly  carried  the  State  of  Florida,  for  I  was  there  and  saw  what 
was  done,  and  he  was  elected  fairly,  but  he  did  not  get  counted  in.  I  insist 
that  it  was  not  a  fair  count,  and  the  Democrats,  a  majority  of  them,  did  not 
make  it  either.  No,  gentlemen,  at  your  door  lies  the  charge  that  you  do  not 
in  your  own  States  maintain  a  free  ballot,  and  you  have  not* hi  your  prac 
tices  maintained  a  fair  count. 

A  word  in  reference  to  the  strange  state  of  things  in  Virginia.  You  have 
seized,  and  as  a  party  measure  I  have  nothing  to  say  about  it,  what  you  con- 
s  der  the  readjuster  element  there,  and  you  are  seeking  to  blend  it  with  the 
Republican  element  and  carry  that  State.  I  am  not  going  to  discuss  the  re 
pudiation  question  there  at  all.  I  believe  all  admit  that  there  is  a  difference 
between  the  funders  and  readjusters,  as  they  are  called,  as  to  $12,000,000 
of  the  debt;  but  I  simply  want  to  say  this,  that  you  may  drive  the  people  of 
Virginia  into  what  you  rnay  call  an  error  that  they  do  not  want  to  commit,  and 
that  you  would  not  want  to  see  them  commit.  You  seek  to  take  advantage  of 
the  division  on  the  debt  question  to  carry  one  portion  of  the  Democracy  into 
the  Republican  camp.  The  Democracy  ot  Virginia  proper,  the  property- 
I  olders,  the  educated  people,  the  church  going  people,  a  large  majority  of 
them — for  there  are  some  on  all  sides  1  admit,  and  I  do  not  make  any  attack 
on  anybody — but  what  you  usually  call  the  intelligent  or  ruling  class  of  people 
42 


658  APPENDIX. 

as  you  would  say  in  the  other  States,  have  stood  manfully  up  for  maintain 
ing  the  credit  of  the  old  State  ;  but  they  will  understand  you  now,  whether 
correctly  or  not,  as  tendering  this  issue  to  them  :  You  say,  u  We  intend  to 
take  hold  of  this  readjusttr  element  and  put  the  negroes  and  readjusters  and 
the  lew  white  Republicans  who  are  there  in  power."  They  may  reach  the 
point  where  the  supremacy  ot  intelligence,  education,  virtue  and  property  for 
the  preservation  of  soc;ety  may  become  more  important  to  the  Democracy  of 
Virginia  than  the  payment  of  her  debt  to  your  Northern  capitalists ;  and 
they  may  find  it  necessary  to  drop  their  internal  strifes,  and,  if  you  will  have 
it  so,  turn  overboard  this  $12,01)0,000  of  the  public  debt,  and,  if  necessary  to 
their  reunion  and  the  preservation  of  their  society,  tumble  $12,000.000  more 
over  with  it,  or  let  the  whole  of  it  go  rather  than  have  ruin  brought  upon 
the  State  by  putting  her  under  the  control  of  a  class  of  people,  a  large  major 
ity  of  whom  are  such  as  you  will  not  admit  to  the  ballot-box  in  your  own 
Slates. 

I  do  not  know  what  the  proud  people  of  that  grand  and  glorious  old  Com 
mon  wealth  will  do,  that  old  mother  of  States  and  statesmen  ;  I  venerate  her 
name  and  I  glory  in  her  history,  for  my  ancestry  on  both  sides  lived  upon 
her  soil ;  but  1  can  see  that  you  may  drive  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of 
that  State  to  the  point  that  they  will  tumble  the  whole  debt  overboard,  if 
necessary,  rather  than  submit  to  the  ruin  of  society  that  you  purpose  to  fasten 
upon  them  ;  and  when  they  do  it.  you  cannot  reasonably  condemn  them. 
They  have  been  able  thus  far  to  light  successfully  the  readjusters ;  they  may 
not  be  able  to  fight  successfully  the  readjusters  with  the  patronage  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  and  the  patronage  of  the  Federal  Government. 
in  other  words,  they  may  not  be  able  to  fight  the  read j  listers  and  the  Federal 
Government ;  when  they  find  they  are  not,  I  presume  they  will  take  care  of 
their  institutions  by  letting  the  debt  go  if  it  be  necessary.  Will  you  condemn 
them  when  they  do  it?  Will  you  cry  "repudiation  "  if  you  drive  them  to 
repudiate  to  protect  their  society  ? 

1  have  already  said  that  the  independent  Democrats  of  the  South  will  not 
tlare  unite  with  you,  their  leaders  1  mean  will  not  dare  do  it,  for  their  fol 
lowers,  or  the  mass  of  them,  who  are  Democrats,  will  not  go  with  them  and 
will  not  support  them.  And  now  let  me  say  a  few  words  more  in  conclusion, 
for  I  have  another  single  point. 

At  the  end  of  the  war,  as  1  have  already  stated,  we  were  a  conquered  peo 
ple  ;  we  had  to  submit  to  the  terms  dictated  by  the  conqueror;  and  we  had 
to  take  whatever  you  put  upon  us ;  and  it  was  very  hard.  We  have  atoned  lor 
our  treason,  as  you  term  it,  and  we  have  been  admitted  back  to  these  halls 
by  Senators*and  Representatives,  and  we  have  come  to  stay  here  and  you 
cannot  reconstruct  us  again.  The  condition  is  very  different  from  what  it  was 
then.  Now  prosperity  has  been  restored  to  the  country.  Your  Northern 
capitalists  did  not  have  money,  investments  there  in  that  day;  they  have 
poured  in  there  recently  by  the  millions  their  money.  We  open  a  broad 
field  for  investment ;  we  have  unbounded  resources  ;  we  have  a  climate  not 
surpassed  on  the  face  of  the  earth;  our  cotton  crop  alone  this  year,  if  it 
reaches  6,000,000  bales,  as  we  suppose  it  will,  will  pour  into  the  South  $300,- 
000,000  in  gold  ;  our  mineral  wealth  is  not  probably  surpassed  anywhere  on 
the  globe — 1  do  not  speak  so  much  of  the  precious  metals  as  I  do  of  the 
coal  and  the  iron  and  the  minerals  that  make  a  people  great — our  commer 
cial  importance  is  every  day  increasing ;  our  cities  are  growing  ;  our  rail 
roads  have  become  organized,  they  are  penetrating  every  portion  of  our 
country. 

Your  Northern  capital  is  coming  down  there  and  being  invested,  and  what 
ever  may  have  been  our  errors  in  the  past  upon  that  subject  we  welcome 


APPENDIX.  659 

you  now;  come  among  us;  we  extend  to  you  a  cordial  greeting;  we  invite 
you  to  our  houses,  to  our  parties,  to  our  bosoms,  where  you  come  intending 
to  make  good  citizens,  and  we  share  with  you  this  splendid  domain  that  is 
not  anywhere  surpassed  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  The  capacities  for  the 
productions  of  the  South  in  future  are  limitless.  Would  you  believe  it, 
that,  according  to  the  last  census,  the  whole  acreage  of  the  cotton  crop  in  the 
South  for  the  past  year  is  a  little  over  half  and  less  than  two-thirds  of  the 
acreage  of  the  State  of  Georgia?  In  other  words,  you  might  transfer  every 
acre  of  cotton  last  year,  if  you  could  put  it  all  together,  to  my  own  State, 
and  it  would  cover  a  little  more  than  one-half  her  territory.  The  capacity, 
then,  for  the  production  of  this  great  staple  is  simply  boundless.  Why,  take 
Texas  alone,  an  empire  of  territory,  larger  than  France,  larger  than  ihe  Em 
pire  of  Germany,  larger  than  the  Empire  of  Austro-Hungary.  We  have 
merely  skimmed  the  surface.  Texas  alone  can  produce  more  cotton  than 
the  world  will  need  the  next  fifty  years,  and  as  the  necessities  increase, 
the  production  can  be  expanded  indefinitely.  Not  only  that,  we  are  waking 
up  a  strong  rivalry  with  you  in  manufacturing  there.  The  number  of  pounds 
of  cotton  manufactured  in  the  Southern  States  from  1870  to  1880  more  than 
doubled  itself.  We  are  constantly  putting  up  new  mills  and  new  machinery, 
aud  we  are  going  to  manufacture  large  quantities  of  it,  and  your  Northern 
capital  finds  it  its  interest  to  come  there,  and  we  invite  you. 

Now  permit  me  to  tell  you  frankly  that  this  is  not  1867  and  1868,  and 
when  you  make  this  issue  of  radicalizing  those  States  by  overturning  their 
great  interests,  you  will  not  find  your  Northern  capital  flow  so  f'reeiy  into 
your  political  coffers  to  carry  your  elections.  They  will  say  to  you,  "  Nay, 
you  must  stop  this  ;  you  cannot  disorganize  society  there  ;  you  cannot  ruin 
the  interests  of  that  country  without  ruining  our  capital ; "  and  they  will 
not  go  with  you  ;  and  let  me  warn  you  now  that  if  you  are  not  careful  you 
will  lose  a  great  many  more  votes  from  the  Republican  party  in  the  next 
election  in  the  Northern  States  than  you  will  carry  of  Democrats  in  the 
Southern  States.  The  war  is  over ;  you  buried  "the  bloody  shirt"  when 
you  made  the  Republican  Senator  from  Virginia  your  leader,  he  being  a  Con 
federate  brigadier,  and  with  that  set  before  the  people  of  the  United  States 
they  will  not  enter  with  you  ayain  into  another  crusade  to  establish  a  power 
in  the  South  that  you  failed  to  do  when  you  gave  suffrage  to  the  negroes. 
You  will  have  to  recognize  our  prosperity ;  we  have  a  better  country  than 
you  have,  and  though  the  blight  of  slavery  may  have  been  upon  it  according 
to  your  estimate  ;  though  it  was  our  misfortune,  which  is  removed,  it  will 
blight  there  no  more  ;  we  intend  to  go  forward  and  develop  and  grow  up; 
we  intend  to  try  to  become  your  equals  in  wealth,  in  intelligence,  and  then 
you  will  respect  us. 

I  have  thanked  you  before  and  I  thank  you  again  for  the  efforts  you  have 
made,  the  liberality  you  have  shown  from  New  England  in  coming  up  and 
agreeing  with  us  to  do  your  part  toward  the  education  of  a  class  that,  by -the 
act  of  war,  was  turned  loose  upon  us  and  carried  to  the  polls  when  they  were 
not  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  1  say  you  did  well  there ;  we  welcomed 
you.  1  have  given  you  credit  where  I  thought  you  deserved  it,  and  I  think 
you  do  in  that  regard;  but  you  will  find  it  is  a  great  mistake  if  you  think 
the  Democrats  in  the  South  who  have  followed  the  independents  are  going 
to  follow  them  to  your  camp ;  and  I  think  you  will  find  yourselves  mis 
taken  in  the  North  when  you  undertake  10  upht-ave  our  society  again  and 
subvert  it  for  purposes  of  political  power.  I  do  not  believe  your  people,  and 
especially  the  large  numbers  of  them  who  have  investments  in  our  section, 
will  sustain  you  in  it. 


060  APPENDIX. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OP  GEORGIA,  DELIVERED  IN  THE 
SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  JANUARY  18,  1882,  ON  THE  FOL 
LOWING  RESOLUTION  OFFERED  BY  HIM  : 

Resohied,  That  it  is  inexpedient  and  unwise  to  contract  the  currency  by  the  with 
drawal  from  circulation  of  what  are  known  as  silver  certificates,  or  to  discontinue  or 
further  restrict  the  coinage  of  silver. 

Resolved  further.  That  gold  and  silver  coin,  based  upon  a  proper  ratio  of  equiva 
lence  between  the  two  metals,  and  issues  of  paper,  predicated  upon  and  convertible  into 
coin  on  demand,  constitute  the  proper  circulating  medium  of  this  country. 

Mr.  Brown  said  : 

Mr.  President :  In  the  formation  of  society  it  was  found  that  no  one  man 
could  make  for  himself  all  the  necessaries  and  conveniences  of  life.  Jt 
was  also  discovered  that  by  devoting  his  attention  to  a  particular  pursuit  he 
soon  became  more  proficient  in  that,  and  was  able  to  do  more  for  the  in 
terests  of  society  by  availing  himself  of  the  skill  he  had  acquired  in  the  pro 
duction  of  a  single  article.  The  wants  of  men  engaging  in  different  pursuits 
soon  suggested  the  necessity  of  bartering  the  articles  produced  by  one  for 
those  produced  by  others.  The  farmer  made  his  own  bread  and  other  pro 
visions,  but  he  needed  the  aid  of  the  mechanic  in  building  his  house.  For  a 
covering  for  his  head  he  looked  to  the  hatter.  The  hatter  needed  the  pro 
visions  made  by  the  fanner,  and  they  naturally  proposed  an  exchange.  The 
carpenter  also  needed  provisions,  and  he  was  willing  to  exchange  the  pro 
ductions  of  his  labor  for  the  products  of  the  farmer's  labor. 

But  in  this  state  of  things  it  was  soon  found  that  the  quantity  of  provis 
ions  needed  by  the  hatter  was  not  always  a  just  equivalent  for  the  hat  he 
manufactured  for  the  farmer,  and  the  house  needed  by  the  farmer  was 
probably  more  than  an  equivalent  for  the  provisions  needed  by  the  carpenter. 
The  idea  then  suggested  itself  that  all  should  agree  upon  some  article  or 
thing  which  should  represent  values,  and  that  it  should  be  made  the  standard 
by  which  the  value  of  the  productions  of  each  should  be  determined.  Just 
as  a  yard-stick  was  agreed  on  as  a  proper  instrument  for  measuring  cloth, 
when  the  length  of  the  stick  was  determined  it  was  easy  by  applying  it  to 
the  bolt  of  cloth  to  ascertain  how  many  yards  the  bolt  contained ;  or  when 
the  bushel  measure  was  agreed  upon  by  all,  it  was  easy,  by  the  proper  use  of 
this  measure,  to  determine  how  much  wheat  or  how  much  corn  was  in  the 
farmer's  crop,  or  in  the  portion  of  it  offered  by  him  for  sale.  So  when  the 
standard  of  values  was  agreed  upon  by  all,  it  was  soon  found  to  be  no  dif 
ficult  task  to  determine,  judged  by  that  standard,  how  much  of  the  farmer's 
provisions  the  carpenter  should  have  for  the  house  built  by  him,  and  how 
many  hats  the  farmer  should  receive  for  the  provisions  supplied  to  the 
hatter. 

The  next  difficulty,  however,  was  to  agree  upon  this  common  commodity 
which  should  represent  values  and  become  the  medium  of  exchanges.  In 
the  earlier  periods,  among  the  less  enlightened  nations,  and  even  at  this  day 
among  savage  tribes,  certain  shells  of  the  ocean  of  a  particular  character 
were  made  the  representatives  of  values,  or  the  medium  of  exchange.  In 
certain  cases  copper  was  agreed  on  as  a  proper  medium.  But  after  a 
thorough  consideration  some  thousands  of  years  ago,  the  more  advanced  and 
civilized  nations  of  the  earth  agreed  upon  two  metals  usually  known  as  the 
precious  metals  as  the  proper  material  out  of  which  should  be  made  the  arti 
cles  to  represent  values  and  be  used  as  money.  Those  metals  were  *,rold  and 
silver.  They  were  well  adapted  to  the  use  intended,  as  they  are  easily 
moulded  into  the  proper  shape  and  upon  them  can  be  indelibly  impressed  the 
stamp  of  the  government  authority,  which  gives  to  each  a  specific  value  as 


APPENDIX.  661 

compared  with  other  articles  of  commerce  by  which  we  test  the  value  of 
such  articles.  Again,  these  metals  seem  to  have  been  intended  by  the 
Creator  for  the  uses  to  which  they  have  been  applied,  as  they  are  found  in 
larger  or  smaller  quantities  in  every  grand  division  of  the  globe,  and  they 
are  nowhere  found  in  such  quantities  as  to  exceed  the  legitimate  demands 
of  the  world  for  a  proper  circulating  medium.  Divest  them  of  their  value  as 
a  circulating  medium,  or  as  a  standard  of  the  values  of  other  articles,  and 
they  would  be  less  useful  to  mankind  and  less  valuable  than  iron,  which  is 
used  in  making  the  tools  and  implements  of  every  trade  and  calling,  in  the 
construction  of  our  railroads,  the  supply  of  the  immense  motive  power  used 
by  land  and  water,  the  building  of  our  houses,  the  construction  of  our  ships 
at  sea,  and  the  clothing  of  our  men  of  war  upon  the  ocean.  In  point  of  in 
trinsic  value  to  mankind  there  would  be  no  comparison  between  iron  on  the 
one  hand  and  gold  and  silver  on  the  other,  were  it  not  that  the  two  last  men 
tioned  metals  have  for  thousands  of  years  been  used  by  common  consent  as 
a  medium  of  exchange.  The  value  of  gold  or  silver  is  not,  therefore,  found 
in  its  intrinsic  worth,  but  it  is  found  in  the  laws  of  the  different  nations  and 
the  laws  of  trade;  and  it  is  worth  more  or  less  as  the  nations  stamp  their 
signets  of  value  upon  it  for  a  larger  or  smaller  amount. 

As  stated  by  an  able  French  writer,  M.  de  Laveleye,  the  value  of  the 
money  metals  is  controlled  by  the  continued  and  obligatory  absorption  of 
them  at  the  mints  at  the  rates  fixed  by  law.  If  the  employment  of  them  for 
coinage  should  cease,  the  value  of  the  metal  would  fall  to  a  half,  or  a  third, 
or  further  still.  The  state  creates  the  greater  part  of  the  value,  both  of 
gold  and  of  silver,  for  it  creates  a  sure  market  for  them.  It  is  admitted  that 
in  the  case  of  monopoly  it  is  the  demand  which  chiefly  determines  price. 
Now  the  demand  which  rules  the  market  of  the  precious  metals  is  that  which 
acts  at  the  mint.  Minister  Gaudin  said,  in  the  year  1803,  the  market  value 
of  the  precious  metals  is  the  mint  price.  The  state,  therefore,  which  creates 
the  demand  can  fix  the  price. 

The  same  writer,  speaking  of  the  success  of  France  in  maintaining  the 
ratio  of  equivalence  established  between  the  two  metals  for  so  long  a  period, 
says  : 

44  Experience  has  demonstrated  that  a  single  country,  provided  it  has  ex 
tended  territory  and  a  large  stock  of  coin,  can  in  practice  maintain  the  ratio 
of  equivalence  between  silver  and  gold  which  its  law  has  established." 

And  in  the  international  conference  of  1881,  Lord  Reay,  representing 
British  India,  used  this  expression  : 

"  The  surplus  in  the  French  budgets  and  the  brilliant  conversion  of  a  por 
tion  of  their  debt  just  effected  by  the  United  States  establish  in  a  most  re 
markable  manner  that  their  marvellous  financial  condition  is  strong  enough 
to  permit  of  their  making  the  experiment  of  bimetallism." 

Lord  Reay  also  admits  that  while  gold  has  been  adopted  as  the  standard 
in  Great  Britain,  British  India  adheres  to  silver  monometallism.  More  than 
three-fourths  of  the  whole  population  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  use  silver, 
or  silver  and  gold  as  the  standard ;  and  in  Great  Britain  and  Germany, 
where  silver  is  demonetized,  it  cannot  be  kept  out  of  circulation,  but  still  re 
tains  practically  almost  its  original  power  as  money.  The  French  Govern 
ment  in  1803,  in  fixing  the  ratio  of  equivalence  between  the  two  metals  at 
1  in  gold  to  15  1-2  in  silver,  was  merely  acting,  as  a  distinguished  writer 
says,  in  conformity  with  historical  precedents,  and  was  not  violating  economic 
laws. 

Iir  the  monetary  conference  in  1878  M.  Say  was  able  to  affirm  that,  during 
sixty-six  years  the  French  system  had  stood  steadfast  under  circumstances 
the  most  extraordinary— wars,  invasions,  revolutions,  crises  of  every  kind, 


662  APPENDIX. 

and  even  under  the  deluge  of  gold  after  1850,  which  it  was  believed  would 
bring  about  its  ruin.  The  French  law  upon  this  subject  could  not  have  been 
far  wrong  in  establishing  the  relative  value  of  the  two  metals.  If  it  had 
been,  France  as  a  great  commercial  nation,  surrounded  by  great  commercial 
powers,  could  not  for  sixty-six  years  have  maintained  this  difference  under 
the  trying  circumstances  in  which  she  was  placed  without  suffering  great  in 
convenience  growing  out  of  the  want  of  proper  equilibrium. 

But  there  came  a  time  when  the  English  Government,  whose  colonies,  I 
believe,  produce  a  greater  proportion  of  gold  than  of  silver,  discarded  as  a 
medium  of  exchange  the  silver  which  for  centuries,  by  the  common  consent 
of  the  civilized  world,  had  been  used  for  that  purpose.  Germany,  another 
preat  European  power,  at  a  later  period  was  induced  to  follow  the  lead  of 
Great  Britain  in  the  demonetization  of  silver.  Other  small  powers  followed, 
and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  on  the  13th  of  February,  1873,  passed 
a  statute  which  authorized  the  coinage  of  the  trade-dollar  of  420  grains  of 
standard  silver,  and  not  the  old  dollar  of  our  fathers  of  412  1-2  grains.  The 
act  also  provided  for  other  smaller  silver  coins,  and  declared  that  said  coins 
should  be  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  any  debt  not  exceeding  $5,  in  any 
one  payment.  And  the  codifiers  of  our  laws,  at  a  later  period,  gave  this 
statute  a  broader  latitude  by  declaring  in  the  code  that  the  silver  coins  of 
the  United  States  shall  be  a  legal  tender  at  their  nominal  value  for  any 
amount  not  exceeding  $5  in  any  one  payment. 

This  embraced  not  only  the  trade-dollar  of  420  grains  authorized  by  the 
act  of  1873  and  the  smaller  coins,  but  it  also  embraced  the  old  dollar  of 
412  1-2  grains,  which  had  from  an  early  period  in  the  Government  been  a 
legal  tender.  Tims  did  we  follow  Great  Britain  and  Germany  in  the  de 
monetization  of  silver.  But  it  is  believed  that  very  few  members  of  either 
House  of  Congress  understood  the  scope  and  intent  of  the  act  of  1873,  and 
the  people  generally  felt  that  they  had  been  outraged  when  the  act  was  made 
public  and  its  provisions  understood.  And  their  indignation  was  the  greater 
when  they  learned  that  the  code  had  been  made  broad  enough  to  cover  all 
silver  coins  of  all  the  denominations  coined  in  the  United  States,  no  matter 
at  what  period  they  may  have  been  issued  from  the  mint. 

We  were  then  told  by  the  representatives  of  the  money  power  of  the 
country  that  it  had  become  necessary  to  demonetize  silver,  as  the  quantity 
was  becoming  so  great  as  to  destroy  the  proper  equilibrium  between  it  and 
gold,  and  to  render  it  unsuited  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  And  to  sustain 
this  theory  it  was  affirmed  that  the  same  quantity  of  silver  which  had  pre 
viously  been  used  in  coining  the  legal-tender  silver  dollar,  and  which  is  now 
used,  was  as  a  legal  tender  more  than  the  equivalent  in  value  of  the  same 
number  of  grains  of  silver.  In  other  words,  that  the  silver  out  of  which  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  had  coined  a  silver  dollar,  stamped  with 
the  authority  of  the  Government  as  a  legal  tender,  was  not  worth  a  legal 
dollar — that  this  result  had  been  produced  by  the  overproduction  of  silver. 

Now,  I  deny  the  correctness  of  this  position,  and  shall  attempt  to  show 
that  the  argument  was  founded  in  a  fallacy.  As  already  stated,  the  com 
mercial  value  given  to  either  gold  or  silver  is  not  its  intrinsic  value  as  a 
metal,  but  the  value  at  which  the  Government  estimates  it  as  a  medium  of 
exchange,  the  value  which,  by  its  authority,  the  Government  stamps  upon  it 
as  money.  Now,  why  was  it  at  that  time,  and  why  is  it  now,  that  412£ 
grains  of  the  standard  silver  would  not  and  will  not  in  the  market  bring  a 
legal  dollar?  I  maintain  that  it  is  not  on  account  of  overproduction  of  silver 
or  of  the  fact  that  the  old  ratio  between  silver  and  gold  has  been  destroyed, 
but  that  it  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  the  British  Government  and  the  Ger 
man  Government  had  demonetized  silver  as  a  legal  circulating  medium. 


APPENDIX.  663 

This  very  naturally  reduced  in  the  market  the  value  of  silver  as  a  metal. 
The  value  is  reduced  as  compared  with  gold,  not  because  the  equilibrium 
upon  the  old  ratio  has  beet),  in  fact,  destroyed  by  the  overproduction  of  sil 
ver,  but  because  the  great  powers  mentioned  retained  gold  as  a  medium  of 
exchange,  giving  it  as  a  metal  the  fictitious  value  which  it  has  on  account  of 
its  being  stamped  by  authority  of  the  Government  as  money,  while  that 
fictitious  value  was  withdrawn  from  silver,  and  it  was  left,  so  far  as  its  legal 
status  was  concerned,  to  stand  upon  its  natural  value  as  a  commodity,  or  as 
other  metals  stand.  And  but  for  the  fact  that  the  larger  portion  of  the 
world  continued  to  use  it  as  money  it  would  have  depreciated  to  a  much 
greater  extent.  There  had,  therefore,  on  account  of  the  action  of  the  two 
great  powers  above  mentioned,  been  a  reduction  of  the  value  of  silver  in  the 
market.  When  the  United  States  demonetized  it  this  produced  a  still 
greater  reduction  in  its  value.  With  all  this  injustice  done  to  silver  as  a 
circulating  medium,  it  maintained  a  high  standard  of  value,  much  above 
what  could  have  been  expected  in  the  face  of  the  unfriendly  legislation  of 
the  great  powers  above  mentioned. 

Now  let  us  reverse  the  picture  for  a  moment.  Suppose  at  the  time  Great 
Britain  demonetized  silver,  that  Government  had  retained  silver  as  money, 
or  as  a  circulating  medium,  and  had  demonetized  gold ;  and  Germany  had 
followed  suit;  and  the  United  States  had  then  in  turn  reduced  its  power  as 
a  legal  tender  to  debts  not  exceeding  five  dollars,  who  can  doubt  that  with 
this  injustice  done  gold  it  would  have  fallen  as  much  below  silver  in  the 
market,  relatively,  as  silver  under  the  like  unfriendly  legislation  has  fallen 
below  gold? 

But  i  may  be  told  that  the  act  of  Congress  of  February  28,  1878,  remone- 
tized  silver,  and  authorized  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  to  have  coined 
silver  dollars  of  412^  grains  of  standard  silver,  which  were  again  declared 
to  be  a  legal  tender,  and  that  notwithstanding  this  remonetization  of  silver, 
the  silver  bullion  still  sells  in  the  market  for  a  lower  price  than  the  same 
quantity  of  silver  brings  when  coined  into  a  legal-tender  dollar.  This  may 
be  true,  but  the  cause  that  has  produced  the  decline  in  the  silver  has  not  yet 
been  removed ;  otherwise  it  would  not  be  true.  The  Government  only  per 
mits  the  coinage  of  from  two  to  four  millions  of  silver  dollars  each  month  ; 
in  practice,  about  two  million.  Let  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  pass 
an  act  making  it  the  duty  of  our  mints  to  coin  all  the  silver  that  is  produced 
in  this  country  into  legal  tender,  with/u//  debt-paying  and  purchasing  capacity, 
and  you  will  see  and  hear  in  the  United  States  no  more  of  the  destruction  of 
the  equilibrium  as  heretofore  established  between  gold  and  silver.  Of 
course,  silver  has  not  been  able  to  stand  this  unfriendly  legislation  without 
depreciation,  and  gold  certainly  could  have  stood  it  no  better  if  the  assault 
had  been  made  upon  that  metal. 

But  the  important  question  after  all  probably  is,  what  shall  be  the  ratio  of 
equivalence?  It  is  of  course  very  desirable  that  all  the  commercial  nations 
should  unite  in  fixing  a  standard,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  French  standard 
is  about  the  true  one.  And  France  would  be  ready  to  stand  with  the  United 
States  upon  that  ratio. 

'Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  both  Germany  and  Great  Britain  decline  to 
unite  on  both  gold  and  silver  as  a  circulating  medium,  there  is  no  insurmount 
able  difficulty  in  maintaining  both  metals  as  legal  money  by  the  other  com 
mercial  nations.  This  fact  was  recognized  by  the  representatives  of  the 
different  powers,  who  advocated  both  gold  and  silver  as  money  in  the  confer 
ence  of  1831,  when  the  draught  of  a  resolution  for  an  international  treaty 
was  presented  by  a  distinguished  French  representative,  M.  Cernuschi.  It  is 
proposed  that  the  members  of  the  union  shall  admit  gold  and  silver  to  mint- 


664  APPENDIX. 

age  without  any  limitation  of  quantity,  and  shall  adopt  the  ratio  of  1  to 
\b\  between  the  weight  of  pure  metal  contained  in  the  monetary  unit  in 
gold  and  the  weight  of  pure  metal  contained  in  the  same  unit  in  silver. 

The  position  frequently  taken  that  there  is  so  much  silver  now  produced 
as  to  make  it  unsafe  to  admit  its  universal  coinage  as  a  medium  of  exchange 
unless  all  the  commercial  powers  unite  can  neither  be  maintained  in  sound 
theory  nor  in  practice.  Of  course  such  union  is  very  desirable.  It  has  been 
well  remarked  that  every  new  accession  of  gold  or  silver  in  fostering  trade 
opens  a  new  field  of  employment  for  itself,  and  prevents  its  own  depreciation. 

I  am  aware  that  it  was  predicted  when  we  remonetized  silver  in  the  United 
States  and  authorized  the  coinage  of  from  two  to  four  millions  of  dollars  per 
month  of  that  metal  that  the  silver  coin  would  become  so  plentiful  as  com 
pared  with  gold  that  other  nations  would  import  their  silver  to  the  United 
States  for  sale,  and  that  we  would  have  to  pay  balances  abroad  in  gold  ;  that 
our  gold,  the  more  valuable  article,  would  be  purchased  by  silver,  the  less 
valuable  article,  from  other  countries,  and  exported  from  this  country,  leav 
ing  the  United  States  with  a  local  silver  circulation,  while  Great  Britain  and 
Germany  maintained  monometallism  in  gold,  which  would  soon  compel  other 
great  commercial  countries  to  follow  suit. 

It  was  said  that  silver  was  so  plentiful  that  1  ounce  of  standard  gold  was 
worth  more  than  16  ounces  of  standard  silver;  or  that  412£  grains  of 
standard  silver  contained  in  the  legal-tender  silver  dollar  was  not  worth  as 
much  as  the  gold  dollar  of  25.8  grains  ;  that  the  ratio  of  1  in  gold  to  16  in 
silver  was  not  right,  but  that  it  should  be  1  in  gold  to  17  or  18  in  silver. 
In  other  words,  we  should  put  more  standard  silver  in  a  legal-tender  silver 
dollar  than  it  now  contains ;  and,  to  give  emphasis  to  this  theory,  banks  have 
thrown  out  the  trade-dollar  of  420  grains  (which,  compared  with  the  coins 
of  the  world,  is  intrinsically  worth  more  than  a  dollar  in  gold),  and  will  only 
receive  it  at  a  heavy  discount.  This  is  done  with  the  view,  no  doubt,  of 
depreciating  silver  in  the  market  and  of  deterring  the  Congress  and  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  from  giving  it  its  proper  position  as  a  circulating 
medium. 

The  secretary  of  the  treasury  in  his  last  annual  report  has  thought  proper 
to  throw  the  weight  of  his  position  against  silver  coin  in  the  following  lan 
guage  : 

"  A  continuance  of  the  monthly  addition  to  our  silver  coinage  will'  soon 
leave  us  no  choice  but  that  of  exclusive  silver  coinage,  and  tend  to  reduce  us 
to  a  place  in  the  commercial  world  among  the  minor  and  less  civilized 
nations.  It  may  be  assumed  that  a  people  as  enterprising  and  progressive 
as  that  of  the  United  States,  holding  a  leading  pos  tion  among  the  nations, 
will  not  consent  to  a  total  abandonment  of  the  use  of  gold  as  one  of  the 
metals  to  be  employed  as  money ;  and  we  cannot  consent  to  be  placed  in  the 
awkward  position  of  paying  for  all  that  we  buy  abroad  upon  a  gold  standard 
and  selling  all  that  we  have  to  sell  upon  a  silver  standard.  It  is  therefore 
recommended  that  the  provision  for  the  coinage  of  a  fixed  amount  each 
month  be  repealed,  and  the  secretary  be  authorized  to  coin  only  so  much  as 
will  be  necessary  to  supply  the  demand." 

Again  he  says  :  • 

"  It  is  believed  that  the  amount  in  circulation  will  be  steadily  increased, 
but  not  so  fast  as  to  require  for  some  months  or  perhaps  years  any  addition 
to  the  amount  already  coined." 

Here  the  honorable  secretary  in  effect  reiterates  the  warning  given  us  in 
1878  when  we  remonetized  silver,  that  we  must  stop  the  coinage  of  silver  or 
the  gold  would  all  flow  from  our  borders  and  the  silver  come  to  our  country 
and  take  its  place,  and  that  we  should  be  reduced  to  a  place  in  the  commer- 


APPENDIX.  665 

cial  world  among  the  minor  or  less  civilized  nations.  Now,  what  pretext  is 
there  in  Tact  or  in  practice  to  sustain  this  assumption  on  the  part  of  the  secre 
tary  of  the  treasury  ?  Absolutely  none.  The  practical  results  have  been  a 
sufiicient  contradiction  of  this  theory,  and  that  should  put  such  assumptions 
at  rest  in  future.  We  have  adopted  a  ratio  of  equivalence  which  puts  more 
silver  or  less  gold  in  a  dollar  than  the  usual  standards  of  the  world,  ours 
being  16  to  1,  while  most  commercial  nations  adopt  15  1-2  to  1,  and  Germany 
in  all  she  now  coins,  14.  While  this  state  of  things  lasts  the  practical  work 
ings  of  the  system  will  continue  to  be  the  sufficient  refutation  of  the  position 
of  the  honorable  secretary.  Instead  of  a  flow  of  gold  from  the  United  States 
and  a  flow  of  silver  to  this  country,  the  very  reverse  will  be  true. 

Why  should  the  people  of  this  vast  continent,  including  the  United  States, 
Mexico,  and  all  the  South  American  States,  who  use  both  gold  and  silver  as 
legal  currency,  and  a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  Europe,  who  also  use  the 
double  standard,  and  the  immense  number  of  the  population  of  Asia,  who  use 
a  silver  currency,  be  unable  to  maintain  silver  in  the  position  it  has  occupied 
for  thousands  of  years  as  money  or  as  a  legal  circulating  medium  ? 

Certainly  the  United  States  and  Mexico  (which  taken  together  produce 
almost  half  of  the  precious  metals)  should  not  be  among  the  first  to  consent 
to  the  depreciation  of  either  of  these  metals. 

In  a  late  work  entitled  The  Silver  Country,  or  the  Great  Southwest,  by 
Alexander  D.  Anderson,  I  find  the  following  statement  as  to  the  production 
of  the  precious  metals.  In  referring  to  the  country  known  as  New  Spain, 
which  embraces  Mexico  and  that  portion  of  the  present  territory  of  the 
United  States  which  formerly  belonged  to  Spain,  he  says : 

"  We  have  seen  in  comparing  its  precious  metals  with  those  of  the  world 
for  the  same  periods  that  the  Southwest  from  1521  to  1876  produced  over  one- 
third  of  the  combined  products  of  silver  and  gold  of  the  whole  world  ;  that 
its  silver  product  was  from  1521  to  1804  a  trifle  less  than  half  of  that  of  the 
world  ;  from  1804  to  1848  over  half  of  that  of  the  world;  from  1848  to  1868 
half  of  that  of  the  world ;  from  1868  to  1876  but  a  trifle  less  than  two-thirds 
of  that  of  the  world;  and  for  1875,  the  last  year  of  the  whole  period,  three- 
fourths  of  that  of  the  world." 

If,  then,  at  the  present  time,  or  during  the  year  1875,  Mexico  and  the 
United  States  produced  three-fourths  of  all  the  silver  of  the  world  and 
nearly  half  of  its  gold,  it  seems  to  me  it  cannot  be  seriously  contended  that 
wise  statesmanship  would  prompt  either  Government  to  give  the  advantage  to 
Great  Britain  and  Germany  or  to  any  other  power  by  yielding  for  silver  the 
true  position  which  it  is  entitled  to  occupy  as  a  medium  of  exchange  in  the 
commercial  transactions  of  the  world. 

When  we  produce  more  gold  than  any  other  power  on  earth,  and  when  we 
fix  the  ratio  between  the  two  metals  higher  than  the  other  leading  commer 
cial  powers  fix  it,  how  is  the  secretary  to  maintain  his  assertion  that — 

"  A  maintenance  of  the  monthly  addition  to  our  silver  coinage  will  soon 
leave  us  no  choice  but  that  of  an  exclusive  silver  coinage,  and  tend  to  reduce 
us  to  a  place  in  the  commercial  world  among  the  minor  or  less  civilized 
•nations." 

While  I  do  not  impugn  motives  I  must  say  this  assertion  is  sustained 
neither  by  the  facts,  by  sound  theory,  nor  by  practical  experience. 

Let  us  contrast  this  opinion  of  the  secretary  with  that  of  other  distin 
guished  financiers  in  other  countries. 

In  the  late  monetary  conference,  of  1881,  Mr.  Cernuschi,  a  distinguished 
delegate  from  France,  says  : 

"  If,  however,  we  were  doomed  to  monometallism,  if  it  were  necessary  to 
choose  one  of  the  two  metals,  the  choice  could  not  be  doubtful.  Silver  would 


666  APPENDIX. 

have  to  be  chosen.  The  existing  mass  of  gold  is  too  small ;  gold  is  too  diffi 
cult  to  subdivide  ever  to  become  universal  money." 

Again  he  says : 

"  If  it  is  real  and  sincere  bimetallism  which  must  be  attained,  it  is  practi 
cable  with  four  states,  with  three,  or  even  with  two.  Yes,  the  bimetallic 
union  would  be  supreme  in  the  world  even  if  composed  only  of  the  United 
States  and  France." 

Now  let  us  quote  from  a  distinguished  advocate  of  the  gold  standard  in 
the  late  conference,  and  see  whether  he  agrees  with  the  secretary. 

Mr.  Broach,  the  delegate  from  Norway,  a  country  that  has  adopted  gold 
monometallism,  made  the  following  important  statement  during  the  discus 
sion  : 

"In  short,  universal  bimetallism  is  not  possible,  for  in  Asia,  India  and 
China  are  silver  monometallic,  and  in  Europe  two  of  the  chief  powers  are 
resolved  on  remaining  gold  monometallic." 

Again,  he  says: 

"  The  United  States  might  put  up  with  the  system,  because,  in  the  capacity 
of  large  exporters  of  merchandise  payable  in  bills  on  London,  they  are  sure 
of  always  keeping  large  quantities  of  gold.  They  could  do  so,  also,  because 
they  would  not  be  exposed  to  seeing  silver  flow  to  them.  They  are  too  great 
producers  of  silver  for  Europe  to  send  them  that  metal,  which  they  fuinish, 
on  the  contrary,  to  Europe.  The  time  is  approaching,  moreover,  when  the 
United  States,  sufficiently  provided  with  coin,  will  no  longer  have  to  ask 
Europe  for  it,  and  when  in  payment  of  their  consignments  of  breadstuff's  and 
raw  materials  to  the  old  continent  they  will  have  to  demand  in  exchange  a 
greater  and  greater  quantity  of  manufactured  articles,  or  of  European  securi 
ties.  But  on  either  hypothesis  they  will  be  no  resource  for  Europe  for 
the  sale  of  its  depreciated  silver." 

Here  is  the  opinion  of  a  distinguished  representative  of  Norway,  a  mono 
metallic  gold  state,  sustaining  that  of  M.  Cernuschi,  and  Lord  Reay,  repre 
senting  British  India  (already  quoted),  that  the  United  States  in  a  union  with 
France  alone  can  suffer  no  serious  detriment  by  adopting  and  practicing 
bimetallism.  Then  these  distinguished  financiers,  one  representing  mono 
metallism  in  silver,  one  representing  monometallism  in  gold,  and  one 
bimetallism,  all  differ  with  the  honorable  secretary  of  the  treasury  as  to  the 
ability  of  the  United  States  to  maintain  without  serious  difficulty  the 
bimetallic  stnndard  of  both  gold  and  silver.  t 

Not  only  do  the*e  distinguished  representatives  of  the  three  different  sys 
tems  of  metallic  currency  discard  the  theory  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
but,  what  is  still  more  important  and  conclusive,  in  practice  the  facts  are  in 
the  very  teeth  of  his  theory,  and  show  its  unsoundriess  beyond  controversy. 
What  are  the  practical  facts  ? 

I  quote  from  the  quarterly  report  of  the  chief  of  the  bureau  of  statistics  of 
the  treasury  department  of  the  United  States  for  the  three  months  ending 
June  30,  1881,  which  also  contains  other  statistics  relative  to  the  trade  and 
industries  of  the  United  States.  Among  those  other  statistics,  I  find  on  page 
444  that  there  were  imported  into  the  United  States  gold  and  silver  coin  and 
bullion  during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1881,  a  total  of  $110.575,497.  Of 
this  amount  there  was  $100,031,259  in  gold,  and  $10,544,238  in  silver,  mak 
ing  the  importation  of  gold  during  the  last  fiscal  year  within  a  traction  of  $10 
for  every  $1  of  silver  imported.  Now,  let  us  look  a  moment  at  the  exports. 
During  the  same  period  there  were  exported  from  the  United  States  in  gold, 
coin,  bars,  and  bullion,  foreign  and  domestic,  a  total  of  $2,565,132  ;  and  of 
silver  $16.811,715  were  exported.  Thus  we  see  in  its  practical  working  that 
there  was  in  one  year  nearly  ten  times  as  much  gold  as  silver  imported,  and 


APPENDIX.  667 

nearly  seven  times  as  much  silver  as  gold  exported,  after  nearly  $100,000,000 
in  silver  had  been  coined  under  the  act  of  1878. 

Possibly  it  may  be  said  the  year  1881  was  an  exception  to  the  common 
rule.  Then  let  us  see  how  the  matter  stood  the  previous  year,  ending  .June 
the  30th,  1880.  The  total  importation  of  gold  that  year  amounted  to 
$80,758.396.  The  total  importation  of  silver  was  $12,275,914,  showing  that 
we  imported  over  six  and  a  half  times  as  much  eold  as  silver. 

How  did  the  export--  stand  the  same  year  ?  The  domestic  and  foreign  ex 
ports  of  gold  amounted  to  $3,639,025,  and  the  exports  of  silver,  domestic  and 
foreign,  amounted  to  $12,834,904.  That  is,  we  exported  over  three  and  a 
half  times  as  much  silver  as  gold,  and  we  imported  over  six  and  a  half  times 
as  much  gold  as  silver  during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1880.  And  during 
the  year  ending  June  30,  1881,  the  importation  of  gold,  as  already  stated, 
amounted  to  nearly  ten  times  as  much  as  the  importation  of  silver,  and  the 
exportation  of  silver  to  about  seven  times  as  much  as  the  exportation  of  gold. 
This  shows  that  under  our  present  system  of  coinage  the  drain  of  gold  to  the 
United  States,  and  the  drain  of  silver  from  the  United  States  increase 
largely  from  year  to  year.  And  if  this  state  of  things  continues  for  a  few 
years  longeron  the  same  basis,  and  in  the  same  proportions  as  in  the  last  two 
years,  we  shall  have,  in  the  teeth  of  the  theory  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
an  almost  exclusively  gold  currency,  while  foreign  powers  will  have  nearly  all 
our  silver.  And  the  reason  already  given  is  obvious.  We  estimate  1  ounce 
of  gold  as  the  equivalent  of  16  ounces  of  silver,  while  the  Latin  Union  and 
other  foreign  nations  estimate  1  ounce  of  gold  as  being  worth  only  15^  ounces 
of  silver.  Hence  the  drain  of  gold  to  our  country,  where  the  highest  esti 
mate  is  put  upon  it,  and  the  drain  of  silver  to  other  countries,  where  it  is 
estimated  higher  than  it  is  in  the  United  States.  The  theory  of  the  secretary 
looks  well  upon  paper,  but  it  cannot  for  a  moment  stand  in  the  light  of  the 
facts,  nor  bi-ar  the  test  of  experience,  nor  endure  the  ordeal  of  practice. 

The  fact  that  the  ratio  in  France  and  most  other  bimetallic  nations  is  15£ 
to  1  while  ours  is  16  to  1,  shows  that  we  have  discriminated  against  silver, 
putting  more  silver  or  less  gold  in  the  dollar  than  the  just  ratio.  And  this 
is  demonstrated  in  practice,  as  the  flow  of  gold  is  10  for  1  to  the  United 
States  and  the  flow  of  silver  nearly  7  for  1  from  the  United  States.  Then, 
those  who  maintain  that  the  silver  dollar  as  compared  with  the  gold  dollar 
does  not  contain  enough  grains  of  silver  are  really  in  error,  as  is  clearly 
shown  in  practice,  which  is  the  best  test  of  the  correctness  of  a  theory.  One 
practical  fact  is  worth  half  a  dozen  theories  that  will  not  work  in  practice. 
If,  then,  we  would  do  full  justice  to  our  great  silver-mining  interests  in  this 
country,  and  would  place  silver  and  gold  on  the  proper  ratio  existing  in  most 
parts  of  the  world,  we  should  put  more  gold  into  the  standard  gold  dollar 
than  we  now  do  if  we  maintain  the  standard  silver  dollar  at  412^  grains.  I 
repeat,  it  is  not  true  in  practice,  and  the  theory  that  asserts  it  is  therefore 
erroneous,  that  412^  grains  of  standard  silver  in  this  country  is  intrinsically 
worth  less  than  the  legal-tender  gold  dollar.  We  have  not  fixed  the  ratio 
as  to  silver  too  low,  but  if  we  have  erred  at  all  we  have  fixed  it  too  high,  and 
if  the  trade-dollar  of  420  grains  of  standard  silver,  or  -120  grains  of  standard 
silver  in  any  other  shape,  will  sell  in  our  market  for  less  than  a  legal-tender 
dollar,  it  grows  out  of  the  fact  that  we  have  by  legislation  discriminated 
against  silver  and  in  favor  of  gold,  and  thereby  depreciated  the  price  in  the 
market.  A  test  which,  under  like  unfavorable  legislation,  gold  could  endure 
no  better  than  silver  has. 

Neither  the  people  of  the  United  States  nor  the  other  great  powers  of 
Europe  look  at  present  with  favor  upon  the  action  of  Great  Britain  and 
Germany  in  demonetizing  silver;  and  if  the  Government  of  the  United 


668  APPENDIX. 

States  will  stand  firmly  upon  the  old  rule,  and,  as  the  heaviest  producer  of 
both  the  precious  metals,  give  to  each,  to  the  extent  of  our  power,  its  proper 
position  in  the  currency  of  the  world,  it  will  not,  with  the  aid  of  the  other 
bimetallic  powers,  be  many  years  before  the  contest  will  be  ended  and  silver 
coin  will  again  occupy  its  proper  position,  not  only  in  the  United  States,  but 
in  every  country  in  Europe,  as  it  now  does  in  every  country  elsewhere ;  and 
the  proper  ratio  of  relative  value  will  still  be  found  to  be  from  15  to  16  of 
silver  for  1  of  gold. 

The  President  pro  tempore.  Is  it  the  pleasure  of  the  senate  that  the 
morning  hour  shall  be  extended  until  the  senator  from  Georgia  concludes 
his  remarks  ? 

Mr.  Allison.     I  move  that  it  be  extended. 

The  President  pro  tempore.  The  Chair  hears  no  objection,  and  the  morn 
ing  hour  will  be  so  extended. 

Mr.  Brown.  Not  only  do  the  other  leading  nations  of  Europe  deprecate 
the  course  taken  by  Great  Britain  and  Germany  in  the  demonetization  of 
silver,  but  the  German  Empire  is  itself  sensible  of  the  danger  attending  its 
general  demonetization.  la  the  monetary  conference  of  1881,  the  chief 
representative  of  the  German  Empire,  Baron  von  Thielmann,  refers  to  this 
question  in  terms  of  no  doubtful  import.  He  says: 

"  We  recognize,  without  reserve,  that  the  rehabilitation  of  silver  is  to  be 
desired,  and  that  it  may  be  attained  by  the  re-establishment  of  free  coinage 
of  silver  in  a  certain  number  of  the  most  populous  States  represented  in  this 
conference,  if  these  States,  to  this  end,  should  adopt  as  a  basis  a  fixed  rela 
tion  between  the  value  of  gold  and  that  of  silver.' 

And  after  stating  that  Germany  adheres  to  her  present  system,  he  says  : 

"  The  imperial  government  is,  on  the  other  hand,  entirely  disposed  to  do 
its  best  to  second  the  efforts  of  the  other  powers  which  might  wish  to  unite, 
with  a  view  to  the  rehabilitation  of  silver  by  means  of  free  coinage  of  this 
metal.  In  order  to  reach  this  end  and  to  guaranty  these  powers  against 
the  afflux  of  German  silver,  which  they  seem  to  fear,  the  imperial  govern 
ment  would  voluntarily  impose  upon  itself  the  following  restrictions: 

"  During  a  period  of  some  years  it  would  abstain  from  all  sales  of  silver, 
and  during  another  period  of  a  certain  duration  it  would  pledge  itself  to  sell 
annually  only  a  limited  quantity,  so  small  in  amount  that  the  general  market 
would  not  be  glutted  thereby.  "  The  duration  of  these  periods  and  the  quan 
tity  of  silver  to  be  sold  yearly  during  the  second  period  would  form  the  sub 
ject  of  ulterior  negotiations.  Such  an  arrangement  would  efficiently  protect 
the  mints  of  bimetallic  States  against  the  unlimited  overflow  of  German 
thalers  drawn  from  the  national  fund.  Private  individuals,  or  the  Imperial 
Bank,  (which  is  a  private  bank  under  special  control  of  the  government.) 
would  not  be  able,  on  the  other  hand,  to  cau^e  thalers  to  flow  to  the  mints 
of  the  bimetallic  union,  except  in  the  case  of  the  balance  of  trade  being 
against  Germany,  or  unless  the  relation  of  1  to  15^  established  by  the  bi 
metallic  union  should  undergo  a  considerable  modification  in  favor  of  silver. 
This  last  contingency  appears,  however,  but  slightly  probable. 

"  In  all  other  cases  the  exportation  of  thalers  would  of  necessity  entail  a  loss 
to  those  who  might  undertake  it;  and  hence  the  States  of  the  bimetallic  union 
have  no  occasion  to  apprehend  that  the  silver  of  Germany  will  inundate  their 
mints.  Furthermore,  these  operations  could  be  rendered  still  more  difficult 
by  excluding  specie  in  thalers  from  the  coinage  in  the  bimetallic  union.  A 
measure  of  this  kind  would  add  to  the  other  expenses  to  be  borne  by  the  ex 
porters  of  silver  that  of  the  cost  of  melting  down  and  refining  the  thalers." 

So  the  United  States  could  very  easily  keep  out  an  influx  of  European 
coins  by  refusing  to  permit  their  coinage  at  our  mints. 


APPENDIX.  669 

But  the  German  delegate  continues : 

"  If  an  international  arrangement  based  upon  these  indications  could  he 
arrived  at.  Germany  would  still  remain  free  to  sell  silver  within  these  self- 
itnposed  limits,  or  to  sell  none  at  all.  But  Germany,  in  order  still  further 
to  contract  even  these  limits,  might  make  other  concessions.  She  could  pro 
vide  in  her  own  circulation  a  wider  area  for  the  metal  silver,  thus  enlarging 
the  use  of  it. 

*'  To  attain  this  end,  the  imperial  government  would  engage  eventually  to 
retire  the  gold  pieces  of  five  marks,  (twenty-seven  and  three-fourths  millions,) 
as  well  as  the  imperial  treasury  notes  of  the  same  value,  (forty  millions  of 
marks.)  It  might  further  melt  down  and  recoiu  the  silver  pieces  of  five  and 
two  marks,  (seventy-one  and  one  hundred  and  one  millions  of  marks,)  taking 
as  a  basis  a  relation  between  the  two  metals  approaching  that  of  1  to  lo-^, 
whereas  under  existing  legislation  one  hundred  marks  are  made  from  the 
pound  of  fine  silver,  which  is  equivalent  nearly  to  the  ratio  of  1  to  14. 

"  You  have  here,  gentlemen,  the  concessions  which  the  imperial  govern 
ment  would  offer,  and  of  which  its  delegates  are  now  ready  to  discuss  the 
scope  and  the  details  of  execution." 

This  shows  conclusively  that  the  German  Government  sees  the  hazard  in 
the  future  involved  in  its  new  system,  and  that  it  is  ready  by  self-imposed 
restrictions  to  do  all  it  can,  short  of  present  abandonment  of  the  system  of 
gold  monometallism,  to  encourage  the  rehabilitation  of  silver.  With  these 
restrictions  imposed  upon  the  sale  of  German  silver,  a  very  large  part  of 
which,  by  the  by,  has  already  gone  upon  the  market,  and  with  the  bimetallic 
system  accepted  by  the  Latin  Union,  Austria-Hungary,  and  Russia,  arid  with 
said  system  prevailing  as  it  now  does  all  over  the  continent  of  America,  and 
with  monometallism  in  silver  as  the  rule  in  Asia,  there  could,  it  seems,  be  no 
serious  hazard  to  our  Government  and  commerce  in  establishing  bimetallism 
on  a  firm  basis. 

It  is  very  clear  from  the  foregoing  statement  that  the  German  Government 
is  not  willing  in  future  to  sell  its  silver  upon  a  basis  of  more  silver  than  15£ 
to  1  in  gold.  Under  the  present  law  of  Germany  there  is  a  small  quantity 
of  silver  coined  for  each  inhabitant  of  the  empire,  about  ten  marks,  I  believe, 
and  there,  as  stated  by  the  German  delegate,  the  ratio  established  is  about 
1  to  14.  When  our  ratio  is  1  to  16  there  is  no  danger  of  German  silver  in 
undating  our  mints  or  interfering  with  our  markets.  They  do  not  wish  to 
sell  their  silver  at  the  price  we  put  upon  it.  While  we  hold  it  at  1  to  16, 
silver  will  be  drained  from  America  to  Europe,  and  not  from  Europe  to 
America.  This  is  clearly  shown  by  the  importation  and  exportation  of  gold 
and  silver  for  the  past  two  years,  and  cannot  be  changed  unless  there  is  an 
immense  overproduction  of  silver.  But  here  again  the  very  reverse  is  true  ; 
the  overproduction  is  in  gold,  and  not  in  silver. 

Dr.  Broach,  of  Norway,  prepared  a  table,  which  he  laid  before  the  mone 
tary  conference  of  1881,  from  the  best  sources  of  information  at  his*  com 
mand,  as  to  the  production  of  the  precious  metals  in  the  world  since  the 
discovery  of  America,  estimating  the  value  of  each  metal  during  each  period 
in  francs. 

From  the  year  1493  to  1600  the  whole  production,  in  round  numbers  in 
francs,  was,  of  gold,  2,600,000,000;  silver,  5,074,000,000.  From  1601  to  1700, 
of  gold,  3,143,000,000;  silver,  8,275,000,000.  From  1701  to  1800,  of  gold, 
6,544,000,000;  silver,  12,672,000,000.  From  1801  to  1850,  of  gold,  4,081,- 
000,000;  silver,  7,271,000,000.  During  the  twenty-nine  years  from  1851  to 
1879,  gold,  18,778,000,000;  silver,  9,101,000,000.  Showing  that  during  the 
eighteenth  century  the  silver  produced  by  the  world  doubled  the  gold  in 
value.  During  the  first  half  of  the  present  century  it  occupied  the  relation 


670  APPENDIX. 

of  about  4  in  gold  to  7  in  silver;  and  for  the  last  twenty-nine  years  the  pro 
duction  of  gold  has  more  than  doubled  that  of  silver. 

So  far,  then,  from  there  being  a  necessity  for  depreciating  the  value  of 
silver  in  the  coinage  on  account  of  overproduction,  the  value  of  gold  should 
be  depreciated  and  the  value  of  silver  increased.  In  other  words,  if  either 
must  be  demonetized  on  account  of  overproduction,  it  should  be  gold,  which 
from  half  the  amount  of  silver  produced  during  the  eighteenth  century 
sprang  during  the  twenty-nine  years  after  1850  to  double  the  amount  of 
silver  produced. 

As  already  stated,  then,  overproduction  is  not  the  difficulty.  The  world 
is  making  rapid  strides  in  developing  new  enterprises  every  year.  Commerce 
has  received  an  impetus  from  the  discoveries  made  in  the  arts  and  in  the 
sciences,  in  steam  and  electricity,  wilhin  the  last  half  of  a  century,  which 
has  no  parallel  arid  no  approximation  to  a  parallel  in  all  the  l.i-tory  of  the 
past.  The  different  nations  of  the  world  are  being  thrown  together  as  near 
neighbors,  space  is  being  annihilated,  and  the  human  race  is  becoming  more 
intimately  associated  as  one  people.  There  has  been  a  rapid  advancement 
in  agriculture,  in  all  the  mechanic  arts,  in  railroading,  shipbuilding,  in  trans 
portation  on  land  and  by  sea,  in  manufactures  and  commerce,  requiring  a 
greatly  increased  quantity  of  money  for  a  circulating  medium  to  do  the 
business  of  the  world,  and  instead  of  an  overproduction  of  the  precious 
metals,  the  great  increase  in  the  demand,  and  the  yearly  waste  or  loss  from 
use  taken  into  the  account,  the  present  production  is  not  adequate  to  the 
real  wants  of  mankind.  This  is  further  demonstrated  by  the  extensive  u^e 
of  a  paper  circulation  not  predicated  upon  a  solid  specie  basis  which  several 
great,  powers  are  compelled  to  adopt.  In  the  monetary  conference  of  1878 
Mr.  Goshen,  in  speaking  of  having  gold  alone  as  a  standard,  uttered  a  solemn 
warning  when  he  .said  : 

"Any  important  new  step  in  this  direction  will  have  the  effect  of  provok 
ing  one  of  the  gravest  crises  ever  undergone  by  commerce." 

And  he  adds : 

"  The  theory  of  a  universal  gold  standard  is  Utopian,  and,  indeed,  involves 
a  false  Utopia." 

And  he  might  truthfully  have  added,  it  is  a  departure  from  the  practice 
of  civilized  nations  for  many  centuries  past. 

Why,  then,  should  we,  the  great  silver-producing  power,  seek  to  depreciate 
the  value  of  this  most  valuable  and  precious  product?  Why  should  we  join 
with  Great  Britain  and  Germany  in  destroying  the  relative  position  it  has 
held  during  all  the  past  history  of  the  world  as  compared  with  gold,  giving 
to  gold  alone  the  name  and  importance  of  money  ? 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  silver  is  the  principal  money  or  medium  of 
exchange  used  in  China,  British  India,  Japan,  and  in  fact  all  the  other 
eastern  nations.  More  than  two  thirds  of  the  people  of  the  globe  prefer  it 
to  gold,  and  use  it  chiefly  as  their  money.  South  America  is  a  large  producer 
of  both  gold  and  silver;  so  is  Mexico,  but  there  the  silver  dollar  is  still 
recognized  and  used  as  a  circulating  medium,  as  legal  money;  no  discrimi 
nation  against  it. 

We  are  fast  becoming  a  vast  manufacturing  power,  as  well  as  a  great  agri 
cultural  power,  with  a  large  surplus  of  our  farm  products  and  the  products  of 
our  different  manufacturing  establishments  for  exportation.  We  look  chiefly 
to  China  and  other  eastern  nations  and  to  South  America  as  the  markets 
where  v\e  can  most  successfully  compete  with  England  and  France  and  other 
commercial  powers,  but  especially  with  the  former.  There  is  a  very  large 
balance  of  trade  against  us  in  Brazil  and  the  West  Indies.  Both  these 
countries  use  silver  as  legal  money.  In  paying  that  large  balance  of  trade 


APPENDIX.  671 

in  specie,  why  should  we  send  our  gold,  if  we  prefer  to  keep  it,  out  of  the 
country,  when  they  would  as  soon  have  silver?  Why  not  send  it  to  them  in 
payment  of  these  balances?  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  where  our  purchase  of  sugar  turns  the  balance  of  trade  against  us. 
Why  not  maintain  our  silver  standard  and  our  silver  coins,  and  pay  these 
balances  in  silver  or  in  gold  as  it  suits  our  convenience;  and  why  not  send 
our  silver  to  China  and  the  other  eastern  nations  in  exchange  for  their  com 
modities;  for  there,  too,  the  balance  of  trade  is  largely  ngainst  us? 

We  occupy  the  vantage-ground  in  this,  that  the  balance  of  trade  is  largely 
due  to  us  from  the  great  gold  powers,  as  Great  Britain  and  Germany,  and 
they  settle  balances  wilh  us  in  gold.  On  the  other  hand,  the  large  balances 
of  trade  against  us  are  due  to  the  foreign  powers  in  which  silver  alone  or 
silver  and  gold  are  the  standard,  and  we  can  settle  with  them  in  silver. 

Great  Britain  in  demonetizing  silver  may  have  advanced  her  European 
interests,  but  it  can  not  be  said  she  has  advanced  her  trade  with  eastern 
powers.  She  has  struggled  hard  to  introduce  gold  currency  in  India,  where 
she  dominates,  but  she  has  been  unable  to  do  so.  Why  then  should  not  the 
United  Staoes,  the  great  silver  producing  power,  stand  by  her  production 
and  maintain  for  it  its  proper  position  as  money,  to  be  used  perpetually  in 
our  competition  with  Great  Britain  for  this  vast  and  growing  trade? 

Mr.  Jevons,  an  able  British  author,  speaking  of  the  policy  of  Great  Britain 
and  Germany  in  demonetizing  silver  and  its  effects  upon  the  commercial 
world,  says  : 

'•  The  nations  of  Europe  constitute  only  a  small  part  of  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  The  hundreds  of  millions  who  inhabit  India  and  China  and  other 
parts  of  the  eastern  and  tropical  regions  employ  a  silver  currency,  and  there 
is  not  the  least  fear  that  they  will  make  any  sudden  change  in  their  habits. 
The  English  Government  has  repeatedly  tried  to  introduce  gold  currency 
into  her  East  India  possessions,  but  has  always  failed.  The  gold  coins  now 
circulating  there  are  supposed  not  to  exceed  one-tenth  of  the  metallic  cur 
rency.  Although  the  pouring  out  of  forty  or  fifty  millions  sterling  from  Ger 
many  may  for  some  years  depress  the  price  of  the  metal,  it  can  be  gradually 
absorbed  without  difficulty  by  the  eastern  nations,  which  have  for  two  or 
three  thousand  years  received  a  continual  stream  of  the  precious  metals  from 
Europe.  If  the  other  nations  should  one  after  another  demonetize  silver,  yet 
the  East  may  be  found  quite  able  to  absorb  all  that  is  thrown  upon  it." 

This  is  the  opinion  of  an  English  writer.  In  this  state  of  the  case,  why 
should  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  looking  as  it  must  do  to  these 
great  eastern  nations  for  a  vast  commercial  intercourse,  which  will  be  greatly 
to  our  advantage,  strike  down  silver  as  a  currency  or  as  a  medium  of  ex 
change,  and  thus  lose  the  great  advantage  which  its  use  would  give  her  with 
those  densely-populated  countries  where  it  stands  in  such  high  favor  as  the 
principal  currency  in  use?  Looking  to  the  present,  and  more  especially  to 
the  near  future,  it  seems  to  me  that  neither  wise  statesmanship  nor  practical 
common  sense  would  dictate  such  a  course. 

In  the  nature  of  things  there  can  be  no  more  reason  why  gold  should  fix 
the  standard  value  of  silver  than  why  silver  should  fix  the  standard  value  of 
gold.  Commercial  nations  have  given  to  gold  the  greater  value  because  it 
was  the  scarcer  metal.  But  in  its  essence  it  is  no  better  adapted  for  the  uses 
of  currency  than  silver;  indeed,  gold  is  probably  less  adapted  to  the  uses  of 
a  circulating  medium,  as  the  loss  by  wear,  when  the  value  is^bonsidered,  is 
much  greater.  But  after  all  the  value  of  any  article  or  commodity  to  be  used 
as  a  circulating  medium  depends  on  the  ability  and  authority  of  the  govern 
ment  that  puts  it  into  circulation.  A  piece  of  blank  bank-note  paper  is  in 
trinsically  as  valuable  as  a  one-hundred  dollar  United  States  Treasury  note 


672  APPENDIX. 

of  the  same  size  and  weight.  But,  in  fact,  the  first  is  worth  almost  nothing, 
while  the  last  is  worth  a  hundred  dollars.  Why?  Because  the  Treasury 
note  has  upon  it  the  stamp  of  the  authority  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  declaring  that  this  piece  of  paper  shall  be  a  legal  tender  in  the  pay 
ment  of  debts.  If  it  were  stamped  with  the  same  letters  and  figures,  bearing 
the  same  colors  and  appearance,  with  the  name  of  some  Indian  tribe  or  Afri 
can  chief,  it  would  probably  have  no  greater  value  than  its  size  and  weight 
in  blank  paper.  It  is  the  authority  of  the  Government  and  its  ability  to  pay 
and  its  known  good  faith  that  gives  value  to  its  promises  and  causes  mankind 
to  receive  the  paper  bearing  the  stamp  of  its  authority  as  money. 

I  have  assumed,  and  I  have  no  doubt  correctly,  in  this  age  of  enterprise, 
improvement,  and  development,  that  all  the  gold  and  silver  in  the  world  is 
scarcely  adequate  to  the  requirements  of  the  world  to  supply  the  demand  for 
money  now  in  existence.  It  might  or  might  not  have  been  as  well  for  man 
kind  if  gold  alone  or  silver  alone  had  been  agreed  upon  as  the  circulating 
medium  or  as  money.  In  that  event  all  the  property  of  the  world,  compared 
with  this  standard,  would  to-day  have  had  a  value  of  say  one-half  its  present 
value  computed  in  pounds  or  dollars,  because  the  quantity  of  the  circulating 
medium  or  standard  by  which  all  the  property  of  the  world  was  to  be  meas 
ured  or  weighed  would  have  been,  if  gold  had  been  the  only  standard,  about 
halt'  what  it  now  is.  Say,  for  the  purpose  of  illustration,  that  one-half  of  the 
money  in  the  world  estimated  in  dollars  or  pounds,  to-day,  is  gold  and  the 
other  half  is  silver.  If  you  strike  down  silver  as  a  circulating  medium  and 
destroy  its  value  as  money,  you  will  have  just  one-half  as  much  metallic 
money  in  circulation  as  there  was  before  you  demonetized  the  silver.  And 
in  doing  this  you  at  once  reduce  the  price  of  every  man's  property  as  com 
pared  with  the  standard  value  of  gold  coin  just  one-half.  Now  I  can  very 
readily  see  the  great  advantage  such  an  act  would  be  to  those  who  have 
hoarded  large  quantities  of  gold,  and  to  the  holders  of  gold  in  every  part  of 
the  world.  Before  the  demonetization  of  silver,  in  the  case  supposed,  the 
property  of  each  person  was  worth  in  dollars  double  the  amount  it  is  worth 
after  the  demonetization.  It  would  follow,  therefore,  that  the  creditor  after 
the  demonetization  ot  silver,  in  the  collection  of  a  debt  contracted  before  the 
demonetization,  would  get  twice  as  much  property  in  payment  of  his  debt  as 
he  would  have  had  if  the  currency  had  remained  on  a  bimetallic  basis  as  it 
was  when  the  debt  was  contracted. 

Again,  every  capitalist  holding  a  large  amount  of  gold  at  the  time  of  the 
demonetization  ot  silver  could  afterwards  buy  twice  as  much  property  with 
his  gold  as  he  could  have  done  if  silver  had  remained  money.  It  is  not  very 
strange  that  the  wealthiest  nations  and  the  largest  capitalists  of  the  world, 
having  the  control  of  most  of  the  gold  of  the  world,  should  desire  to  strike 
down  silver  as  a  circulating  medium,  or  as  money,  and  establish  gold  as  the 
sole  standard,  as  this  would  at  once  double  their  wealth  by  giving  them  the 
control  of  the  larger  part  of  the  money  of  the  world,  and  enabling  them,  with 
that  money,  to  buy  double  as  much  property  as  they  could  have  bought  under 
the  old  system. 

Let  us  consider  this  question  a  moment  in  connection  with  our  own  affairs 
in  this  country.  At  the  time  silver  was  demonetized  by  Congress  there  was 
a  very  large  proportion  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  heavily  in  debt. 
A  much  smaller  class,  who  were  capitalists  of  great  wealth  and  power,  had 
large  accumufations  of  money  at  their  command.  Most  of  those  belonging 
to  this  able,  wealthy,  and  honorable  class  were  bankers,  bondholders,  or 
heavy  capitalists.  The  United  States  Treasury  notes  known  as  greenbacks 
had  been  depreciated  almost  from  the  time  they  were  issued  and  had  at  that 
time  never  reached  par.  And  why?  Because  the  Government,  in  issuing 


APPENDIX.  673 

them,  had  declined  to  make  them  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  the  bonds  of 
the  United  States  or  of  the  coupons  upon  the  bonds,  and  had  declined  itself 
to  receive  them  in  payment  of  duties  on  imports.  Jf  they  had  been  receiva 
ble  by  the  Government  they  would  long  since  have  been  at  par.  Jn  this  in 
flated  condition  of  the  currency,  when  greenbacks  were  far  below  par,  the 
people  had  contracted  large  indebtedness.  At  that  time  those  debts  coul^ 
be  paid  either  in  greenbacks,  gold,  or  silver  coin.  But  Congress,  it  is  believed, 
at  the  instance  and  certainly  with  the  warm  approbation  of  the  bondholders, 
the  bankers,  the  capitalists,  and  the  monopolists  of  this  country,  passed  the 
act  to  demonetize  silver,  thereby,  in  case  of  every  indebtedness  over  five  dol 
lars,  making  gold  the  only  legal  metallic  tender  in  payment.  Congress  at 
that  time  still  refused  to  receive  its  own  Treasury  notes  in  payment  ot  duties 
on  imports. 

It  has  been  frequently  said  in  discussions  of  this  currency  question  that 
justice  to  the  public  creditors  of  the  United  States  requires  that  the  bonds  of 
the  Government  should  be  redeemed  in  gold  coin,  which  is  the  only  money 
that  is  a  legal  tender  in  Great  Britain  and  Germany  and  which  the  gold 
party  of  the  United  States  has  struggled  hard  to  dignify  with  the  same  ex 
clusive  prerogative  in  this  country. 

And  here  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  comes  in  as  an  able  ally  of  the 
gold  party  and  the  bondholders.  In  his  annual  report,  referring  to  the  act 
of  18^3,  he  says: 

"  Although  the  act  of  July  14,  1870,  provides  for  the  issue  of  United  States 
bonds  redeemable  in  coin  of  the  present  standard  value,  whereby  were  in 
cluded  both  gold  and  silver  coin  of  that  value,  yet  as  by  the  act  of  February 
12,  1873,  the  further  coinage  of  silver  dollars  was  prohibited,  and  the  Re 
vised  Statutes  declared  gold  coin  only  to  be  a  legal  tender  for  sums  exceed 
ing  five  dollars,  equity,  if  not  strict  construction  of  law,  requires  that  the 
holders  of  such  bonds  should  receive  payment  in  gold  or  its  equivalent."  • 

Now,  I  desire  not  to  be  misunderstood  on  this  question.  I  stand  firmly  by 
the  public  credit.  I  am  in  favor  of  paying  the  last  obligation  of  the  United 
States  in  strict  compliance  with  the  contract.  In  other  words,  I  am  for  the 
strictest  good  faith  in  the  payment  of  the  public  debt  as  a  whole  and  in  etf- 
ery  part.  But  1  am  not  in  favor  of  giving  large  gratuities  to  the  public  cred 
itor  at  the  expense  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  In  my  opinion  gold 
and  silver  of  the  legal  standard  with  the  present  ratio  of  equivalence  in  this 
country  is  a  safe  and  a  proper  currency  to  be  used  by  this  Government  and 
by  the  people  ot  this  country  in  the  payment  of  every  debt  of  every  charac 
ter.  And  1  am  in  favor  of  maintaining  such  a  currency,  and  of  applying  it 
alike  to  all  the  creditors  and  all  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Tain  op 
posed  to  the  contraction  of  our  greenback  currency,  and  I  would  reissue  them 
ia  payment  by  the  Government  when  redeemed.  But  I  am  in  favor  of  re 
deeming  the  greenbacks  whenever  they  are  presented  by  the  creditor  at  par, 
in  gold  and  silver  of  the  old  standard,  just  as  I  would  pay  the  bondholder  at 
par  in  the  same  currency.  In  other  words,  I  am  opposed  to  one  currency 
.for  the  bondholders  and  another  for  the  people  who  hold  greenbacks  or  have 
other  obligations  of  the  United  States.  I  know  the  public  debt  is  sacred  and 
the  claims  of  the  bondholder  are  of  as  high  character  as  the  claims  of  any 
other  creditor  of  the  Government;  but  they  are  of  no  higher  dignity. 

Let  us  examine  this  question  for  a  moment.  During  the  late  civil  waf 
there  was,  I  believe,  no  period  after  the  first  few  months  of  its  existence 
when  greenbacks  were  at  par  with  gold  and  silver.  There  was  a  time,  how 
ever,  when  the  irresistible  gallantry  and  splendid  successes  of  the  Confeder 
ate  troops  caused  the  gravest  apprehension  in  the  minds  of  the  ablest  states 
men  controlling  the  Federal  Government,  as  well  as  in  the  minds  of  the 
43 


674:  APPENDIX. 

mass  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  whether  it  was  possible  to  suppress 
what  is  known  as  the  "  rebellion,"  and  restore  the  Government.  These 
doubts  at  once  produced  their  effect  upon  the  public  credit,  and  a  period  was 
reached  where  one  dollar  in  gold  or  silver  coin  was  worth  about  two  and  a 
half  in  greenbacks.  At  this  stage  the  Government  was  buying  immense  sup 
plies  of  ordnance,  camp  equipage,  clothing,  provisions  and  other  articles  for 
the  army;  and  it  paid  out  vast  amounts  in  Treasury  notes,  usually  called 
greenbacks,  in  the  purchase  of  these  necessary  supplies;  and  these  notes  or 
obligations  were  issued  at  par,  notwithstanding  their  then  depreciated 
value. 

To  illustrate:  a  farmer  in  Ohio  possessed  one  hundred  bushels  of  corn. 
The  Government  needed  it.  It  was  worth  in  the  market  forty  cents  per 
bushel  in  gold  or  silver.  In  greenbacks,  at  2^  for  1,  it  was  worth  $100. 
The  farmer  sold  it  to  the  commissary  for  $100  in  greenbacks,  which  he  held 
until  a  later  period,  when,  under  the  act  of  Congress  passed  April  12,  1866, 
he  converted  those  greenbacks  at  par  into  a  bond  of  the  United  States  draw 
ing  6  par  cent,  interest.  • 

Now  I  do  not  deny  that  this  was  a  legitimate  transaction.  The  farmer  had 
a  right  to  sell  his  corn  for  the  use  of  the  army  at  its  market  value  and  take 
payment  in  greenbacks,  in  their  then  state  of  depreciation;  and  when  the 
act  of  Congress  authorized  the  funding  of  those  greenbacks  in  the  bonds  of 
the  United  States  he  had  a  right  to  avail  himself  of  the  provisions  of  the  act; 
and  by  his  good  fortune  he  became  the  holder  of  a  bond  of  the  Government, 
payable  in  gold  or  silver  coin,  for  an  amount  that  was  two  and  a  half  times 
the  value  in  specie  of  his  corn  when  he  sold  it  to  the  Government. 

But  having  become  a  legal  creditor  of  the  Government,  the  holder  of  one 
of  its  bonds  for  $100  for  one  hundred  bushels  of  corn  that  were  worth  in  the 
market  at  the  time  he  sold  it  but  $40  in  the  same  coin  which  he  is  to  receive 
in  payment  for  his  bond,  he  is  neither  in  equity  nor  justice  a  legal  creditor 
of  higher  dignity  than  any  other  legal  creditor  of  the  Government.  And 
there  was  no  very  substantial  reason  why  there  should  have  been  one  cur 
rency  established  by  law  for  his  benefit  and  another  for  the  benefit  of  a 
holder  of  another  class  of  the  obligations  of  the  Government.  Congress  care 
fully  provided,  however,  that  the  interest  on  his  debt  and  the  debt  itself 
when  due  should  be  paid  in  gold  or  silver  coin,  while  other  creditors  were 
compelled  to  take  payment  in  greenbacks.  To  carry  out  this  arrangement 
the  Government  refused  to  receive  its  own  Treasury  notes  in  payment  of 
custom-house  dues  upon  imports,  but  compelled  such  payments  to  be  made 
in  coin ;  and  that  coin,  or  a  sufficient  quantity  of  it  to  meet  the  demand,  was 
get  apart  for  the  payment  of  the  coupons  of  the  bondholder  and  for  the  pay 
ment  of  the  bond  at  its  maturity,  while  other  creditors  of  the  Government 
of  other  classes  were  compelled  by  law  to  receive  the  depreciated  greenbacks 
in  payment  of  their  demands,  and  the  people  were  compelled  to  receive  them 
of  each  other  in  payment  of  debts  due  from  man  to  man. 

The  bondholders  became  a  large  and  very  influential  class,  and  they  seem 
to  have  been  the  peculiar  favorites  of  the  Government ;  and  in  1873  an  act 
was  passed,  as  already  stated,  demonetizing  the  silver  coin,  in  which  the 
Ohio  farmer  above  mentioned,  at  the  option  of  the  Government,  had  agreed 
to  take  payment  of  his  bond,  and  which  every  other  bondholder  had  by  con 
tract  agreed  to  receive  in  payment,  and  gold  by  that  act  being  made  the  only 
legal  tender  coin  of  the  United  States  the  farmer  became  entitled  to  receive 
while  the  act  was  in  force  in  gold  coin  payment  of  the  one-hundred-dollar 
bond  which  he  had  received  for  one  hundred  bushels  of  corn  worth  forty 
cents  a  bushel  in  gold  or  silver  at  the  time  he  sold  it.  This  act  demonetizing 
silver  and  making  gold  the  only  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debts  over  $5  was 


APPENDIX.  675 

followed  by  a  contraction  of  the  currency.  This  was  followed,  in  Septem 
ber,  1873,  by  the  great  commercial  crash,  and  the  contraction  went  on,  and 
the  price  of  property  went  down,  down,  until  the  farmer  with  the  gold  re 
ceived  for  his  coupons  could  buy  produce  in  the  market  for  a  little  over  half 
its  value  at  the  time  he  converted  his  greenbacks  into  a  bond.  The  same 
rule  which  applied  in  case  of  the  farmer,  with  his  one-hundred-dollar  bond, 
applied  in  case  of  every  other  bondholder.  Silver,  in  which  the  Government 
had  a  right  by  the  contract  to  pay  all  the  bonds,  had  been  demonetized;  the 
commercial  crash  had  followed  ;  the  price  of  everything  had  become  greatly 
depreciated;  gold  would  buy  in  the  market  a  much  larger  amount  of  prop 
erty  than  it  would  have  purchased  before  the  demonetization  of  silver  and 
before  the  crash.  The  bondholders  got  the  benefit  of  this  extraordinary 
state  of  things;  the  people  were  the  sufferers.  It  certainly  cannot  be  said, 
then,  that  the  United  States  Government  has  dealt  otherwise  than  liberally 
with  the  bondholders. 

I  make  no  further  point  upon  the  past.  I  simply  recite  what  I  understand 
to  be  the  history  of  this  matter.  But  I  say  most  emphatically  that  1  am  un 
willing  in  future  that  there  should  be  one  currency  for  the  bondholder  and 
another  and  a  different  currency  for  the  satisfaction  of  other  claims  against 
the  Government,  and  for  a  medium  of  exchange  for  the  whole  mass  of  the 
people  of  this  country.  In  other  words,  I  would  have  the  Government 
purchase  the  bullion  with  gold  and  silver  certificates  when  offered  for  sale, 
and  I  would  compel  the  coinage  at  the  mints  of  the  United  States,  for  just 
compensation,  of  all  the  gold  and  all  the  silver  produced  in  this  country  that 
may  be  tendered  for  coinage,  at  the  present  ratio  of  1  to  16,  till  the  other 
commercial  powers  have  agreed,  as  I  believe  they  will  do  at  no  distant  date, 
upon  the  ratio  of  1  in  gold  to  15£  in  silver.  And  I  would  make  that  gold 
and  silver  coin  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  all  debts  to  all  creditors  of  every 
class,  public  or  private,  and  in  all  transactions  among  the  people  of  the 
United  States. 

The  act  of  1870  makes  the  bonds  payable  in  coin  of  the  then  standard 
value,  which  included  both  gold  and  silver.  Subsequent  acts  for  the  issue  of 
bonds  provide  that  they  shall  be  paid  in  coin  of  the  standard  value  of  1870. 
This  being  inserted  carefully  in  the  face  of  the  bonds,  every  holder  is  put  on 
notice  when  he  receives  the  bond  that  it  is  payable  in  gold  or  silver  coin  of 
the  standard  of  1870  at  the  option  of  the  Government.  That  is,  each  holder 
contracts  to  receive  payment  in  gold  coin  of  25.8  grains  of  standard  gold  to 
the  dollar,  or  412£  grains  of  standard  silver  to  the  dollar.  The  Government, 
by  the  act  of  1873,  suspended  the  coinage  of  the  silver  dollar  of  this  standard, 
and  for  the  time  suspended  its  legal-tender  quality.  Afterwards,  before  ihe 
bonds  of  the  present  holders  came  due,  it  resumed  the  coinage  of  the  silver 
dollar  of  412£  grains,  and  restored  its  legal-tender  quality. 

Now  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  argues  that  this  temporary  suspension 
of  the  issue  of  the  silver  dollar  as  a  legal  tender  gave  the  bondholder  the 
right  in  equity  to  demand  payment  in  gold  coin  alone.  In  other  words,  that  it 
gives  him  a  right  in  equity  to  refuse  to  accept  in  payment  silver  coin  of  the 
exact  description  stipulated  for  in  the  contract,  because  there  was  a  period 
between  the  date  of  his  bond  and  its  maturity  when  the  Government  did  not 
issue  legal-tender  silver  dollars  of  the  description  mentioned  in  the  bond. 

Now  1  deny  that  the  bondholder  has  any  such  equity.  He  contracted  to 
take  coin  in  standard  silver  dollars  of  412|  grains.  When  the  bond  is  due 
he  is  entitled  to  receive  silver  dollars  of  tl.e  standard  of  1870,  or  gold  dollars, 
at  the  option  of  the  Government.  And  it  is  too  clear  for  argument  that  this 
is  the  full  measure  of  his  rights  and  equities  under  the  contract.  It  does 
not  matter  whether  the  Government  coined  or  possessed  a  silver  or  a  gold 


676  APPENDIX. 

dollar  during  the  period  the  bond  had  to  run.  If  it  has  the  coin  of  the 
standard  of  1870,  and  tenders  it  to  him  in  payment,  at  the  maturity  of  each 
coupon  and  at  the  maturity  of  each  bond  he  gets  the  full  measure  of  his 
rights  in  law,  equity,  and  justice,  and  he  has  no  right  to  demand  or  receive 
anything  more.  And  the  Government  can  give  him  no  more  without  fla 
grant  injustice  to  its  tax-payers. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  says  the  Government  is  able  to  pay  the 
bonds  in  gold.  That  is  true.  The  people  of  this  country  are  able  to  pay, 
within  a  reasonable  time,  the  bonds  in  gold,  with  50  per  cent,  added.  They 
are  able  to  make  a  present  to  each  bondholder  of  50  per  cent,  on  the  amount 
of  his  bond.  But  upon  what  principle  of  equity,  justice,  or  common  honesty 
can  he  demand  it?  1  protest  against  all  such  gratuities  to  the  bondholders 
and  injustice  to  the  people. 

Having  thus  frankly  stated  my  position  on  this  question,  I  must  be  per 
mitted  further  to  express  my  regrets  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in 
his  annual  report,  and  the  President,  in  his  message,  have  thought  proper  to 
recommend  still  further  restriction  on  the  coinage  of  silver  and  the  with 
drawal  of  the  silver  certificates  from  circulation.  To  contract  still  further, 
or  to  dUcontinue  for  months  or  years,  as  the  Secretary  recommends,  the 
coinage  of  silver,  the  production  of  our  own  mines,  seems  to  me  to  be  great 
injustice  to  one  of  the  important  industries  of  this  country.  But  this  is  not 
the  worst.  It  is  an  act  of  gross  injustice  to  all  the  laboring  masses,  no  mat 
ter  in  what  branch  of  industry  they  may  be  engaged.  It  amounts  to  a  con 
traction  of  the  currency  of  the  country,  a  destruction  of  part  of  the  circulating 
medium,  which  must  result  in  the  depreciation  of  the  value  of  the  property 
of  the  people,  the  stagnation  of  business,  the  obstruction  of  enterprise,  the 
reduction  of  the  price  of  labor,  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  property  of  the  debtor 
class  to  satisfy  the  claims  of  the  creditor  at  a  price  far  below  its  value  when 
the  indebtedness  was  created.  And  all  for  what?  In  plain  English,  that 
the  rich  may  be  made  richer  and  the  poor  poorer. 

What  is  the  circulation  it  is  proposed  to  retire  ?  It  is  $66.000,000  of  silver 
certificates.  What  are  these  certificates?  Each  is  in  substance  a  certificate 
that  there  is  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  the  number  of  legal-tender 
silver  dollars  mentioned  on  its  face,  which  belong  to  the  bearer.  It  is  no  in 
flated  paper  currency.  Each  dollar  of  it  is  predicated  upon  a  dollar  of  the 
legal  coin  of  the  United  States,  held  by  the  Government,  payable  to  .the 
owner  on  demand. 

One  of  the  chief  objections  made  to  silver  coin  by  it  opponents  was  that  it 
is  bulky,  heavy,  and  inconvenient  to  handle,  transport,  or  count  in  making 
payments.  So  is  gold  coin  in  a  less  degree.  But  this  difficulty  is  met  and 
overcome  at  once,  in  case  of  both  metals,  by  the  use  of  the  silver  or  gold 
certificate.  Instead  of  transporting  the  coin  from  place  to  place,  to  be  used 
in  settlements  or  other  transactions,  the  gold  and  silver  coin  is  deposited  in 
a  vault  in  the  Treasury,  that  is  perfectly  burglar-proof,  in  charge  of  the 
proper  officers  and  under  the  necessary  guard ;  and,  instead  of  sending  out 
ten  silver  dollars  or  ten  gold  dollars,  the  Treasurer  issues  a  certificate  which 
represents  the  ten  dollars  in  either  coin,  which  contains  the  pledge  of  the 
faith  of  the  Government  that  the  ten  dollars  in  coin*  which  the  certificate 
represents  is  in  the  Treasury,  payable  to  the  bearer  on  demand.  This  cer 
tificate,  in  the  shape  of  a  Treasury  note,  is  transported  and  used  in  payment 
with  all  the  ease  and  facility  of  a  bank  bill.  The  same  rule  which  applies  in 
case  of  the  ten  dollars  applies  equally  to  ten  millions  or  a  billion  of  dollars ; 
the  coin  lies  in  the  Treasury,  and  the  certificates  which  represent  it  go  into 
circulation  as  money  in  its  place.  Not  a  dollar  of  certificate  is  issued  with 
out  a  dollar  in  specie  in  the  Treasury  which  it  represents. 


APPENDIX.  677 

This,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  soundest  and  most  reliable  currency  that  can 
be  used  by  the  Government.  It  is  not  subject  to  any  of  the  objections  which 
apply  to  the  old  hanking  system,  where  the  bank  was  authorized  to  issue 
three  dollars  in  bills  for  each  dollar  in  specie.  The  Government  issues  its 
certificates  dollar  for  dollar  with  the  coin  in  the  Treasury.  What  better  cur 
rency  couM  any  people  desire?  What  sounder  currency  did  any  people  ever 
possess?  It  meets  fully  the  objection  made  to  coin  on  account  of  its  being 
inconvenient  to  handle,  and  substitutes  in  the  place  of  coin  its  representative 
in  paper,  which  is  convenient  to  handle.  The  representative  is  only  equal  in 
amount  to  the  coin  represented.  The  depreciation  of  the  representative  ia 
impossible,  because  a  dollar  in  legal-tender  coin  lies  in  the  Treasury  ever 
ready  to  meet  the  demand  of  the  holder. 

There  is  a  lar^e  wear,  and  consequent  loss,  in  the  handling  of  the  coin, 
whether  gold  or  silver,  while  it  passes  from  place  to  place,  and  from  hand  to 
hand  in  payment.  But  if  it  is  laid  up  securely  in  the  vault  of  the  Treasury, 
and  its  representative  in  paper  passes  from  place  to  place  and  from  hand  to 
hand  in  its  stend,  there  is  no  wear  of  the  coin,  and  no  loss  or  depreciation  on 
that  score. 

It  is  true  the  silver  certificate,  or  the  gold  certificate,  issued  may  be  lost 
upon  the  ocean,  or  burnt  in  a  house,  or  otherwise  destroyed,  so  that  the 
holder  loses  it  just  as  he  loses  a  bank  bill.  But  he  takes  this  risk  for  the 
convenience  of  the  circulation,  just  as  he  takes  it  in  case  of  the  bills  of  a 
bank.  In  the  case  of  the  lost  certificate,  the  Government,  representing  the 
whole  people  of  the  United  States,  holds  the  coin  represented  by  the  lost  cer 
tificate  as  the  money  of  the  people,  when  the  certificate  cannot  be  identified 
and  established.  In  case  of  a  bank  bill  the  owner  loses  the  amount  just  as 
he  would  lose  it  in  ca^e  of  the  gold  or  silver  certificate.  In  every  view  of  it, 
therefore,  the  silver  certificate  and  the  gold  certificate  would  be  a  better  cur 
rency  for  the  people  of  the  United  States  than  the  currency  now  in  use  in 
the  shape  of  bank  bills. 

I  refer  in  this  connection  to  the  bills  of  banks,  because  the  President  and 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  recommending  the  withdrawal  of  the  silver 
certificates,  propose  that  the  banks  issue  their  bills  to  take  the  place  of  the 
certificates  in  the  circulation  of  the  country.  Why  should  we  withdraw  the 
silver  certificates  to  make  room  for  bank  hills?  When  withdrawn,  if  the 
bankers,  who  are  generally  large  capitalists,  should  determine  that  it  is  their 
interest  to  contract  the  currency,  and  not  issue  other  bills  in  lieu  of  the  silver 
certificates  withdrawn  from  circulation,  they  would  have  the  power  to  make 
a  contraction  of  fifty  millions  or  more  in  the  present  volume  of  the  currency, 
and  there  is  no  law  to  control  it.  It  is  not  proposed,  as  I  understand  it,  to 
compel  the  banks  to  issue  other  bills  to  take  the  place  of  the  silver  certifi 
cates  withdrawn,  but  it  is  proposed  to  leave  them  under  our  banking  laws 
with  the  privilege  of  issuing  their  bills  in  lieu  of  certificates.  In  other 
words,  if  the  policy  of  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is 
carried  out,  we  exchange  a  better  currency  for  a  worse  one  in  this,  that 
the  silver  certificate  is  always  redeemable  promptly  on  delivery  at  the 
Treasury,  in  legal-tender  dollars,  while  the  bank  bill,  in  case  of  a  failure  of 
the  bank,  though  secure,  is  not  so  promptly  redeemed.  True,  the  Govern 
ment  in  the  end  provides  for  the  redemption  of  national-bank  bills.  But 
why  have  this  cumbrous  machinery?  Why  prefer  to  authorize  the  banks  to 
issue  bills  for  the  payment  of  which  they  give  the  Government  security, 
rather  than  authorize  the  issue  by  the  Government  of  its  certificates,  which 
represent  gold  or  silver  lying  in  the  vault  of  the  Treasury  ? 

I  say  nothing  in  reference  to  our  banking  system.  That  is  a  question  I 
do  not  purpose  at  present  to  consider.  But  I  do  say  I  would  never  consent 


678  APPENDIX. 

to  the  withdrawal  of  the  silver  certificates  or  gold  certificates,  of  the  kind 
above  mentioned,  to  make  room  for  the  circulation  of  bank  bills.  I  would 
never  do  the  people  the  injustice  to  take  from  them  the  legitimate  profits  of 
such  a  circulation  that  I  might  give  those  profits  to  corporations,  capitalists, 
or  organized  monopolists.  Arid  why  risk  the  contraction  of  the  currency  by 
withdrawing  gold  and  silver  from  circulation  by  their  legitimate  representa 
tives,  leaving  it  in  the  hands  of  the  bankers  to  expand  or  contract  at  their 
will  or  as  their  interest  may  dictate  ? 

Such  a  policy  may  serve  the  interest  of  the  few  who  have  large  wealth  and 
enable  them  greatly  to  increase  their  accumulations,  but  it  can  never  benefit 
the  laboring  masses  of  our  people,  the  hardy  sons  of  toil,  who  earn  their 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  the  brow ;  and  after  all,  whether  in  the  field  of  pro 
duction,  the  harvest-field,  or  the  field  of  battle,  they  are  the  bone  and  sinew 
and  muscle  and  nerve  of  society. 

The  middle  classes  and  laboring  men  of  our  country  are  always  most  pros 
perous  when  every  branch  of  industry  is  flourishing.  When  trade  is  active 
our  villages,  towns,  and  cities  are  building  up.  When  the  products  of  our 
factories  and  mines  are  in  active  demand  ;  when  new  railroads  are  being  con 
structed,  new  boats  put  upon  our  rivers,  and  new  lines  of  steamers  upon  the 
ocean ;  when  our  machine-shops  are  kept  busy  to  make  and  repair  motive 
power  and  other  means  of  transportation,  then  the  engineer,  the  machinist, 
the  mechanic,  and  the  artisan  find  ready  demand  for  their  labor  at  good 
prices,  and  the  farmer  and  planter  remunerative  and  liberal  prices  for  their 
productions.  This  state  of  things  can  never  exist  while  the  capitalists  of  the 
country,  backed  by  the  Government,  pursue  the  policy  of  contracting  the 
currency  founded  upon  a  specie  basis,  which  contraction  drives  new  enter 
prises  from  the  field,  destroys  the  demand  for  labor,  reduces  the  value  of 
property,  and  produces  distrust,  depression  and  bankruptcy. 


SPEECH  OF  Hox.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  ON  THE  MOIJMOX  QUES 
TION,  DELIVERED  ix  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  ON  THE 
IO'TH  DAY  OF  FEBRUARY,  1882. 

On  the  bill  (S.  No.  353)  to  amend  section  5352  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United 
States,  in  reference  to  bigamy,  and  for  other  purposes. 

Mr.  Brown  said: 

Mr.  President:  I  am  very  well  aware  that  there  is  great  popular  clamor 
for  the  passage  of  this  bill  or  some  very  rigorous  and  severe  bill  for  the  sup 
pression  of  Mormonism.  I  do  not  wish  my  position  to  be  misunderstood  in 
reference  to  that  institution.  I  am  no  advocate  of  polygamy.  I  deprecate 
and  denounce  it  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  social  evils.  I  do  not  believe  it 
should  be  practiced  anywhere.  I  am  ready  to  unite  in  imposing  such  penal 
ties  as  we  can  constitutionally  impose  within  the  United  States  upon  those 
who  do  practice  it,  because  of  its  immorality.  And  yet  I  am  obliged  to 
admit,  and  we  are  all  obliged  to  admit,  that  it  is  practiced,  and  popular 
sentiment  sustains  it  among  three-fourths  of  the  whole  population  of  the 
globe. 

England  has  had  this  same  question  to  deal  with.  When  she  assumed  the 
dominion  of  India  she  found  polygamy  there,  and  it  has  been  there  from 
time  immemorial.  They  did  not  do  what  popular  sentiment  seeks  to  compel 
us  now  to  do.  The  English  people  did  not  attempt  to  crush  it  out  by  law, 
but  the  British  Parliament  and  the  British  courts  recognized  it  in  India 
on  assuming  control  and  recognize  it  to-day.  Indeed  they  dare  not  do  other- 


APPENDIX.  679 

wise.  They  can  enforce  no  law  in  India  that  proposes  to  exterminate  polyg 
amy. 

On  that  subject  I  propose  to  read  a  paragraph  from  Allen's  India,  a  book 
which  I  now  hold  in  my  hand.  On  page  551  I  find  this  language  : 

"  Polygamy  is  practiced  in  India  among  the  Hindus,  the  Mohammedans, 
the  Zoroastrians  and  the  Jews.  It  is  allowed  and  recognized  by  the  insti 
tutes  of  Menu,  by  the  Koran,  by  the  Zendavesta,  and  the  Jews  believe  by 
their  Scriptures — the  Old  Testament.  It  is  recognized  by  all  the  courts  in 
India — native  and  English.  The  laws  of  the  British  Parliament  recognize 
polygamy  among  all  these  classes,  when  the  marriage  connection  has  been 
formed  according  to  the  principles  of  their  religion  and  to  their  established 
laws  and  usages.  The  marriage  of  a  Hindu  or  a  Mohammedan  with  his 
second  or  his  third  wife  is  just  as  valid,  and  as  legally  binding  on  all  parties, 
as  his  marriage  with  his  first  wife;  just  as  valid  as  the  marriage  of  any  Chris 
tian  in  the  Church  of  England." 

Mr.  Edmunds.  May  I  ask  the  senator  if  the  same  book  contains  a  state 
ment  of  the  laws  of  Thibet,  where  one  woman  may  lawfully  marry  several 
husbands,  and  all  of  them  be  bound  to  the  marital  relation  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  am  not  able  to  answer  that,  for  I  have  not  read  all  the 
book.  A  senator  handed  it  to  me  this  morning,  but  I  have  not  had  the  op 
portunity  to  peruse  it  except  sufficiently  for  my  purpose  on  the  point  above 
mentioned.  I  will  say  to  the  senator  from  Vermont,  however,  that  the  Eng 
lish  Government  has  recognized  polygamy  in  India  by  her  courts  and  by  her 
Parliament,  and  she  recognizes  it  to-day.  I  say  I  deprecate  the  institution, 
and  J  am  ready  to  do  everything  I  can  constitutionally  and  legally  do  to 
exterminate  it  where  we  have  the  power;  but  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  it  exists,  as  already  stated,  among  the  greater  portion  of  the  popu 
lation  of  the  whole  globe. 

Not  only  do  the  British  Parliament  and  the  British  courts  recognize  it,  but 
the  missionaries  of  ail  Christian  churches  iu  India  recognize  it,  and  do  not 
attempt  to  overthrow  it  where  the  marriage  has  already  been  solemnized.  I 
will  read  from  the  same  book,  Allen's  India,  page  601 : 

"The  Calcutta  missionary  conference,  consisting  of  the  missionaries  of  the 
different  societies  which  have  missionaries  in  that  city  and  its  vicinity,  after 
frequent  consultations  and  much  consideration  on  the  subject  of  polygamy  as  it 
exists  in  India,  were  unanimous  in  the  following  opinions: 

"  1.  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  Bible  and  the  practice  of  the 
Protestant  church  to  consider  the  state  as  the  proper  fountain  of  legisla 
tion  in  all  civil  questions  affecting  marriage  and  divorce. 

"2.  The  Bible  being  the  true  standard  of  morals,  ought  to  be  consulted 
in  everything  which  it  contains  on  the  subject  of  marriage  and  divorce,  and 
nothing  determined  contrary  to  its  general  principles. 

"  3.  Married  persons,  being  both  Christians,  should  not  be  divorced  for 
any  other  cause  than  adultery.  But  if  one  of  the  parties  be  an  unbeliever, 
and  though  not  an  adulterer,  wilfully  depart  from  and  desert  the  other,  a  di 
vorce  may  be  properly  sued  for.  They  were  of  the  opinion,  however,  that 
such  liberty  is  allowable  only  in  extreme  cases,  and  where  all  known  means 
of  reconciliation  after  a.  trial  of  not  less  than  one  year  have  failed. 

"  4.  Heathen  and  Mohammedan  marriages  and  divorces,  recognized  by 
the  laws  of  the  country,  are  to  be  held  valid.  But  it  is  strongly  recommended 
that  if  either  party  before  conversion  have  put  away  the  other  on  slight 
ground,  the  divorced  party  should  in  all  practicable  and  desirable  cases  be 
taken  back  again. 

"  5.  If  a  convert  before  becoming  a  Christian  has  married  more  wives 
than  one,  in  accordance  with  the  practice  of  the  Jewish  and  primitive  Chris- 


680  .        APPENDIX. 

tian  churches,  he  shall  be  permitted  to  keep  them  all;  but  such  a  person  is 
not  eligible  to  any  office  in  the  church.  In  no  other  case  is  polygamy  to  be 
tolerated  among  Christians." 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  conference  of  the  missionaries  of  the  Christian 
churches  in  Calcutta  recognizes  this  institution.  They  do  not  permit  their 
members  in  the  future,  or  after  their  conversion  and  their  connection  with 
the  church,  to  marry  more  than  one  wife;  but  they  do  not  attempt  to  dis 
solve  marriages  in  existence  at  ihe  time  of  the  con  version,  but  they  hold  that 
a  man  who  becomes  a  Christian,  who  has  more  than  one  wife  at  the  time,  is 
to  continue  to  cohabit  with  his  wives.  I  presume  this  arises  out  of  the  very 
necessity  of  the  case,  as  polygamy  is  so  firmly  established  in  tho.-e  countries 
that  it  would  he  impossible  to  plant  Christianity  there  without  recognizing 
the  existing  institutions  of  the  country,  at  least  so  far  as  the  family  relations 
of  the  convert  are  concerned  at  the  time  of  his  union  with  the  church. 

Again,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  polygamy  was  tolerated  by  the  Old  Testa 
ment,  and  many  persons  believe  it  is  not  prohibited  by  the  New,  except  in  case 
of  a  bishop,  or  a  deacon,  who  it  is  said  shall  be  the  husband  of  one  wife.  Some 
reason  subtly  on  that  by  saying  that  we  should  apply  to  it  the  Latin  maxim, 
expresaio  unius  est  exclusio  alterius,  and  they  say  the  fact  that  the  expression 
that  the  deacon  or  the  bishop  shall  be  the  husband  of  one  wife  only,  carries 
with  it  the  implication  that  others  may  have  more  than  one.  I  think  this  is 
a  very  far-fetched  and  strained  construction  ;  I  do  not  agree  with  it,  for  the 
whole  teachings  of  the  New  Testament,  it  seems  to  me,  are  very  clear  and 
positive  that  the  husband  shall  have  but  one  wife.  I  remember  no  instance 
where  husband  and  wife  are  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  where  any 
thing  is  said  about  more  than  one  wife,  and  while  there  is  no  positive  inhi 
bition,  except  in  the  instance  mentioned  of  officers  of  the  churches,  it  is  very 
clearly  to  be  inferred  that  polygamy  was  not  intended  from  the  fact  that  there 
is  no  instance  of  more  than  one  wife  mentioned  as  connected  with  any  one 
man,  or  that  any  man  is  justified  in  having  more  than  one.  But  there  are 
those,  I  say,  who  entertain  a  different  opinion  on  this  subject,  and  they 
must  have  their  opinion.  I  have  no  right  to  fly  in  their  teeth  about  it. 

But,  Mr.  President,  there  are  those  in  the  Mormon  territory  who  believe 
that  there  is  a  divine  revelation  later  than  the  New  Testament  which  author 
izes  a  member  or  the  Mormon  Church  to  have  more  wives  than  one.  They 
believe  in  the  revelation,  as  they  term  it,  made  by  God  himself  to  their  pro 
phet,  Joseph  Smith.  I  do  not  believe  in  it,  but  they  religiously  believe  it. 
Many  of  them  are  as  earnest  and  honest  in  their  faith  as  1  am  in  the  Baptist 
faith,  or  as  other  senators  are  in  the  Methodist  or  Presbyterian  faith.  I  think 
they  are  greatly  in  error;  but  I  have  no  more  right,  if  they  do  not  practice 
it,  to  disfranchise  them  on  account  of  that  belief  than  I  have  to  disfranchise 
any  senator  in  this  chamber  or  any  man  out  of  it  who  believes  that  the  New 
Testament  does  not  forbid  polygamy. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  May  1  suggest  to  the  senator  that  there  is  nothing  what 
ever  in  this  bill  that  disfranchises  any  man  or  woman  on  account  of  any 
opinion  or  belief  he  or  she  may  have? 

Mr.  Brown.  Mr.  President*  I  assert  that  there  is.  I  take  issue  squarely 
with  the  senator  from  Vermont. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     Will  the  senator  kindly  point  it  out? 

Mr.  Brown.     I  will.     I  find  in  section  seven  of  this  bill  this  language: 

"That  no  polygamist,  bigamist,  or  any  person  cohabiting  with  more  than 
one  woman,  and  no  woman  cohabiting  with  any  of  the  persons  described  as 
aforesaid  in  this  section,  in  any  Territory  or  other  place  over  which  the  United 
States  have  exclusive  jurisdiction,  shall  be  entitled  to  vote  at  any  election 
held  in  any  such  Territory  or  other  place,  or  be  eligible  for  election  or  appoint- 


APPENDIX.  681 

ment  to  or  be  entitled  to  hold  any  office  or  place  of  public  trust,  honor,  or 
emolument  in,  under,  or  for  any  such  Territory  or  place,  or  under  the  United 
States." 

Now  to  the  first  part  of  the  section  again: 

"No  polygamist,  bigamist,  or  any  person  cohabiting  with  more  than  one 
woman,  *  *  *  shall  be  entitled  to  vote." 

Who  is  a  polygamist?  I  hold  in  my  hand  Webster's  Unabridged  Diction 
ary,  which  is  very  good  authority,  I  believe: 

"  Polygamist :  a  person  who  practices  polygamy,  or  maintains  its  lawfulness." 

There  is  scarcely  a  man,  woman,  or  child  in  Utah  belonging  to  the  Mormon 
church  who  does  not  maintain  the  lawfulness  of  polygamy. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  The  senator  is  mistaken  about  that,  but  that  is  not  any 
part  of  the  argument. 

Mr.  Brown.     There  may  be  a  few — 

Mr.  Eilmunds.     There  may  be  a  great  number,  and  there  are. 

Mr.  Brown.     There  are  very  few,  if  any,  who  doubt  it. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     I  can  tell  you  just  how  many  there  are,  in  a  minute. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  will  thank  the  senator.  I  suppose  there  are  some  in  every 
country  connected  with  every  faith  who  do  not  believe  in  all  that  their  par 
ticular  church  or  sect  holds.  I  have  been  among  the  Mormons,  however ;  I 
have  seen  something  of  t heir  society ;  and  I  know  the  great  prevailing  opinion 
there  is  that  God  by  a  divine  revelation  made  known  to  the  prophet,  Joseph 
Smith,  that  a  man  in  the  Mormon  church  may  have  more  than  one  wife, 
that  he  may  practice  polygamy.  Only  a  small  number  of  them  do  practice 
it,  I  admit;  but  it  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  the  universal  belief  that  they  have 
the  right  to  do  it. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  Of  course  we  cannot  have  a  judicial  trial  to-day  to  find  out, 
as  my  brother  from  Alabama  wishes  to  do  on  this  political  question,  how  the 
fact  is;  but  according  to  the  returns  obtained  by  the  census  people  (not 
always  under  the  act  of  Congress,  because  they  go  beyond  that)  of  what  are 
called  apostate  Mormons,  who  do  not  hold  up  to  the  polygamy  doctrine,  there 
are  b',98S  in  the  Territory,  and  of  what  are  called  Josephite  Mormons  who 
hold  up  to  all  the  doctrines  except  that  one  thing — but  I  do  not  know  pre 
cisely  the  distinction  between  the  Apostate  and  Josephite  Mormons — there 
are  820.  So  it  would  seem  there  are  more  than  7,000  of  the  Mormons,  be 
sides  certain  ones  put  down  as  doubtful  whom  I  leave  out,  who  do  not  ap 
pear  to  believe  in  this  revelation  of  polygamy  which  occurred  about  twenty 
or  thirty  years  after  the  finding  of  the  astonishing  gold  tablets  and  so  on. 
That  is  the  Book  of  the  Covenant. 

Mr.  Brown.     I  think  they  were  brass,  not  gold. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     Perhaps  they  had  most  to  do  with  brass. 

Mr.  Brown.     I  do  not  think  they  were  pure  gold. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  As  I  have  been  reading  the  Book  of  Covenants  of  the 
Mormon  church  lately  with  assiduity,  I  think  they  were  gold,  but  at  any  rate 
the  polygamous  thing  came  in  more  than  twenty  years  after  its  supposed 
discovery  and  came  in  under  circumstances  that  if  my  friend  would  read  the 
very  book  itself  to  show  how  it  came  and  why  and  so  on,  I  think  he  would 
be  satisfied  that  it  would  take  a  pretty  stout-hearted  man  among  the  Mor-' 
mons  to  think  that  that  was  of  divine  revelation,  for  it  absolutely  reversed 
the  previous  revelation  from  the  invisible  world.  1  did  not  want  to  interrupt 
the  senator,  however. 

Mr.  Brown.  It  is  no  interruption.  I  do  not  presume  I  am  as  well  posted 
in  Mormon  literature  as  the  honorable  senator  from  Vermont,  though  I  have 
read  some  of  it.  I  agree  with  him  that  in  the  commencement  Mormonism 
did  not  tolerate  or  practice  polygamy ;  you  may  read  the  book  of  Mormon 


682  APPENDIX. 

and  you  will  nowhere  find  in  that  book  that  polygamy  is  tolerated ;  but  the 
Mormons  believe  that  subsequently  to  the  discovery  of  that  book,  which  the 
senator  says  was  on  gold  plates — I  think  they  were  brass — 

Mr.  Edmunds.  We  will  compound  it  and  call  it  silver,  which  is  a  popular 
thing.  [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Brown.  Anywhere  along  between.  [Laughter.]  They  say  that  since 
that  discovery  God  revealed  to  Joseph  Smith  under  circumstances,  as  the 
senator  says,  that  do  not  carry  conviction  to  my  mind,  though  they  do  to  theirs, 
that  a  man  might  have  more  than  one  wife.  And  now  just  in  that  connection 
let  us  say  a  little  more  about  the  Mormon  faith. 

As  I  understand  the  Mormon  doctrine  and  the  Mormon  people,  they  pro 
fess  to  believe  as  firmly  as  we  do  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  they  say  much 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  repealed  by  the  New.  Then  they  profess  to  believe 
in  all  the  New,  that  has  not  been  repealed  by  later  inspiration*  and  revela 
tions  ;  but  they  believe  that  there  are  certain  things  in  the  New  Testament 
which  have  been  repealed  by  later  revelations  from  Heaven.  I  am  speaking 
of  their  faith,  so  far  as  I  could  learn  it  among  them  during  the  short  stay  I 
made  there  some  two  or  three  years  since.  I  could  hear  of  no  one  connected 
with  the  Mormon  church  who  disbelieved  this  doctrine.  At  any  rate,  out  of 
the  one  hundred  and  forty-odd  thousand  population  in  that  Territory,  or  con 
nected  with  that  church,  according  to  the  estimate  of  the  senator  from  Ver 
mont,  (if  that  is  a  correct  census  return,)  there  are  only  about  six  or  seven 
thousand  who  do  not  believe  in  polygamy. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     The  whole  population  is  143,963,  according  to  the  census. 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  it  would  leave  137,000  in  round  numbers,  who  do  be 
lieve  in  it  against  6,000  who  do  not. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  Oh  no,  the  senator  is  mistaken.  I  only  speak  of  the  Mor 
mon  population,  the  total  Mormon  population. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  is  confining  himself  to  the  Territory  of  Utah. 
[Addressing  Mr.  Edmunds.]  Do  you  not  know  that  the  Mormons  have  very 
strong  church  relations  with,  and  have  planted  colonies  in,  other  Territories? 

Mr.  Edmunds.  I  do  not  know  anything  about  that.  I  was  speaking  of 
Utah  alone. 

Mr.  Brown.  Mr.  President,  they  are  as  unanimous  on  this  question  as  any 
church  or  any  people  anywhere  are  on  any  question.  There  may  be  some 
dissenters ;  doubtless  there  are  some.  They  maintain,  in  other  words,  the 
lawfulness  of  polygamy.  Then,  according  to  the  definition  given  by  Web 
ster,  they  are  polygamists ;  and  then,  according  to  this  bill,  they  are  every 
one  disfranchised.  It  is  a  sweeping  disfranchisement  of  almost  the  entire 
people  of  a  Territory.  And  in  order  to  cany  out  that  disfraix  hisement  we 
must  resort  here  to  a  practice  better  known  in  the  South  than  it  has  been 
in  the  North.  Whenever  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  Republican  State  out  of 
a  Democratic  State,  or  a  Republican  State  out  of  a  Democratic  Territory,  the 
most  convenient  machinery  for  that  purpose  is  a  Returning  Board,  and  it 
has  worked  admirably  in  the  South.  By  fraud,  perjury,  forgery,  and  vil 
lainy,  the  re  turn  ing-board  system  cheated  the  people  of  these  United  States 
out  of  a  legal  election  for  President.  It  does  not  therefore  specially  com 
mend  itself  to  the  American  people.  It  stinks  in  the  nostril**  of  honest  men. 

We  propose  now  to  deal  with  this  question  by  constituting  a  Returning 
Board  of  five  persons  to  be  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  senate,  all  of  whom,  says  the  bill,  as 
brought  forth  by  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  shall  not  be  members  of 
the  same  political  party.  I  propose  to  amend  it  by  saying  not  more  than 
three  of  whom  shall  be  members  of  the  same  political  party,  so  as  to  compel 
the  appointment  of  two  Democrats  iu  place  of  one ;  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 


APPENDIX.  683 

chamber  that  proportion  is  stoutly  met  and  resisted.  Why  is  it  that  it  is  neces 
sary  to  have  four  of  the  five  members  of  this  board  Republicans,  arid  only  one 
Democrat?  Will  not  a  majority  do  this  job  as  well  as  a  minority  ?  Cannot 
three  carry  out  the  object?  If  the  Democrats  have  two,  it  seems  it  is  feared 
it  mi^ht  not  work;  and  it  is  safer  not  to  trust  it  to  them,  lest,  to  the  great 
disappointment  of  some  very  patriotic  gentlemen,  it  might  turn  up  a  Demo 
cratic  State. 

In  my  opinion  the  people  of  Utah  have  at  least  one  good  quality,  and  that 
is,  that  an  overwhelming  majority  of  them  are  Democrats.  If  we  ever  reach 
a  point  where  they  are  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  they  have  a  right  to 
come  in  as  a  Democratic  State  ;  but  under  this  Returning  Board  legerdemain, 
it  is  very  fair  to  presume  that  they  will  not  be  permitted  so  to  come.  If  riot 
even  two  out  of  the  five  who  are  to  manipulate  the  returns  are  to  be  Demo 
crat*,  there  can  be  but  little  hope  of  a  Democratic  State.  And  there  may  be 
a  very  good  political  reason  just  there,  why  the  whole  population,  almost 
en  ma  we,  should  be  disfranchised.  If  they  are  permitted  to  vote,  there  is  no 
chance  for  a  Republican  State.  If  a  returning  board  manipulates  the  elec 
tion,  and  the  population  of  Utah,  or  a  vast  majority  of  them,  are  driven  from 
the  polls,  then  there  is  a  prospect  of  a  Republican  State  there. 

Not  only  does  this  bill  as  reported  by  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary 
propose  to  disfranchise  and  drive  from  the  polls  almost  the  entire  population 
of  Utah,  but  it  proposes  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  to  disfranchise  them  from  the  right  to  hold  office. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  Will  the  senator  from  Georgia  mind  if  in  connection  with 
that  remark  of  his  I  should  read  the  legal  definition  of  a  bigamist  and  polyg- 
amist  as  distinguished  from  his  Webster  definition. 

Mr.  Brown.     Go  on,  sir. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  Turning  from  the  land  of  literature  to  the  region  of  law, 
with  which  statutes  are  supposed  to  have  something  to  do,  I  will  read  out  of 
the  first  book  I  sent  for  at  random — Burrill's  Law  Dictionary,  supposed  to  be 
pretty  correct,  this  clause: 

"liigamus. — In  old  English  law.  One  who  has  been  twice  married,  or 
has  married  more  than  one  wife;  a  bigamist.  Applied  originally  in  the 
canon  law,  to  clerk*  or  ecclesiastical  persons,  who  were  forbidden  to  marry 
a  second  time.  *  *  *  Biyamw  is  he  that  either  hath  married  two  or  more 
wives  or  that  hath  married  a  widow.  " 

Under  the  old  law  a  man  who  married  a  widow  was  a  bigamist,  I  do  not 
think  under  the  modern  law  this  statute  would  prevent  a  man  marrying  a 
widow.  Now  I  come  to  what  is  more  to  the  point  I  am  speaking  to : 

"  A  polvgamist  is  he  who  has  had  two  or  more  wives  at  the  same  time. — 
3  /».•>/.,  88.  " 

So  that  F  bog  to  assure  my  distinguished  friend  from  Georgia  that  the 
Judiciary  Committee  thought — very  likely  it  was  mistaken  after  what  he  and 
Webster  have  said — that  the  legal  definition  of  "  bigamist"  and  "polygam- 
ist"  was  perfectly  understood  everywhere,  not  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  a 
matter  of  fact.  I  thank  my  friend  for  allowing  me  to  state  this. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  much  prefer  that  my  friend  from  Vermont  should  state  all 
his  points  as  we  go  along. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     I  would  not  do  it  to  interrupt  the  senator's  remarks. 

Mr.  Biown.  The  senator  from  Vermont  has  produced  a  book  which  de 
fines  a  bigamist  to  be  a  man  who  has  married  a  widow,  and  a  polvgamist 
a  man  who  has  had  two  or  more  wives  at  the  same  time.  He  himself  repu 
diates  the  first  definition  ;  and  the  last  does  not  embrace  a  man  who  now  has 
two  wives.  I  am  certainly  content  if  the  senator  is.  And  I  am  willing  to 


684  APPENDIX. 

put  Webster  against  Burrill  as  an  authority  on  the  definition  of  words,  or  the 
meaning  of  the  English  language. 

No  matter  what  Burrill  may  say,  it  will  be  very  convenient  for  this  Re 
publican  returning  board,  when  they  go  to  Utah,  to  take  Webster  in  their 
hands  and  drive  from  the  polls  every  voter  who  proposes  to  cast  a  bal 
lot,  if  he.  is  a  member  of  the  Mormon  Church,  on  the  ground  that  he  is  a 
polygainist.  I  would  not  like  to  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  such  a  board,  with 
such  an  authority  as  Webster  to  sustain  them,  to  determine  whether  a 
Democrat  who  believes  in  the  lawfulness  of  polygamy,  though  he  does  not 
practice  it,  should  he  entitled  to  vote.  It  would  be  like  leaving  the  lamb  in 
the  inclosure  with  the  wolf.  There  would  be  no  prospect  of  his  vote  being 
received. 

But  at  the  time  I  was  interrupted  by  the  honorable  senator  from  Vermont 
I  had  stattd  that  I  would  proceed  to  show  that  this  bill  if  passed  disfran 
chises  Mormons  from  holding  office  on  account  of  their  religious  opinions,  in 
the  teeth  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  read  from  article 
6,  section  3,  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  : 

"  But  no  religious  test  shall  ever  be  required  as  a  qualification  to  any  office 
or  public  trust  under  the  United  States.  " 

It  has  been  argued  here  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  abso 
lute  power  over  the  Territories  and  over  the  District  of  Columbia;  that  we 
can  give  to  the  Territories  and  the  District  such  government  as  we  think  proper. 
It  is  outside  of  my  purpose  to  controvert  that ;  it  is  not  necessary  that  I 
should.  But  nothing  can  give  to  Congress  the  right,  in  the  teeth  of  the  Con 
stitution,  to  prescribe  a  religious  test  for  a  person  living  in  the  District  or  in 
the  Territories  that  excludes  him  from  holding  office.  I  maintain  that  that 
is  just  what  is  done  in  this  case.  I  know  it  is  said  sometimes  that  the  action 
of  the  Mormons  in  practicing  polygamy  is  an  immorality,  that  there  is  no  re 
ligion  in  it,  and  that  we  do  not  interfere  with  the  constitutional  rights  of  a 
Mormon  when  we  prescribe  the  test  that  he  shall  riot  hold  office  if  he  be 
lieves  in  the  lawfulness  of  polygamy.  What  is  a  religious  test?  To  ascer 
tain  that  it  is  necessary  to  inquire  what  is  religion  ?  Webster  defines 
it  thus: 

"  1.  The  recognition  of  God  as  an  object  of  worship,  love,  and  obedience  ; 
right  feelings  toward  God  as  rightly  apprehended ;  piety. 

"2.  Any  system  of  faith  and  worship;  as,  the  religion  of  the  Turks,  of 
Hindoos,  of  Christians;  true  and  false  religion." 

That  is  the  definition  of  Webster,  and  I  still  think  he  is  pretty  good 
authority.  I  repeat  it : 

"  Any  system  of  faith  and  worship;  as,  the  religion  of  the  Turks,  of  Hin 
doos,  of  Christians  ;  true  and  false  religion. " 

That  is  Webster's  definition  of  religion.  Then,  a  religious  test  would  be 
a  test  pertaining  to  religion  as  defined,  or  a  law  prescribing  that  a  person 
should  not  hold  office  because  he  professed  or  practiced  a  particular  religion, 
no  matter  whether  we  believe  it  to  be  a  true  or  a  false  religion.  According  to 
Webster,  it  would  be  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  if  you  say  that  a  man 
shall  not  hold  office  because  he  believes  and  practices  the  Turkish  religion, 
or  the  Hindoo  religion,  (for  he  mentions  both,)  or  the  Christian  religion. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  Would  the  senator  really  object  to  a  law,  supposing  ife 
were  not  unconstitutional,  (which  is  another  question,)  which  said  that  no 
man  should  be  entitled  to  participate  in  the  government  of  the  State  of 
Georgia  that  was  in  the  practice  of  having  all  his  father's  wives,  one  or  more, 
burned,  Hindoo  fashion,  when  his  father  died?  There  is  some  difference 
between  facts  and  faith  in  the  minds  of  most  people,  I  submit  to  my  friend, 
and  it  comes  down  (to  state  the  point)  to  this  essential  distinction,  that  all 


APPENDIX.  685 

political  society  has  recognized  between  regulating  political  rights — and  I 
may  say,  for  that  matter,  civil  rights  in  a  large  decree,  but  I  need  not  go  in 
to  that  now — depending  upon  certain  conditions  of  fact,  as  the  supreme 
court  of  the  United  States  decided  in  the  Reynolds  case  on  this  pretense  of 
its  being  a  religious  faith  to  have  four  or  five  wives,  and  therefore  you  could 
not  interfere  with  it.  It  comes  down  to  a  fact.  There  are  many  men  in  the 
State  of  Vermont  who  believe  that  they  have  an  inherent  right  to  sell  liquor 
although  it  is  prohibited,  that  it  is  a  natural  right  that  belongs  to  every  man. 
The  State  s;iys  :  "If  you  do  that  thing,  you  cannot  do  certain  other  things." 
Is  it  possible  that  my  friend  from  Georgia  really  means  to  maintain  the 
proposition  that  in  a  Republican  country,  a  government  of  the  people,  it  does 
not  belong  to  a  majority  of  the  people  to  say  that  certain  acts,  certain  con 
ditions  of  bodily  existence,  shall  not  be  made  the  test  of  participating  in  the 
government  of  that  State  ?  This  is  the  point.  You  may  call  it  religion  or 
what  you  will. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  might  have  savert  himself  a  discourse  of  some 
length,  which  must  be  printed  in  my  speech,  if  he  had  noticed  a  little  more 
carefully  what  I  was  saying,  or  if  he  had  waited  till  I  was  through  on  that 
point.  I  do  not  deny  the  right  ot'a  State  to  punish  any  sort  of  immorality. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  1  am  not  speaking  of  punishment ;  I  aui  talking  about  po 
litical  rights. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  will  answer  the  question  if  you  will  keep  quiet  only  a  short 
time. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     I  will  keep  quiet  entirely. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  do  not  ask  that ;  but  when  I  am  replying  to  the  senator's 
long  questions  I  pre'er  to  be  heard  myself.  I  do  not  deny  the  power  of  the 
state  to  inflict  punishment  for  immorality.  I  am  willing  to  vote  for  a  law 
to  punish  persons,  not  for  what  they  have  done  in  the  past  when  there  was 
n9  law  prohibiting  such  acts,  but  what  they  may  do  in  the  future  that  is 
criminal,  in  the  Territory  of  Utah  or  any  other  "Territory.  1  believe  that 
bigamy  or  the  double  wife  system,  if  I  may  so  term  it,  is  immoral;  and  I  am 
therefore  willing  to  inflict  penalties,  or  to  vote  fora  law  that  does  inflict  them 
upon  those  who  are  legally  convicted  of  that  offense,  committed  after  the 
passage  of  a  law  prohibiting  it.  But  I  am  not  willing  to  put  it  in  the  hands 
of  returning  boards,  to  drive  from  the  polls  in  Utah  every  man  who  believes 
that  he  or  any  other  man  has  a  right  to  practice  polygamy,  if  he  does  not 
practice  it.  I  would  only  consent  to  punish  him  for  his  criminal  conduct,  not 
for  his  belief  or  his  faith  or  his  religious  opinions. 

Again,  as  to  the  instance  putT^y  the  senator  from  Vermont  in  my  State,  if 
it  were  possible  for  there  to  be  such  an  instance  there ;  if  any  man  there  be 
lieved  it  was  right  to  burn  his  father's  wives — we  do  not  allow  them  to  have 
but  one  wife  there — upon  the  funeral  pile  I  would  inflict  penalties  upon  him 
for  practicing  it :  but  if  he  really  believes  it  is  right  I  have  no  right  to  exclude 
him  from  holding  office  because  he  says  he  believes  it. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     So  say  I ;  so  say  we  all. 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  it  turns  out  that  there  would  have  been  but  little  rea 
son  for  the  interruption  by  the  senator,  had  he  heard  me  through. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     I  think  it  turns  out  that  there  was. 

Mr.  Brown.     Th?»t  is  a  difference  of  opinion. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     That  is  liberal. 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  1  hope  you  are  content.  I  say  you  have  aright  to  pun 
ish  a  Mormon  for  adultery  or  fornication  or  bigamy.  I  make  no  issue  with 
you  there.  But  you  have  no  right  to  punish  him  for  it  until  you  have  legally 
convicted  him  of  the  crime;  the  court  having  a  right  to  inflict  the  penalty 
by  the  proper  officer*,  and  I  shall  always  approve  it  when  so  done ;  but  I  am 


686  APPENDIX. 

not  ready  to  place  a  whole  community  under  the  ban  because  a  few  persons 
there  practice  this  immoral  habit.  I  am  informed  that  there  are  compara 
tively  few  Mormons  who  have  more  than  one  wife,  yet  almost  the  entire 
Mormon  population  believe  it  is  legal  for  a  man  to  have  a  plurality  of  wives. 
Let  us  be  careful  that  we  do  not  establish  precedents  that  may  lead  to  the 
destruction  of  freedom  of  opinion,  and  the  subversion  of  constitutional 
liberty,  and  religious  toleration  iti  this  country. 

When  we  come  down  to  this  matter  of  persecution  or  prosecution  for 
opinion's  sake  and  go  beyond  punishment  for  crime  committed,  we  tread 
upon  very  dangerous  ground.  If  we  look  back  over  the  history  of  the  past 
we  have  abundant  evidence  to  justify  this  assertion.  The  time  was  when 
the  Catholic  Church  tolerated  no  dissenters  and  punished  in  an  exemplary 
manner  those  who  denied  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  arid  the  authority  of 
the  church.  That  day  has  passed,  at  least  it  is  so  in  this  country,  and  to 
their  honor  be  it  said,  to  the  Catholics  and  Baptists  of  the  United  States  the 
glory  is  due  of  having  been  the  first  two  denominations — the  Baptists  a  little 
in  the  lead — to  establish  on  this  continent  full,  unqualified  religious  freedom. 
But  even  then  differences  of  opinion  could  not  be  tolerated  by  those  in 
power,  and  the  early  settlers  of  New  England,  who  held  another  faith,  perse 
cuted  both  Baptists  and  Catholics  alike  for  dissenting  from  their  view.  Such 
is  the  weakness  of  human  nature ;  such  is  the  danger  of  persecution  for 
opinion's  sake. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  I  wish  you  would  leave  out  the  State  of  Vermont  when 
you  speak  of  New  England,  because  it  is  not  true  as  to  it,  but  the  reverse. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  said  New  England,  and  I  was  right;  but  I  am  very  willing 
to  except  the  State  of  Vermont,  as  requested  by  the  senator.  No  instance 
at  this  time  occurs  to  me  in  relation  to  that  State.  I  believe  the  senator  is 
right  in  asking  that  she  be  exempted.  I  wish  I  could  say  as  much  for  all 
the  other  States  of  New  England,  and  for  all  the  States  of  the  world.  I  am 
not  mentioning  this  to  be  offensive  to  New  England,  but  I  mention  it  to 
warn  senators  of  the  dangers  of  a  spirit  of  religious  persecution,  and  to  ask 
them  also  to  reflect  on  the  danger  of  political  persecution  for  opinion's  sake. 
The  dominant  church  in  New  England  at  the  early  settlement  persecuted 
the  Catholics  and  the  Baptists.  The  historian  sa.ys  they  made  acquiescence 
in  their  own  church  practices  and  beliefs  a  test  of  citizenship.  (2  Elliott's 
History  of  New  England,  page  206.)  The  Quakers  were  whipped  at  the 
cart  tail  from  town  to  town,  because  they  practiced  their  own  religious 
opinions.  Men  and  women  were  hung  because  they  were  convicted  by  New 
England  tribunals  of  being  witches.  The  Baptists  were  taxed  for  a  long 
period  to  support  the  clergy  of  the  established  denomination  there ;  and 
Roger  Williams,  their  great  leader,  was  banished  from  Massachusetts  on 
account  of  his  religious  opinions.  Quakers  were  driven  out  of  New  England 
under  a  severe  penalty  if  they  returned.  And  one  unfortunate  man  was 
banished  under  penalty  of  death  if  he  returned,  for  asserting  that  he  was 
free  from  original  sin,  arid  had  not  committed  a  sin  in  six  months.  Thia 
was  the  intolerance  in  a  past  century. 

I  have  referred  to  the  Catholics.  Coming  down  still  later  within  the 
present  century,  within  the  present  half  century,  it  has  not  been  filty  years 
ago  that  the  Catholic  Church  established  at  Charlestown,  in  Massachusetts, 
an  Ursuline  convent  or  college,  and  it  was  so  offensive  to  the  good  people  of 
that  State  that  a  mob  was  raised  to  burn  it,  and  it  was  burnt  under  circum 
stances  of  the  utmost  aggravation.  Helpless  women  were  driven  out  of  it. 
They  fled  to  save  their  lives,  and  the  death  of  one  or  two  and  the  insanity 
of  another  resulted.  The  attorney-general,  in  summing  up  the  enormity  of 
the  crime  to  the  jury,  uses  the  following  language :  "A  murder  thus  crowned 


APPENDIX.  687 

the  perpetration  of  burglary,  incendiarism,  sacrilege,  and  plunder."  (For  a 
full  account  of  this  great  outrage  see  fifth  volume  of  Bishop  England's 
Works.)  So  strong  was  religious  intolerance  then,  that  that  good  old  State, 
which  usually  punishes  crimes  exemplarily,  was  unable  to  punish  the  perpe 
trators  of  this  otfense.  A  former  penitentiary  convict  was  the  leader  of  the 
mob,  and  he  was  put  upon  trial  for  it.  The  jury  acquitted  him  under  cir 
cumstances  the  most  extraordinary,  and  the  verdict  was  loudly  applauded  by 
the  populace.  Handbills  had  been  stuck  upon  the  bridge  crossing  the  river, 
threatening  the  assassination  of  any  one  who  gave  information  in  reference 
to  the  deed. 

That  was  forty-eight  years  ago.  If  religious  intolerance  in  this  most 
enlightened  and  intelligent  State  was  so  great  forty-eight  years  ago  as  to 
incite  men  to  burn  and  desecrate  the  convents  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
the  riot  was  permitted  with  impunity,  how  can  we  trust  ourselves  forty-eight 
years  later  to  make  indiscriminate  warfare  upon  the  people  of  any  territory 
of  these  United  States  on  account  of  any  opinion  of  theirs,  religious  or  other 
wise?  It  is  a  dangerous  experiment.  Enact  jour  laws  to  punish  crime;  I 
will  vote  with  you.  Make  your  penalties  as  severe  as  you  will;  when  the 
culprit  has  been  convicted  I  will  say  let  him  sutler;  but  do  not  proscribe  a 
whole  community  because  they  differ  with  us  in  opinion. 

Even  in  the  old  State  of  Connecticut,  in  the  year  183i,  in  Windham 
County,  a  Miss  Crandall  opened  a  school  for  young  colored  girls,  and  the 
indignation  of  the  people  grew  so  high  that  they  determined  to  break  it  up. 
They  went  to  the  Legislature  and  got  an  act  passed  on  the  subject;  they 
carried  it  to  the  judiciary ;  they  resorted  to  every  means  possible  to  suppress 
it  legally;  but  failing,  they  took  their  iron  crowbars,  alter  it  had  been  once 
set  on  fire,  and  went  and  broke  out  the  windows  of  the  house  and  drove  the 
teacher  away,  as  they  could  not  bear  the  outrage  of  a  school  there  to  teach 
young  colored  girls.  (See  Larned's  History  of  Windham  County.) 

Mr.  Hoar.     How  was  it  in  Georgia? 

Mr.  Brown.  Georgia  may  have  done  wrong  in  some  instances,  but  I  am 
not  now  defending  her  wrongs;  I  am  speaking  of  the  danger  of  yielding  to 
these  popular  clamors  and  proscribing  or  putting  down  people  because  we 
differ  with  them  in  opinion.  Connecticut  would  not  now  do  what  she  then 
did.  She  now  stands  by  the  rights  of  colored  people,  and,  to  their  honor  be 
it  said,  1  believe  both  her  senators  favor  appropriations  to  educate  the  colored 
people  everywhere  in  the  United  State.-.  1  thank  them  for  it;  itisri^ht; 
but  I  mention  the  instance  not  to  reHect  on  the  people  of  Connecticut,  but 
to  show  the  danger  of  yielding  to  popular  clamor,  where  any  institution  does 
not  meet  with  popular  favor. 

In  1855  this  country  was  convulsed  with  one  of  the  bitterest  political  cam 
paigns  we  have  ever  had,  the  corner-stone  of  the  platform  of  one  of  the 
political  parties  being  that  Catholics  should  not  hold  office,  and  proscribing 
them  for  opinion's  sake.  It  was  said  that  the  Catholic  believed  in  the  infal 
libility  of  the  Pope,  and  believing  this  he  could  not  be  a  true  citizen  of  any 
civil  government;  that  his  primary  allegiance  was  due  to  the  Pope,  and 
therefore  he  could  not  be  tru*ted  with  office.  This  erroneous  opinion  found 
followers  by  the  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  United  States 
at  that  time. 

Let  me  give  another  illustration.  It  is  only  within  the  last  few  years,  if 
I  am  correctly  informed,  that  the  constitution  of  New  Hampshire  permits  a 
Catiiohc  to  be  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  that  State. 

Mr.  Blair.  I  should  like  to  correct  the  senator  to  a  certain  extent  in 
regard  to  a  popular  impression  that  Catholics  have  not  been  permitted  to 
hold  office  in  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  uutil  a  very  recent  alteration  in 


688  APPENDIX. 

the  constitution.  The  matter  of  the  religious  test  did  survive  nominally  in 
our  constitution  until  its  last  change,  some  three  years  since ;  but  as  a  matter 
.of  fact  the  provision  was  obsolete.  I  think  it  must  have  been  obsolete  for 
the  last  half  century.  Nearly  twenty  years  ago  1  myself  sat  side  by  side  in 
the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  with  an  Irish  Catholic  who  represented 
the  city  of  Manchester.  It  was  an  obsolete  provision  ;  and  our  people,  who 
have  been  very  conservative  in  regard  to  holding  conventions  for  the  purpose 
of  altering  their  fundamental  law,  allowed  it  to  remain,  knowing  that  it  was 
not  acted  upon,  until  at  last  it  becoming  necessary  to  modify  the  constitution 
in  other  particulars,  this  provision  was  changed  with  the  rest. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  was  right  when  he  asked  to  correct  me  to  a 
"  certain  extent "  only.  According  to  his  own  statement  he  sat  in  the  Legis 
lature  of  his  own  State  by  the  side  of  a  Catholic,  who  sat  there  in  open  vio 
lation  of  the  constitu'ion  of  New  Hampshire. 

I  have  no  disposition  to  misrepresent  New  Hampshire,  but  the  senator's 
statement  does  not  much  better  the  case.  He  admits  that  until  three  years 
ago  if  a  Catholic  occupied  a  seat  in  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  he 
had  to  do  it  in  violation  of  the  constitution  of  New  Hampshire,  which  I  pre 
sume  each  member  was  sworn  to  support.  Popular  opinion  did  not  enforce 
the  constitution,  the  senator  says,  but  still  the  constitution  forbade  that  a 
Catholic  be  a  member.  I  am  glad  it  does  not  now  forbid  it. 

\Vhile  1  think  we  are  becoming  more  liberal  as  members  of  the  different 
churches,  and  as  citizens  of  States,  I  fear  yet  to  trust  too  much  to  excited 
legislation  under  the  lash  of  popular  clamor. 

A  few  years  ago  in  my  own  State  we  all  stood  by  slavery.  No  one  then 
questioned  that  it  was  right.  That  the  institution  may  in  some  cases  have 
been  abused,  as  every  institution  is  abused,  cannot  be  denied;  but  it  was  as 
little  abused  as  any  other  could  be.  Slavery  has  been  abolished  :  none  of  us 
desire  to  restore  it.  We  stand  now  by  the  liberty  and  the  rights  of -the 
former  slave.  Still  there  is  an  incident  that  I  cannot  help  remembering 
during  that  transition  stage.  After  the  end  of  the  war  the  reconstruction 
measures  were  passed.  I  had  then  a  little  taste  of  the  rule  that  we  now  pro 
pose  to  apply  to  Utah.  I  stood  by  the  polls,  disfranchised  and  not  permitted 
to  vote,  while  my  former  slaves,  emancipated,  walked  up  and  deposited  their 
ballots.  I  made  no  issue.  I  accepted  it.  Why?  Because  I  had  no  power 
to  do  anything;  and  I  held  that  Georgia  had  seceded  from  the  Union,  and 
having  seceded,  and  having  been  conquered,  the  conquering  power  had  the 
rigtit  to  dictate  the  terms.  But  the  Mormons  have  not  seceded  from  the 
Union.  The  Federali  authorities  might  in  my  case  possibly  have  made  a 
religious  test,  and  said  that  I  should  not  hold  any  office  because  of  my  opin 
ions.  If  my  theory  was  right  they  could,  because  I  believed  we  were  out  of 
the  Union  when  we  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession.  But  if  their  theory 
was  correct,  they  had  no  right  to  prescribe  such  a  religious  test.  I  did  not, 
however,  make  any  point  about  the  political  test,  because  I  believed  we  were 
obliged  to  acquiesce  in  the  dictates  of  the  conqueror.  I  mention  these  mat 
ters,  not  to  stir  up  unkind  feelings,  but  because  they  are  part  of  the  history, 
and  point  the  danger  of  legislation  of  the  character  we  are  now  proposing  to 
apply  to  Utah.  .  .  .  . .  , 

This  bill  proposes  to  apply  a  religious  test  to  the  Mormons.  I  do  not 
mean  the  part  of  it  that  would  punish  them  for  immorality,  but  in  so  far  as 
it  punishes  the  Mormon  for  his  religious  opinions  it  is  a  religious  test  applied. 
He  believes  that  Joe  Smith  was  a  prophet  as  much  as  I  believe  that  Jeremiah 
was  a  prophet;  and  while  I  think  he  is  in  an  egregious  error,  I  have  no  right 
to  proscribe  him  because  of  his  belief  as  long  as  he  does  not  practice  immo 
rality.  And  I  have  no  right  to  do  more  as  a  legislator  than  to  prescribe  rules 


APPENDIX.  689 

to  punish  him  for  his  immoralities  and  leave  h"m  to  the  full  enjoyment  of 
his  religious  opinions,  just  as  I  claim  the  right  to  enjoy  my  own  opinions. 
If  we  commence  striking  down  any  sect,  however  despised,  or  however  un 
popular,  on  account  of  opinion's  sake,  we  do  not  know  how  soon  the  fires  of 
Smithtield  may  be  rekindled  or  the  gallows  of  New  England  for  witches 
again  be  erected,  or  when  another  Catholic  convent  will  be  burned  down. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     Or  another  colored  school  burned  down. 

Mr.  Brown.  Yes,  I  accept  the  amendment.  As  the  senator  from  Vermont 
Bay.-*,  "or  another  colored  school  burned  down,"  I  trust  it  may  not  be.  We 
do  not  know  how  long  it  will  be  before  the  clamor  will  be  raised  bv  the 
religious  denominations  of  this  country  that  no  member  of  a  church  who 
holds  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  or  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  should 
hold  office  or  vote.  We  do  not  know  how  long  it  may  be  before  it  would  be 
said  that  no  member  of  a  church  who  believes  in  close  communion  and 
baptism  by  immersion  as  the  only  mode  should  vote  or  hold  office  in  this 
country.  You  are  treading  on  dangerous  ground  when  you  open  this  flood 
gate  anew.  We  have  passed  the  period  where  there  is  for  the  present  any 
clamor  against  any  particular  sect  except  as  against  the  Mormons ;  but  it 
Beems  there  must  be  some  periodical  outcry  against  some  denomination. 
Popular  vengeance  is  now  turned  against  the  Mormons.  When  we  are  done 
with  them  I  know  not  who  will  next  be  considered  the  proper  subject  of  it. 

Mr.  President,  I  believe  I  have  made  about  all  the  remarks  that  I  care  to 
make  on  this  subject.  In  conclusion.  I  have  to  state  that  I  cannot  vote  for 
the  bill  in  its  present  shape.  1  cannot  vote  for  any  bill  that  will  leave  it 
with  any  Returning  Board  in  Utah,  with  the  pretext  that  they  will  have  in 
this  case,  to  proscribe  any  class  of  people  there  on  account  of  their  political 
or  religious  opinions.  1  am  ready  to  vote  for  any  bill  that  is  necessary  to 
punish  the  people  of  that  Territory  or  any  other  for  the  practice  of  immoral 
ity,  leaving  it  to  the  courts  to  decide  whether  they  are  guilty  or  not. 

1  therefore  insist  upon  the  amendment  that  I  have  already  introduced.  I 
was  not  in  at  the  moment  when  the  senator  from  Missouri  [Mr.  Vest] 
offered  his  amendment.  I  wish  to  offer  two  amendments  more.  Before  I 
take  my  seat  f  will  read  them  for  information.  In  section  7 — 

Mr.  Edmunds.     You  mean  section  7  as  it  is  in  the  print? 

Mr.  Brown.     Yes,  sir,  as  it  is  in  print. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     That  would  be  now  section  8. 

Mr.  Brown.  In  section  7  [8],  line  1,  after  the  word  "bigamist,"  I  shall 
move  to  insert  the  words  "who  has  been  legally  convicted  of  practicing  the 
same  ;  "  and  after  the  word  "  woman  "  in  line  2  to  insert  "and  legally  con 
victed  of  the  same;"  and  after  the  word  "section  "  in  line  4  to  insert  "who 
has  heen  legally  convicted;"  so  that  that  part  of  the  section  would  read  : 

"That  no  polygamist,  bigamist,  who  has  been  legally  convicted  of  prac 
ticing  the  same,  or  any  person  cohabiting  with  more  than  one  woman,  and 
legally  convicted  of  the  same,  and  no  woman  cohabiting  with  any  of  the 
persons  described  as  aforesaid  in  this  section,  who  has  been  legally  convicted, 
in  any  Territory,"  &c. 

With  those  amendments,  and  one  other  which  I  shall  prepare,  much  of  the 
objection  that  I  have  to  the  bill  would  be  removed,  though  I  think  there  are 
other  very  serious  oVtjections  to  it. 

Upon  a  vote  by  yeas  and  nays  Mr.  Brown's  amendment  making  it  the 
duty  of  the  President  to  appoint  three  of  one  party  and  two  of  the  other,  so 
as  to  give  the  Democrats  two  members  of  the  board  of  five,  was  adopted  by 
a  majority  of  2. 

Mr.  Brown  then  offered  the  following  amendment,  which  was  adopted: 

"Provided,  That  said  board  of  five  persons  shall  not  exclude  any  person, 


690  APPENDIX. 

otherwise  eligible  to  vote,  from  the  polls  on  account  of  any  opinion  such 
person  may  entertain  on  the  subject  of  bigamy  or  polygamy;  nor  shall  they 
refuse  to  count  any  such  vote  on  account  of  the  opinion  of  the  person  casting 
it  on  the  subject  of  bigamy  and  polygamy." 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  DELIVERED  IN  THE 
SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  MARCH  6,  1882,  ON  BILL  (S.  No. 
71)  TO  ENFORCE  TREATY  STIPULATIONS  RELATING  TO  CHINESE. — 
THE  QUESTION,  DOES  THE  BILL  VIOLATE  OUR  SOLEMN  OBLIGA 
TIONS  UNDER  THE  TREATY,  DISCUSSED.  THE  PROBABLE  CONSE 
QUENCES  OF  SUCH  VIOLATION  IN  CONNECTION  WITH  OUR  COMMERCE 
AND  MISSIONARY  OPERATIONS  IN  CHINA,  ETC.,  CONSIDERED. 

Mr.  Brown  said : 

Mr.  President :  The  problem  that  the  senate  now  has  to  deal  with  is  a 
very  grave  one.  The  importation  of  Chinese  laborers  into  this  country  with 
out  limitation  or  restriction  may  promise  much  misfortune  and  evil  in  the 
future;  I  think  it  wise  to  restrict  that  importation  ;  but  while  we  restrict  it, 
we  should  remember  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  American  Senate  and  the 
American  Government  to  keep  faith  with  every  people  and  every  govern 
ment  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Some  years  since,  we  ratified  what  was  known  as  the  Burlingame  treaty 
with  China.  That  treaty  caused  very  friendly  relations  to  be  established  be 
tween  the  two  governments,  and  in  some  measure  between  the  peoples  of  the 
two  governments.  The  result  of  that  treaty  and  those  friendly  relations  was 
a  very  rapid  increase  and  extension  of  the  commerce  of  this  country  with 
China.  That  commerce  is  most  important  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  It  has  long  been  the  complaint  of  other  nations  that  the  Chinese 
Government  did  not  permit  intercourse  with  foreign  powers.  We  have 
reached  a  period  when  that  rule  has  been  relaxed  in  China,  and  there  is  a 
vast  trade  there  of  immense  value,  whose  fruits  are  to  be  gathered  by  com 
mercial  powers.  Great  Britain  at  present  has  much  the  better  part  of  that 
trade.  As  a  commercial  power  we  are  striving  to  compete  with  Great 
Britain  and  to  build  up  our  own  trade  there  as  much  as  possible. 

In  this  state  of  the  case  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  most  unfortunate  time  for 
us  to  do  injustice  to  the  people  of  China  or  to  otiend  that  government  un 
necessarily.  Take,  for  instance,  our  manufacturing  classes,  and  there  is  a 
wide  field  open  there  for  the  sale  of  their  productions.  I  recollect  not  long 
since,  in  a  conversation  with  one  of  the  admirals  of  our  navy,  he  gave  me  a 
very  interesting  account  of  a  period  of  time  spent  by  him  iu  China.  He 
spoke  of  the  immensity  of  the  future  commerce  of  that  country,  of  the 
quality  of  the  cloths  with  which  the  Chinese  are  clad,  and  the  point  struck 
me  that  it  was  of  very  great  importance  to  my  section  of  the  country  that  we 
should  maintain  friendly  relations  with  the  Chinese;  because  if  we  seek  in 
the  South  to  build  up  our  infant  manufacturing  establishments  of  cotton, 
woolen,  etc.,  and  especially  cotton,  there  is  no  market  in  the  world  so  invit 
ing  to  us  for  the  class  of  goods  we  make  as  the  market  of  China.  It  is  said 
that  the  cloths  of  the  Southern  mills,  where  we  have  plenty  of  cotton,  where 
the  cloth  is  made  honestly  of  good  material  and  sent  to  China,  have  been 
the  most  popular  there  of  any  brands  of  cloth,  because  they  are  the  best  and 
the  most  durable.  Our  infant  manufacturing  establishments  are  not  in  con 
dition  to  compete  successfully  with  those  of  the  world  elsewhere  in  the  pro 
duction  of  the  finer  fabrics ;  and  as  we  make  a  particular  kind  of  cloth,  or  a 


APPENDIX.  691 

particular  production  of  our  looms,  that  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  that  trade 
or  to  the  demands  of  that  empire  with  its  immense  numbers  of  people,  it 
would  be  foolishness  on  our  part  to  seek  wantonly  to  offend  those  people, 
and  destroy  our  influence  and  our  commerce  among  them.  Therefore  there 
are  substantial  commercial  reasons  why  we  should  deal  justly  and  fairly  and 
kindly  and  honestly  by  them. 

These  reasons  may  not  be  sufficient  to  justify  us  of  the  South  in  encourag 
ing  the  unlimited  importation  of  Chinamen  to  the  detriment  of  other  sections 
of  the  Union  who  protest  against  it.  The  people  of  the  United  States  hav 
ing  become  dissatisfied  with  the  unbounded  liberty  of  immigration  into  this 
country  that  was  given  by  the  Burlingame  treaty,  sought  to  get  rid  of  it. 
We  sent  our  plenipotentiaries  to  China  to  negotiate  fora  modification  of  the 
treaty.  And  he  who  reaJs  the  discussions  between  our  plenipotentiaries  and 
the  Chinese  Government  will  find  that  we  were  not  more  than  a  match  for 
them  in  diplomacy.  Whatever  you  may  say  of  them,  of  their  manners,  their 
customs,  their  habits,  you  cannot  say  that  they  are  not  a  cultivated  people, 
to  a  great  extent,  and  you  cannot  say  that  their  statesmen  do  not  have  abil 
ity,  and  you  cannot  say  that  they  do  not  comprehend  these  great  questions. 
The  negotiations  referred  to  abundantly  attest  the  fact  of  their  ability, 
pagacity,  and  statesmanship,  or  else  they  show  that  we  were  very  much 
wanting  in  these  high  qualities.  At  any  rate,  we  cannot  truthfully  claim 
that  we  got  the  better  of  the  correspondence. 

But,  without  tracing  the  history  of  that  negotiation,  we  reached  the  point 
where  we  concluded  a  treaty  that  has  been  ratified  by  that  government  and 
by  our  Government  on  this* very  question.  Now,  I  want  to  refer  to  the  pro 
visions  of  that  treaty,  and  contrast  them  for  a  few  moments  with  this  bill, 
and  see  whether  we  are  in  good  faith  carrying  out  the  provisions  of  the 
treaty.  Are  we  doing  our  duty,  and  are  we  before  the  civilized  world  acting 
in  honest  good  faith  toward  China?  Are  we  observing  our  treaty  stipula 
tions?  Or  are  we  in  substance  and  spirit,  if  not  in  letter,  unblushingly 
violating  those  solemn  guaranties?  If  we  are  violating  the  compact,  then 
we  ought  to  modify  this  bill  and  keep  within  the  provisions  of  the  contract 
entered  into  between  the  high  contracting  parties,  composed  of  the  repre 
sentatives  of  400,000,000  Chinese  and  50,000,000  Americans. 

If  the  treaty  will  not  permit  the  passage  of  such  a  bill  as  we  desire  to 
pass,  then  in  good  faith  we  should  suspend  action  till  we  negotiate  for  a 
modification  of  that  treaty,  and  not  resort  to  an  open,  unjustifiable  violation 
of  it,  or  to  a  violation  of  the  very  spirit  and  essence  of  it.  I  propose,  Mr. 
President,  to  read  the  four  sections  of  that  treaty.  They  are  as  follows  : 

ARTICLE  I. — Whenever  in  the  opinion  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  the 
coining  of  Chinese  laborers  to  the  United  States,  or  their  residences  therein,  affects  or 
threatens  to  affect  the  interests  of  that  country,  or  to  endanger  the  good  order  of  the 
said  country  or  of  any  locality  within  the  territory  thereof,  the  Government  of  China 
agrees  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  may  regulate,  limit,  or  suspend  such 
coming  or  residence,  but  may  not  absolutely  prohibit  it.  The  limitation  or  suspen 
sion  shall  be  reasonable,  and  shall  apply  only  to  Chinese  who  may  go  to  the  United 
States  as  laborers,  other  classes  not  being  included  in  the  limitations.  Legislation 
taken  in  regard  to  Chinese  laborers  will  be  of  such  a  character  only  as  is  necessary  to 
enforce  the  regulation,  limitation,  or  suspension  of  immigration,  and  immigrants 
shall  not  be  subject  to  personal  maltreatment  or  abuse. 

ARTICLE  II. — Chinese  subjects,  whether  proceeding  to  the  United  States  as  teach 
ers,  students,  merchants,  or  from  curiosity,  together  with  their  body  and  household 
servants,  and  Chinese  laborers,  who  are  now  in  the  United  States,  shall  be  allowed  to 
go  and  come  of  their  own  free  will  and  accord,  and  shall  be  accorded  all  the  rights, 
privileges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  which  are  accorded  to  the  citizens  and  sub 
jects  of  the  most  favored  nations. 

ARTICLE  III.— If  Chine.se  laborers,  or  Chinese  of  any  other  class,  now  either  per- 


692  APPENDIX. 

manently  or  temporarily  residing  in  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  meet  with  ill 
treatment  at  the  hands  of  any  other  persons,  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
will  exert  all  its  power  to  devise  measures  for  their  protection  and  to  secure  to  them 
the  same  rights,  privileges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  as  may  he  enjoyed  by  the 
citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most  favored  nation,  and  to  which  they  are  entitled  by 
treaty. 

ARTICLE  IV. — The  high  contracting  powers  having  agreed  upon  the  foregoing 
articles,  whenever  the  Government  of  the  United  States  shall  adopt  legislative 
measures  in  accordance  therewith,  such  measures  will  be  communicated  to  the  Gov 
ernment  of  China.  If  the  measures  as  enacted  are  found  to  work  hardships  upon  the 
subjects  of  China  the  Chinese  minister  at  Washington  may  bring  the  matter  to  the 
notice  of  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  who  will  consider  the  subject 
with  him;  and  the  Chinese  foreign  office  may  also  bring  the  matter  to  the  notice  of 
the  United  States  minister  at  Peking  and  consider  the  subject  with  him,  to  the  end 
that  mutual  and  unqualified  benefit  may  result. 

These  are  the  provisions  of  the  treaty.  Does  this  bill  propose  in  honest 
good  faith  to  carry  them  out?  We  have  reserved  the  right  to  regulate,  limit, 
or  s,uspend  the  coming  of  Chinese  laborers,  but  the  treaty  is  express  and 
positive  in  its  provisions  that  we  shall  not  absolutely  prohibit  it,  and  that  our 
legislation  on  this  subject  shall  be  reasonable.  Now,  does  any  senator  here 
really  believe  when  we  were  negotiating  this  treaty  with  the  Emperor  of 
China,  that  our  representatives  held  out  to  him  any  such  idea  as  that  our 
first  step  in  limitation  and  suspension  would  be  an  absolute  inhibition,  or 
prohibition  of  the  importation  of  a  single  Chinese  laborer  for  twenty  years 
under  severe  legal  penalties?  Do  you  believe,  senators,  that  the  Chinese 
Government  would  have  agreed  to  such  a  treaty  if  they  had  understood  that 
this  was  our  interpretation  of  it?  Would  they  have  ratified  it?  I  think  no 
senator  in  this  Chamber  can  believe  they  would.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind 
that  this  is  the  starting  point  on  our  part  in  the  execution  of  the  treaty.  In 
carrying  out  the  power  of  suspension  of  the  coming  of  Chinese  laborers  that 
under  certain  circumstances  as  represented  to  them  by  our  plenipotentiaries 
might  become  necessary  on  the  part  of  this  Government,  the  first  step  is  an 
absolute  prohibition  for  twenty  years,  with  the  heaviest  penalties  if  a  single 
one  known  as  a  laborer  comes  in  within  that  period.  It  would  be  very 
natural  for  the  Chinese  Government  to  conclude  that  if  this  is  the  com 
mencement  in  the  execution  of  the  treaty,  they  may  look  at  the  end  of  twenty 
years  for  a  further  prohibition  for  half  a  century,  or  ninety-nine  years 
probably.  No,  Mr.  President,  they  will  not  misunderstand  it.  That  govern 
ment  is  intelligent  enough  to  know  that  this  is  not  carrying  out  in  good  faith 
the  provisions  of  the  treaty.  It  may  be  that  we  can  justify  it  according  to 
the  letter,  but  it  is  a  mere  sticking  in  the  bark  ;  it  is  not  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  or  intent  of  the  treaty. 

But  let  it  be  remembered  that  that  right  of  suspension,  regulation,  or  lim 
itation  applies  under  the  treaty  only  to  Chinese  laborers,  and  it  is  provided 
expressly  in  the  treaty  that  it  does  not  include  any  other  class  of  Chinese 
except  laborers.  Now  what  as  to  the  other  classes  of  Chinese  ?  We  ex 
pressly  stipulate  and  bind  ourselves  that  they  may  go  and  come  of  their  own 
free  will  and  accord,  and  that  they  shall  be  accorded  all  the  rights,  privi 
leges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  which  are  accorded  to  citizens  and  sub 
jects  of  the  most  favored  nation.  How  do  we  propose  to  carry  out  that 
provision  of  the  treaty  ?  We  propose  to  enact  a  law  that  permits  no  one  of 
them  to  come  until  he  has  first  obtained  the  consent  of  the  Government  of 
China.  That  government  has  stipulated  with  us  that  its  subjects  not 
laborers  shall  go  and  come  of  their  own  free  will  and  accord.  We  put  the 
obstacle  in  the  way  that  they  shall  go  to  the  expense  and  trouble  of  getting 
the  consent  of  their  government  in  each  individual  case,  before  they  shall 
come,  and  they  shall  then  get  a  passport  from  the  Government  of  China,  and 


APPENDIX.  693 

that  passport  must  be  viseed  by  the  United  States  diplomatic  agent  or  con 
sular  agent  in  China,  before  they  can  go  on  board  a  vessel  to  start  for  the 
United  States. 

Supposing  the  Chinaman  seeking  to  come  is  a  teacher  or  a  student,  it  is 
expressly  stipulated  that  he  shall  go  and  come  of  his  own  free  will  and  ac 
cord,  with  all  the  exemptions,  immunities,  and  privileges  of  a  citizen  or  sub 
ject  of  the  most  favored  nation.  But  this  bill  says  he  shall  neither  go  nor 
come  of  his  own  free  will  and  accord ;  he  shall  not  start  here  until  he  has 
obtained  a  passport  from  his  own  government,  and  had  it  properly  viseed  by 
our  representative  there.  Then  he  can  board  the  ship  coming  to  our  shores. 
When  he  reaches  here  the  bill  provides  that  the  master  of  the  ship  shall  not 
land  until  he  has  exhibited  to  the  custom-house  officer  the  list  of  the  China 
men  on  board,  with  a  description  of  each.  The  custom-house  officer  must 
then  go  on  board  and  examine  each,  and  compare  him  with  his  passport,  so 
as  to  establish  his  identity,  and  if  he  has  lost  his  passport  he  cannot  land. 
Then  when  he  has  landed  he  must  be  ready  at  all  times  to  exhibit  his  pass 
port  to  the  proper  authorities  of  the  United  States  whenever  legally  de 
manded.  l£  he  is  robbed  of  it  or  loses  it,  his  failure  to  exhibit  it  subjects 
him  to  fine  and  imprisonment.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has  then  to 
open  books,  and  every  Chinaman  in  this  country  must  be  registered  in  those 
books.  Then  a  certificate  must  be  given  each  with  a  most  accurate  descrip 
tion  of  his  person.  Let  me  read  that  description  : 

"  Entry  shall  be  made  in  such  books  of  the  name  of  every  such  Chinese,  and 
his  proper  signature,  his  place  of  birth,  (giving  town  or  district,)  date  of 
birth,  last  place  of  residence  before  coming  to  the  United  States,  place  of 
residence  in  the  United  States,  if  any,  names  and  residences  of  his  parents, 
if  any,  date  and  place  of  arrival  in  the  United  States,  employment  or  busi 
ness,  height,  and  physical  marks  or  peculiarities  by  which  he  may  be  identi 
fied.  Every  applicant  for  registration  shall  make  oath  to  the  facts  stated  in 
his  registry,  which  oath  shall  be  recorded  in  the  book  of  registry.  Collec 
tors  of  customs  and  their  deputies  shall  have  power  to  administer  and  certify 
to  all  oaths  under  this  act." 

Bear  in  mind  that  the  description  must  be  made  in  the  book  opened  by 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  and  it  must  be  signed  by  the  Chinese  with  his 
own  signature.  If  he  be  in  the  condition  of  a  very  large  number  of  the  people 
of  this  country,  not  able  to  write  his  own  name,  though  he  may  not  come  here 
as  a  laborer,  and  may  be  a  man  of  wealth  and  come  from  curiosity,  he 
would  not  comply  with  the  law,  because  his  own  proper  signature  would  not 
be  upon  the  descriptive  list  made  by  him  in  the  custom-house  or  upon  his  pass 
port. 

We  set  up  a  pretty  high  standard  for  the  Chinaman.  We  say  he  must 
come  prepared  to  write  his  own  name,  for  that  is  what  I  understand  by  a 
man's  own  proper  signature,  which  must  be  upon  his  passport,  and  upon 
the  books  in  the  custom-house,  before  he  can  stay  here,  and  if  he  fails  to 
comply  with  the  law  in  any  of  these  particulars,  and  he  is  found  at  large  in 
the  United  States,  he  may  be  taken  up  and  fined  or  imprisoned.  Suppose 
after  he  lands  he  loses  his  passport;  with  great  prejudice  against  himself 
and  his  race,  unaccustomed  to  our  language,  our  forms,  and  our  tribunals, 
if  he  is  taken  up,  how  will  he  protect  himself?  He  cannot  do  it,  and  he 
will  be  thrown  into  jail  and  fined.  This  would  seem  to  be  in  violation  of  that 
provision  of  the  treaty  which  says  he  may  go  and  come  of  his  own  free  will 
and  accord.  This  bill  says  : 

"  And  any  Chinese  who  shall  knowingly  come  into  the  United  States  con 
trary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor, 
and  on  conviction  thereof  shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  $lUO,  or 


694  APPENDIX. 

by  imprisonment  not  exceeding  one  year,  or  both  said  punishments,  in  the 
discretion  of  the  court." 

If  he  is  a  teacher  or  a  merchant  or  a  Chinaman  coming  here  from  curiosity, 
he  has  a  perfect  right  under  this  treaty  to  go  and  come  at  his  own  free  will 
and  accord.  But  if  he  be  one  of  those  characters,  and  he  has  not  complied 
with  everything  prescribed  in  reference  to  passport,  registration,  descriptive 
list,  and  all  that  is  set  forth  in  this  long  ponderous  bill  and  its  numerous 
sections,  he  is  to  be  seized  and  thrown  into  prison  and  fined,  and  remain 
there  till  he  pay  the  fine  ;  and  that  is  what  we  call  extending  to  him  the 
same  rights,  privileges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  which  are  accorded  to 
citizens  and  subjects  of  the  most  favored  nation ! 

Do  you,  I  ask,  senators,  by  your  law  extend  such  denial  of  rights  and 
privileges  to  the  subjects  even  of  the  most  unfavored  nations?  Do  you  ex 
tend  such  treatment  to  the  subjects  of  any  other  nation  ?  Is  there  any  other 
nation  on  the  globe  whose  subjects  are  compelled  to  comply  with  all  these 
provisions  before  they  can  enter  an  American  port?  Is  there  any  other 
nation  on  the  globe  whose  subjects  can  be  seized,- tried,  fined,  and  impris 
oned  for  the  non-compliance  with  provisions  like  those  contained  jn  this  bill? 
If  there  is  an  instance  I  am  not  aware  of  it;  and  I  ask  any  senator  favoring 
this  bill  to  point  it  out.  Where  is  the  law  on  our  statute  book  that  compels 
the  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  Fiance,  Germany,  Italy,  or  of  any  power  in 
South  America,  or  of  any  African  chief  in  the  darkest  jungles  of  that  be 
nighted  land  to  comply  with  any  such  terms  under  any  such  penalties  before 
he  can  enter  a  port  of  the  United  States? 

Mr.  Farley.  In  the  first  place  there  is  no  treaty  between  the  United 
States  Government  and  those  governments  the  senator  mentions  that  such 
legislation  may  be  had;  but  in  this  case  there  is  a  solemn  treaty  between 
the  two  governments,  China  and  the  United  States,  that  such  legislation 
may  be  had  as  will  suspend  the  further  immigration  of  that  class  of  people, 
but  not  absolutely  prohibit  it. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  take  issue  with  my  friend  from  Califor 
nia,  but  his  statement  is  not  correct. 

Mr.  Farley.     It  is  very  plain. 

Mr.  Brown.  But  it  is  not  true.  The  treaty  applies  simply  to  laborers, 
and  says  distinctly  it  shall  apply  to  no  other  class.  I  am  talking  about 
teachers  and  merchants  and  students,  and  those  coining  from  curiosity,  who 
are  mentioned  in  the  treaty,  which  expressly  excepts  them  from  its  provis 
ions.  I  say  there  is  no  such  provision  in  the  treaty  as  the  senator  refers  to. 

Mr.  Farley.     There  is  a  provision  in  reference  to  laborers. 

Mr.  Brown.  There  is  a  provision  in  reference  to  laborers  the  senator  says. 
I  am  not  controverting  that;  I  was  not  talking  about  that.  I  am  talking 
about  the  provisions  of  the  bill  which  would  apply  to  other  classes,  where 
the  treaty  says  distinctly  and  expressly  that  they  are  not  included  in  its 
limitations. 

I  repeat,  there  is  no  such  legislation  unfavorable  to  the  subjects  of  any 
other  power  on  earth  as  we  propose  to  apply  to  the  subjects  of  China  who 
are  not  laborers,  and  who  are  expressly  protected  by  the  treaty,  and  of 
whom  it  is  said,  in  the  treaty  to  which  we  have  solemnly  pledged  our  faith 
before  the  world,  that  they  shall  go  and  come  of  their  own  free  will  and 
accord.  If  this  bill  passes  they  cannot  come  into  the  territory  of  this 
Government  without  complying  with  all  these  cumbersome  and  burdensome 
provisions  that  I  have  mentioned.  It'  the  master  of  a  ship  brings  one  in, 
in  accordance  with  the  treaty,  of  his  own  free  will  and  accord,  without  a 
compliance  of  these  provisions,  he  is  liable  to  be  punished,  and  his  ship  is 
to  be  seized  and  forfeited.  That  is  the  privilege  we  propose  to  extend  to 


APPENDIX.  695 

the  Chinaman,  of  going  and  coming  at  his  own  free  will  and  accord,  with 
all  the  rights,  privileges,  and  immunities  of  the  subjects  or  citizens  of 
the  most  favored  nation  !  That  is  the  kind  of  faith  we  propose  to  keep. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.     Will  the  senator  allow  ine  to  interrupt  him  ? 

Mr.  Brown.     Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.  Does  the  senator  think  it  would  be  within  the 
treaty  for  a  teacher  or  merchant  belonging  to  the  permitted  class  to  show  that 
he  was  one  of  the  permitted  class,  to  show  that  he  was  a  teacher  ?  In  other 
words,  would  it  conflict  with  the  treaty  if  we  required  that  he  should  identify 
himself?  IT  not  this,  what  other  plan  can  be  adopted  by  which  he  may  be 
identified  as  belonging  to  the  permitted  class?  The  provisions  of  the  bill 
are  merely  for  the  purpose  of  identification.  They  are  in  the  interest  of  the 
classes  enumerated  who  are  permitted  to  come.  If  there  were  no  provision 
of  this  sort  in  the  bill,  it  would  be  left  to  the  United  States  authorities  to 
decide  whether  they  were  of  the  permitted  classes  or  not.  The  bill  leaves 
it  for  the  Chinese  Government  to  decide,  and  those  persons  whom  the  Chinese 
Government  say  are  merchants  or  traders  or  teachers,  and  so  on,  and  are 
not  laborers,  are  permitted  to  come  when  they  present  the  evidence  that  the 
Chinese  Government  gives  them  of  that  character. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  provisions  of  the  bill  look  more  to  prohibition  than 
identification.  No  unprejudiced  mind  can  read  it  without  being  struck  with 
its  harshness.  It  breathes  an  unfriendly  spirit  from  the  enacting  clause  to 
the  end  of  its  last  section.  It  violates,  without  the  blush  of  shame,  the  ex 
press  and  undeniable  provisions  of  a  solemn  treaty. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  treaty  that  requires  of  any  Chinaman  of  the  classes 
about  which  I  have  been  speaking  to  bring  any  certificate  of  identification. 
It  is  expressly  provided  in  the  treaty  that  it  shall  apply  to  no  other  class 
except  laborers.  All  otther  classes  stand  just  where  they  did  before  the 
treaty  as  to  their  right  to  come,  with  the  superadded  provision  in  the  treaty 
itself  that  they  may  go  and  come  of  their  own  free  will  and  accord,  with 
the  rights,  privileges,  and  immunities  of  citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most 
favored  nation.  Do  you  propose  any  stringent  legislation  of  this  character 
for  the  identification  of  an  Irishman  or  a  German?  The  subjects  of  China 
who  are  not  laborers  are  placed  by  treaty  in  exactly  the  same  position  of  the 
Irishman  or  the  German. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.  If  the  senator  will  allow  me,  the  treaty  has  an 
object  in  it.  The  object  is  to  prevent  the  coming  of  laborers.  There  has  to 
be  some  mode  of  deciding  who  are  laborers  and  who  are  not  laborers,  who 
are  teachers  and  who  are  not  teachers ;  and  that  is  what  the  treaty  is  for. 

Mr.  Brown.  Yes,  the  treaty  has  an  object,  and  so  has  this  bill.  The 
object  of  the  bill  is  to  throw  such  obstacles  in  the  way  as  will,  without  regard 
to  the  treaty,  greatly  limit,  if  it  does  not  prevent,  all  Chinese  from  coming  to 
this  country. 

The  senator  stated  when  he  was  last  up  that  that  was  left  to  the  Chinese 
government.  I  do  not  think  the  senator  will  be  quite  content  to  leave  it 
there.  If  you  leave  it  for  them  to  decide,  they  may  give  passports  indiscrimi 
nately  to  everybody  who  wants  to  come.  Is  that  the  test  you  are  willing  to 
apply  in  determining  whether  they  are  laborers  ?  If  you  make  the  Chinese 
government  the  judge,  you  must  be  bound  by  their  judgment,  and  then  you 
have  no  right  to  complain  of  anybody  who  comes,  but  you  must  admit  that 
all  who  come  under  a  passport  with  registration,  etc.,  are  entitled  under  the 
treaty  to  come. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.  Unless  it  is  clearly  shown  that  it  was  done  in 
fraud  of  the  treaty  with  the  Chinese  government. 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  what  sort  of  tribunal  would  you  have  to  try  the  question 
of  fraud? 


696  APPENDIX. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.  The  passports  would  be  viseed  by  our  own  con 
sul  or  by  our  diplomatic  representative  in  China.  We  would  leave  it  to  that 
authority. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  reply  to  the  senator  that  our  representative  there  is  not  sup 
posed  to  know  all  the  subjects  of  China,  whether  they  are  of  the  laboring  class 
or  to  what  class  they  belong. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.     They  would  have  the  power  to  investigate. 

Mr.  Brown.  We  have  made  no  provision  in  the  treaty  for  any  .«uch  inves 
tigation  on  their  part  there.  We  have  agreed  that  all  Chinese  except  laborers 
may  go  and  come  of  their  own  free  will. 

Mr.  Hoar.  Will  the  senator  from  Georgia  allow  me  to  make  a  suggestion 
in  connection  with  what  he  is  saying? 

Mr.  Brown.  Yes,  sir;  I  have  no  objection,  though  I  wish  to  conclude  as 
soon  as  possible. 

Mr.  Hoar.  I  thought  it  might  perhaps  call  attention  to  the  point  the  sena 
tor  was  making,  if  he  will  permit  me.  or  1  will  make  it  afterward. 

Mr.  Brown.     Certainly ;  I  yield  to  any  senator  who  wishes  to  interrupt  me. 

Mr.  Hoar.  The  point  which  the  senator  from  Georgia  is  making  is  very 
strongly  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  bill  as  originally  drawn  undertook  to 
enforce  the  treaty  to  that  extent.  The  first  section  of  the  original  bill,  as 
the  senator  will  find  on  the  paper  which  he  has  before  him,  provides — 

"  That  all  subjects  or  citizens  of  China  who  are  students  coming  to  the 
United  States  for  purposes  of  education,  merchants  or  traders  engaged  in 
lawful  commerce,  travellers,  etc.,  may  lawfully  enter,  remain  in,  or  pass 
through  the  United  States  upon  being  identified  as  hereinafter  provided." 

That  was  the  original  proposition,  which  was  rejected  by  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations,  and  instead  of  that  conies  the  present  bill  simply  prohibit 
ing  and  punishing  certain  persons  who  are  not  found  to  be  so  and  so,  not 
repeating  the  authority  which  the  treaty  gives  them.  It  shows  that  it  was 
the  object  of  the  framers  of  the  bill  to  make  a  much  greater  difficulty. 

Mr.  Teller.     The  framers  of  the  bill  or  the  committee  ? 

Mr.  Hoar.     Those  who  reported  the  bill  finally  propose  the  amendment. 

Mr.  Teller.     The  committee. 

Mr.  Hoar.     The  senator  from  Georgia  will  excuse  me  for  the  interruption. 

Mr.  Brown.  There  is  no  provision  in  the  treaty  requiring  the  Emperor  of 
China  to  decide  whether  a  subject  of  his  leaving  the  shores  of  China  for  this 
country  is  a  laborer,  or  whether  he  belongs  to  any  other  class.  There  is  no 
provision  in  the  treaty  that  provides  for  our  consul  or  diplomatic  representa 
tive  in  China  determining  that  question. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.  Is  there  any  hardship  that  it  shall  be  left  to  him 
to  decide  V 

Mr.  Brown.  Yes;  it  would  be  a  very  great  hardship.  If  our  representa 
tive  were  acting  there  under  the  prejudice  that  most  people  here  act  under, 
it  would  be  a  one- sided  tribunal  to  try  the  case. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.  I  am  speaking  of  the  Chinese  government.  I 
ask  is  it  a  hardship  on  the  Chinese  government  to  decide? 

Mr.  Brown.  When  the  Chinese  government  has  provided  by  treaty  that 
its  subjects  fhall  come  and  go  at  their  pleasure,  you  have  no  right  to  ask  it 
of  the  Chinese  government.  Nor  have  you  a  right  to  impose  the  burden 
on  a  Chinese  wishing  to  come  here,  of  going  a  thousand  miles  to  Pekin  to  get 
a  passport. 

Mr.  Teller.  I  should  like  to  make  an  inquiry  of  the  senator,  if  he  will 
allow  me,? 

Mr.  Brown.     I  am  willing  to  be  interrupted  by  all  senators. 

Mr.  Teller.     That  is  not  the  proper  statement.     They  have  said  that  a  cer- 


APPENDIX.  697 

tain  class  should  not  come  here  if  we  object  to  them.  Is  it  unreasonable  that 
we  should  designate  the  class  when  we  leave  it  to  them  to  make  prima  facie 
evidence  of  it?  Certainly  it  is  very  liberal,  it  seems  to  me. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senators  all  make  the  point  that  the  treaty  authorizes  us 
to  regulate,  limit,  at>d  suspend  the  coining'  oflaborers.  I  am  not  discussing 
that  part  of  the  subject.  I  am  speaking  of  those  who  are  not  laborers. 

Mr.  Miller,  of  California.  How  will  you  determine  that  they  are  not 
laborers. 

Mr.  Brown.  You  will  probably  determine  that  best  when  they  get  here. 
If  they  come  here,  and  it  turns  out  that  they  are  simply  laborers,  and  you 
can  establish  that  point  and  show  that  they  came  in  violation  of  law  and  of 
the  treaty,  you  can  do  as  you  propose  in  this  bill  to  do  by  any  of  them  who 
do  not  bring  a  passport  and  go  through  the  long  routine  of  registration  and 
certificates.  You  can  provide  a  way  to  have  them  sent  out  of  the  country; 
but  you  have  no  right  under  the  treaty,  to  prevent  the  classes  who  have  a 
right  to  come  from  coming  because  some  other  classes  are  prohibited  from 
coming. 

Take  this  instance :  Suppose  a  Chinese  teacher  and  students  are  in  the  re 
public  of  Mexico  to-day.  They  are  subjects  of  the  Government  of  China, 
and  they  desire  to  come  into  the  United  States.  They  are  in  sight  of  our 
boundary  line.  Under  this  act,  if  it  is  passed,  although  the  treaty  says  they 
may  come  and  go  at  pleasure,  they  must  first  go  home  to  China  and  get  a 
passport  and  sail  back  again  before  they  can  enter  our  limits,  though  the 
treaty  says  there  shall  be  no  such  restriction  upon  them.  Is  that  keeping 
faith  with  the  Government  of  China.  Is  there  a  senator  here  who  can  say 
that  that  is  within  the  spirit  and  meaning  of  this  treaty  ?  I  apprehend  not 
— not  one. 

Have  you  ever  heard  of  an  instance  where  an  Irishman  or  a  German,  be 
fore  he  could  come  to  this  country,  must  get  a  passport  at  home,  bring  it 
here  and  have  it  registered,  carry  it  with  him  everywhere  he  goes,  show  it  to 
our  officers  when  required,  present  it  if  he  wants  to  go  back  upon  a  visit  to 
the  old  country  again,  and  bring  it  again  when  he  returns?  Have  they  ever 
been  cumbered  with  any  such  provision  as  this?  Never  in  any  case.  No; 
they  are  subjects  of  favored  nations;  they  are  among  the  most  favored  na 
tions;  and  when  the  Irishman  and  German  come  here  they  soon  have  the 
ballot  in  their  hands,  and  then  they  are  very  good  people,  and  politicians  and 
statesmen  and  everybody  respects  them;  but  the  Chinaman  comes  in  and  we 
raise  the  clamor  that  he  must  not  enter  till  he  has  been  cumbered  with  all 
these  hindrances,  although  we  have  expressly  pledged  our  faith  to  China  that 
he  shall  be  put  upon  the  same  terms  and  have  the  same  exemptions,  immu 
nities,  and  privileges  which  the  Irishman  or  the  German,  in  the  case  sup 
posed  has,  or  which  anybody  else  has. 

We  have  always  claimed  the  right  for  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  other 
nations  to  come  to  this  country  and  find  homes  in  our  vast  territory,  to  be 
naturalized  and  made  citizens;  and  when  so  naturalized  we  have  claimed 
that  they  are  absolved  from  further  allegiance  to  the  country  of  their  nativ 
ity.  Great  Britain  denied  this  piinciple  in  1812  and  claimed  the  right  to 
board  our  ships  on  the  ocean,  to  look  after  her  subjects,  or  those  who  had 
been  such  and  were  then  in  our  service.  We  denied  her  right,  and  fought 
the  war  of  1812  in  vindication  of  the  right  of  expatriation  by  the  subjects  of 
any  government  who  might  choose  to  remove  to  and  become  citizens  of  this 
country.  While  I  do  not  think  it  would  be  wise  to  naturalize  many  Chinese 
and  make  them  citizens,  under  all  the  circumstances,  I  see  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  stand  by  the  doctrine  of  the  right  of  expatriation  at  least  to  the 
extent  of  protecting  all  the  rights  possessed  by  .Chinese  subjects  under  the 


698  APPENDIX. 

treaty  of  1881.  They  do  not  claim  the  right  of  naturalization  under  that 
treaty. 

Mr.  Teller.  I  should  like  to  ask  the  senator  a  question.  He  has  put  a 
pretty  lengthy  one  to  the  entire  senate.  Does  the  senator  doubt  our  right 
to  exact  just  such  a  thing  as  he  has  suggested,  a  passport,  from  every  man 
who  comes  to  this  country,  if  we  see  fit  to  exact  it? 

Mr.  Brown.  No,  I  do  not;  but  I  deny  your  right  under  this  treaty  to  re 
quire  it  of  the  Chinese  unless  you  require  it  of  other  people,  because  you 
have  pledged  your  honor  before  the  civilized  world  that  you  would  put  the 
Chinaman  upon  the  terms  of  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  the  most  favored 
nation.  Whenever  you  put  that  burden  on  the  subjects  of  the  most  favored 
nation  you  can  without  violation  of  your  faith  to  China  place  it  upon  the  Chi 
naman.  Till  then  how  do  you  justify  it?  I  do  not  question  your  power  to 
apply  it  to  all  immigrants,  but  I  do  deny  that  you  treat  all  alike  as  you 
pledged  yourselves  to  do  when  you  apply  it  to  the  Chinaman  and  apply  it 
to  nobody  else  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  I  say  when  we  do  that  we  do  not 
keep  faith. 

I  should  like  to  hear  any  senator  explain  how  it  is  that  we  keep  faith  when 
we  throw  all  these  hindrances  in  the  way  of  the  Chinaman  who  is  coming, 
under  the  provisions  of  this  treaty,  and  do  not  put  them  upon  the  immigrant 
from  any  other  power  or  nation  on  earth.  Do  you  permit  them  to  go  and 
come  of  their  own  free  will  and  accord,  and  do  you  accord  to  them  all  the 
rights,  privileges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  which  are  accorded  to  citizens 
and  subjects  of  the  most  favored  nations  ?  Do  you  ?  1  would  bii  glad  to  have 
an  answer  to  that  question.  I  have  been  interrupted  several  times,  and  now 
I  invite  and  court  the  interruption.  Let  any  senator  on  this  floor  who  un 
dertakes  to  defend  this  bill  now  rise  and  say  that  this  bill  does  not  violate 
this  provision  of  the  treaty  with  China.  Let  him  say,  and  defend  his  position 
if  he  can,  that  this  bill  puts  Chinese  not  laborers  on  the  same  terms  or  in  the 
same  position  as  the  subjects  of  other  favored  nations.  I  pause  for  the  in 
terruption.  Defend  the  position  if  you  can. 

Mr.  Farley.  How  would  you  discriminate  between  them  unless  there  was 
a  provision  of  that  sort?  You  might  as  well  undertake  to  discriminate  be 
tween  the  flies  on  a  bee-gum  on  a  summer's  day.  You  cannot  do  it  unless 
you  have  a  provision  of  that  sort. 

Mr.  Brown.  That  is  no  answer.  It  is  simply  saying  that  to  identify  a 
person  prohibited  by  the  treaty,  you  must,  from  necessity,  place  a  burden  on 
a  person  not  prohibited,  and  from  which  the  treaty  expressly  exempts  him, 
till  you  have  placed  it  on  the  subjects  of  the  most  favored  nations ;  which 
you  do  not  pretend  has  been  done,  and  which  you  do  not  propose  to  do.  The 
reason  you  give  may  be  a  very  good  one  in  favor  of  an  application  to  the 
Emperor  of  China  for  a  modification  of  this  treaty;  but  it  is  no  reply  to  the 
charge  of  violation  of  the  treaty  as  it  now  exists.  And  1  again  assert  that 
no  such  reply  will  or  can  successfully  be  made. 

Mr.  Farley.     They  have  modified  it  once. 

Mr.  Brown.  As  the  senator  from  California  says,  they  have  modified  it 
once;  and  we  had  a  pretty  hard  time  in  getting  the  modification  we  have  al 
ready  procured  to  the  treaty;  but  when  we  have  accepted  such  a  modification 
and  agreed  to  be  bound  by  it,  and  pledged  our  faith  to  it,  let  us  in  common 
honesty  keep  faith  until  it  is  again  modified. 

I  know  we  are  not  bound  to  stand  by  a  treaty  perpetually.  We  can  give 
notice  that  we  will  not  be  bound  by  it,  and  we  can  abrogate  it,  after  proper 
notice,  without  the  consent  of  the  Chinese  Government  or  any  other  govern 
ment.  But  we  risk  the  chances  of  war;  we  risk  the  chances  of  non  inter 
course  ;  we  risk  the  destruction  of  our  trade  and  commerce  with  China  when- 


APPENDIX.  699 

ever  we  do  it.  If  we  are  willing  to  take  the  risks,  we  have  the  power  to 
annul  any  treaty  that  we  have  entered  into.  But  we  must  take  the  conse 
quences.  Now  what  would  be  the  consequence  in  this  case? 

Mr.  Teller.  I  should  like  to  ask  the  senator  a  question.  Is  the  senator 
aware  that  he  might  go  to  China  now,  as  a  senator  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  a  great  portion  of  China  would  be  closed  to  him ;  that  he  could  not  get 
into  it  even  with  a  passport?  When  he  talks  about  the  danger  of  offending 
that  nation  he  should  remember  that  they  do  not  give  to  any  class  of  our  peo 
ple  any  such  freedom  there  as  he  demands  for  the  Chinese  here. 

Mr.  Brownl  Yes;  and  I  will  inform  the  senator  that  the  treaty  between 
China  and  this  Government  does  not  give  it  to  us.  We  got  no  such  provision 
in  our  favor  in  the  treaty.  That  again  may  be  a  good  reason  why  the  treaty 
needs  modification.  The  Chinamen  really  were  too  shrewd  for  our  states 
men,  as  it  was  avowed  on  my  left  in  a  speech  this  morning.  They  got  the 
better  of  the  treaty;  but  is  that  a  reason  why  we  should  refuse  to  keep  faith 
and  be  bound  by  it  while  it  is  in  existence?  The  manly  way  is  to  seek  its 
modification,  and  if  that  cannot  be  done,  abide  by  it  while  it  is  in  force  and 
abrogate  it  when  we  must,  and  take  the  consequences. 

There  is  another  provision  in  the  bill  to  which  I  want  to  refer.  The  pro 
vision  of  the  treaty  I  have  just  mentioned  applies  as  well  to  laborers  who 
were  at  the  time  of  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  in  the  United  States  as  it 
does  to  the  other  classes  I  have  mentioned.  They  too  are  guarantied  the 
right  to  go  and  come  at  pleasure,  of  their  own  free  will  and  accord.  Do  we 
propose  by  this  legislation  to  carry  out  those  provisions  in  good  faith  ?  Do 
we  propose  to  have  any  regard  to  our  own  honor  about  it?  No;  we  propose 
that  they  shall  not  go  and  come  according  to  their  own  free  will  and  accord, 
but  that  they  must  first  go  and  register  at  the  custom-house  before  they  can 
go  back  to  that  country  or  go  anywhere  else,  and  when  they  return  they  must 
have  their  registration  certificate  or  they  cannot  come  in.  If  it  should  get 
lost  or  be  burned  during  their  absence  they  could  not  enter.  The  provision 
in  the  treaty  that  they  may  come  and  go  of  their  own  free  will  and  accord 
is  simply  violated.  I  can  use  no  milder  term. 

It  was  said  by  the  senator  from  Colorado  [Mr.  Teller]  in  his  last  remark 
that  an  American  could  not  go  into  certain  parts  of  China  even  with  a  pass 
port.  That  is  true;  and  for  a  long  time  he  could  go  into  no  part  of  China 
even  with  a  passport.  It  has  been  a  very  hard  struggle  for  the  different 
Christian  churches  of  this  country  and  Great  Britain  and  other  parts  of  the 
world  to  get  admission  into  the  Chinese  territory  for  our  missionaries  of  the 
cross.  Better  relations  have  grown  up  between  this  country  and  China. 
They  are  now  admitted  into  a  large  part  of  the  empire ;  they  have  privileges 
that  they  could  not  have  a  few  years  ago.  Suppose  in  this  state  of  things 
we  now  openly  violate  the  treaty  that  we  have  made  with  China  and  exclude 
her  subjects  from  coming  here  as  expressly  provided  by  the  treaty  that  they 
may  come,  would  we  be  astonished  if  an  edict  should  go  forth  from  the 
Chinese  throne  that  every  missionary  and  every  merchant  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  driven  from  the  country?  Is  this  what  the  American  public 
seeks  V  Is  this  what  the  Christian  people  of  this  country  desire? 

But  it  has  been  said  that  you  cannot  teach  them  Christianity;  that  they 
will  not  assimilate  with  the  people  of  this  country.  Treat  the  subjects  of 
any  other  government  on  earth  as  you  have  treated  the  Chinese  in  this 
country,  and  you  will  find  they  will  not  assimilate.  The  people  who  hunt 
them  down,  who  throw  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  their  progress,  who 
enact  penal  laws  in  every  manner  possible  for  their  punishment  for  offences 
that  you  would  not  call  crimes  in  others,  should  not  expect  them  to  assimilate. 
A  people  thus  treated  could  not  be  expected  to  ieel  inclined  to  assimilate. 


700  APPENDIX. 

I  remember  twenty  odd  years  ago  Rev.  Dr.  Stiles,  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  United  States,  in  one  of  their  general  assemblies,  in  speaking 
of  the  Africans  in  this  country,  used  in  substance  this  remark,  for  I  cannot 
quote  his  exact  language:  "  The  Southern  church  holds  up  to  the  gaze  of 
heaven  and  earth  more  converted  heathen  than  can  be  found  in  all  the  mis 
sionary  fields  of  all  the  churches  in  heathen  lands."  How  is  it  that  six  and 
a  half  million  of  Africans  to-day  on  this  continent  and  within  the  hounds  of 
this  Government  are  civilized,  and  a  large  number  of  them  are  Christianized? 
Because  they  were  brought  here  into  contact  with  civilization  and  Chris 
tianity.  Our  missionaries  have  gone  to  Africa,  to  the  dark  jungles  from 
whence  they  came,  and  have  tried  to  teach  Christianity  there ;  and  what  has 
been  the  success?  Feeble;  amounting  to  nothing  as  compared  with  the 
results  where  they  were  here  among  us.  They  were  brought  here  as  slaves, 
it  is  true,  and  they  were  in  some  instances  maltreated;  but  the  relations 
between  the  two  races  had  become  very  cordial  before  the  emancipation,  and 
the  result  was  their  Christianization.  Take  the  Chinaman  by  the  hand  and 
treat  him  as  you  now  treat  the  African,  and  you  will  find  him  assimilate 
much  more  readily  than  he  does  with  your  hand  turned  against  him,  with 
your  legislation  turned  against  him,  with  your  penal  statutes  directed  against 
him,  with  no  encouragement  offered  to  him,  but  every  possible  discourage 
ment. 

No,  the  Chinaman  does  not  assimilate.  We  do  not  permit  him  to  assimi 
late.  We  offer  him  no  inducement  to  assimilate;  and  yet  with  all  this 
oppression,  and  I  may  say  tyranny  over  him,  the  Christian  churches  even  in 
California  are  planting  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  among  them.  I 
do  not  know  what  the  will  of  Providence  is  upon  this  question.  It  may  be 
that  He  has  directed  these  people  to  our  shores  as  He  did  the  African  people 
under  circumstances  of  hardship  and  oppression,  that  they  may  become 
Christianized.  If  we  cannot  by  proper  treatment  Christianize  them  here 
when  brought  into  constant  contact  and  association  with  a  Christian  people, 
how  do  you  expect  our  missionaries  to  do  it  in  the  Chinese  territory  where 
everything  bears  the  other  way  V 

T  believe  in  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  I  believe  when  it  was  said, 
"  Go,  teach  all  nations,"  that  it  was  meant.  When  it  was  said  in  another 
place,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,"  I 
believe  it  was  intended ;  and  I  believe  the  day  will  come  when  it  will  triumph 
in  every  nation;  until  the  millennial  period  will  be  reached;  and  this  may 
be  one  of  the  means.  I  know  not  what  are  the  decrees  of  Providence  upon 
this  subject,  but  certainly  there  is  more  prospect  of  Christianizing  the  Chi 
nese  by  proper  treatment  when  they  are  here  in  contact  with  us  than  there 
is  by  sending  missionaries  to  their  country.  When  we  violate  faith  with  the 
government  of  that  country  they  will  naturally  ask,  "Is  this  the  character 
of  the  Christianity  you  send  us?  Is  this  the  way  you  keep  faith?  Is  this 
your  .estimate  of  moral  duty  ?  You  make  a  compact  with  us,  and  you  pay 
no  attention  to  the  obligation  of  your  compact."  I  do  not  think  this  is  the 
way  to  Christianize  or  civilize  the  Chinese.  If  we  want  to  convert  them  to 
our  Christianity  and  our  civilization  we  must  show  them  that  we  practice  a 
hiuher  morality  than  this.  In  my  opinion  the  passage  of  this  act  in  this 
shape  would  be  a  great  obstruction  to  the  cause  of  Christianity  in  China  for 
a  long  time  to  come. 

I  said  that  churches  had  already  been  planted  among  them  in  California. 
Less  than  two  years  ago  the  Southern  Baptist  convention  appointed  a  mis 
sionary  to  San  Francisco  to  teach  the  Gospel  to  that  people.  He  has  been 
laboring  with  them  but  a  short  period,  and  he  now  has  a  small  church  of 
Chinamen.  Other  denominations  of  Christians  also  have  churches  there. 


APPENDIX.  701 

Under  all  the  disadvantages  and  all  the  disrespect  shown  them  there,  the 
Gospel  still  makes  its  impression  upon  them;  and  if  we  should  tre.it  them 
differently  we  do  not  know  how  fast,  by  getting  into  their  confidence  and 
showing  a  disposition  to  do  justice,  the  Gospel  would  spread  among  them. 

But  it  is  said  that  there  is  such  an  immense  number  of  them,  if  we  permit 
them  to  come  here  without  restraint,  they  will  overrun  the  whole  country. 
There  have  been  about  thirty-two  years  when  there  has  been  no  such 
restraint.  The  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was  ratified,  1  believe,  in  1848. 
From  that  time  until  this,  so  far  as  I  know  or  recollect,  there  has  been  no 
law  that  prohibited  the  importation.  What  number  have  they  reached  in 
thirty-two  years?  The  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Hoar]  in  his  able 
speech  told  us,  the  other  day,  that,  according  to  the  last  census,  there  were 
about  108,000  Chinese  in  this  country,  about  76,000  of  those  in  California. 
Divide  that  into  thirty  years,  and  what  has  been  the  average  each  year? 
Between  three  and  four  thousand  immigrants  a  year.  Some  years  it  has 
gone  above  that,  some  years  it  has  fallen  below.  Probably  there  has  been  a 
larger  number  of  immigrants,  but  to  speak  accurately,  for  a  great  many  have 
gone  back,  that  is  the  number  remaining  here  to  overrun  this  immense  con 
tinent  and  subjugate  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  the  United  States.  In  thirty-two 
years  they  have  succeeded  in  having  108,000;  but  as  it  is  said  the  census  did 
not  embrace  all,  put  it  at  150,00  >,  if  you  please,  and  it  has  been  a  very  small 
importation  as  compared  with  that  from  other  countries.  Take  the  last  year, 
and  the  reports  show  that  there  were  in  round  numbers  6(J9,000  immigrants 
into  this  country,  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  million.  How  many  of  them 
were  Chinamen?  A  mere  fractional  part;  and  last  year,  bear  in  mind,  they 
were  laboring  under  the  stimulus  that  this  treaty  would  soon  be  in  the  way, 
and  it  was  better  to  hurry  up  if  any  of  them  expected  to  get  in  as  laborers. 
Even  then,  I  believe,  some  20,000  Chinamen  is  all  that  it  is  claimed  came  to 
this  country  out  of  669,000  immigrants  during  the  year. 

No,  Mr.  President,  there  is  nothing  in  that  point.  There  is  no  danger  of 
the  Chinese  race,  or  any  other  eastern  race,  overrunning  the  Anglo-Saxon  or 
any  white  race  in  Europe  or  America.  The  tide  of  emigration  has  been 
westward,  and  still  westward,  since  the  days  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals.  Ye?, 
it  runs  westward.  The  Chinese  empire  is  in  a  great  deal  more  danger  to-day 
of  being  overrun  and  subverted  by  Yankee  energy  and  Yankee  enterprise  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  empire  of  Russia  on  the  other,  and  England  on  the 
ocean,  than  this  country  is  of  being  overrun  by  Chinamen.  If  we  can  get  a 
treaty  there  as  liberal  as  we  can  by  acting  in  good  faith,  at  no  distant  day 
they  will  admit  our  people  without  restraint,  and  then  we  may  expect  our 
merchants  and  manufacturers  of  various  classes  to  go,  and  we  will  soon  have 
thousands,  tens  of  thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  people  in  China. 
It  is  a  vast  field  opening  to  commerce  ;  it  is  a  vast  field  opening  to  manu 
factures  and  to  railroads,  and  to  every  other  enterprise,  to  steamships,  to 
telegraphs,  to  telephones,  to  all  the  inventions  of  the  age.  It  is  a  wide  field 
open  for  us.  No  people  on  earth  are  more  interested  in  that  country  than 
the  people  of  the  United  States. 

As  1  said  in  the  outset,  Great  Britain  has  the  lead  there  now.  If  we  keep 
faith  with  Chinamen  and  the  Chinese  government,  and  act  as  we  ought  to 
act  as  a  rising  agricultural  and  manufacturing  power,  being  a  great  silver- 
producing  country  as  we  are,  with  our  great  silver  mines,  and  they  being 
monometaljists  in  silver,  and  with  our  manufacturing  establishments  making 
just  the  fabrics  they  need,  we  ouyht  to  build  up  a  boundless  trade  there,  and 
it  ought  to  be  a  great  field  for  white  men's  energy  and  thrift  and  gain.  I 
do  not  think,  then,  we  would  act  wisely  to  violate  good  faith  with  these 
people. 


702  APPENDIX. 

We  have  made  vast  expenditures  to  enable  us  to  reach  the  immense  future 
commerce  of  China,  Japan,  and  other  Asiatic  nations.  We  have  as  good  as 
donated  sixty-six  millions  of  dollars,  which,  with  interest,  now  amounts  to 
about  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  land  grants  covering  a  territory 
larger  than  the  republic  of  France  or  the  German  empire,  to  open  a  great 
hig'hway  by  railroad  to  the  commerce  of  the  East,  which  brings  that  com 
merce  to  our  doors  by  a  route  thousands  of  miles  nearer  than  it  can  be 
reached  by  European  nations.  In  addition  to  this,  companies  of  capitalists 
have  constructed  a  southern  line  of  railroad  across  the  continent,  to  put  the 
southern  section  of  the  Union  in  closer  relations  with  the  Eastern  powers. 
And  still  another  great  line  is  being  rapidly  pressed  forward,  known  as  the 
Northern  Pacific  Road.  In  addition  to  all  this  we  have  put  costly  lines  of 
steamers  on  the  Pacific  ocean.  Thus  we  have  already  expended  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars  to  open  the  highways  of  commerce  to  the  Eastern 
empires.  We  produce  about  60  per  cent,  of  the  cotton  of  the  world.  The 
400,000,000  of  people  in  the  Chinese  empire  use  cotton  almost  exclusively 
for  clothing.  The  cotton  goods  made  by  our  mills  meet  their  requirements 
better  than  those  made  by  the  mills  of  any  other  country.  This  alone,  to 
say  nothing  of  all  the  other  commerce  between  the  two  countries,  is  to  be  a 
vast  item  especially  important  to  the  Southern  States  of  this  Union. 

By  the  Burlingame  treaty  we  had  conciliated  the  government  and  people 
of  China,  and  they  have  shown  a  disposition  to  cultivate  the  most  friendly 
relations  with  us;  and  to  engage  in  an  active  commerce  which  will  be  mutu 
ally  beneficial,  and  which  may  soon  grow  to  hundreds  of  millions  a  year. 
In  view  of  all  these  important  considerations,  are  we  prepared  to  sacrifice 
the  investments  we  have  made,  and  the  vast  advantages  opening  to  us  for 
the  future,  by  giving  unnecessary  and  unjustifiable  offence  to  China  by  a 
flagrant  violation  ot  our  treaty  stipulations  with  that  government,  when 
there  is  not  even  a  plausible  pretext  for  the  act,  as  we  can  amply  protect 
ourselves  against  the  evils  of  any  dangerous  influx  of  Chinese  laborers,  and 
still  keep  within  both  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  treaty.  The  commerce 
between  this  country  and  China  is  now  rapidly  on  the  increase. 

In  this  connection  I  want  to  read  from  an  answer  to  a  telegram  which  I 
sent  to  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics.  I  inquired  of  him  what  was 
the  per  cent,  ot  increase  in  our  commerce  with  the  Chinese  people  since  the 
Burlingame  treaty.  He  states  in  reply  that  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of 
the  treaty  it  was  $515,365,013.  During  the  year  ending  June  30,  1881,  it  was 
$27,765,409,  an  increase  almost  doubling  our  commerce  with  China  in  thir 
teen  years.  Suppose  we  act  in  bad  faith  in  this  matter  and  offend  that 
people  and  their  government,  where  we  are  in  the  wrong,  may  we  expect 
this  progression  of  increase  to  go  forward  as  it  has  gone  since  the  Burlin 
game  treaty  was  ratified?  No;  we  have  much  more  reason  to  suppose  it 
will  go  backward,  and  that  we  will  have  .to  yield  .that  most  inviting  field  to 
England,  and  France,  and  other  commercial  nations,  who  will  deal  justly  by 
them  and  keep  faith  with  them. 

It  has  been  objected,  however,  that  the  Chinamen  in  this  country  work 
for  wages  lower  than  our  people  can  afford  to  work,  and  that  we  cannot  on 
that  account  permit  them  to  come.  I  state  very  frankly  that  I  do  not  want 
to  introduce  a  class  of  people  here  to  interfere  with  the  labor  of  this  country, 
or  to  reduce  labor  to  a  lower  standard.  I  have  always  stood  firmly  by  the 
laboring  classes.  I  oppose  every  measure  that  looks  to  the  reduction  of  the 
price  of  labor.  But  when  you  look  at  the  statistics  and  statements  that  we 
read  in  the  newspapers,  I  believe  about  the  highest  labor  now  on  the  conti 
nent  is  found  in  the  State  of  California.  I  think  the  senator  from  Massa 
chusetts  [Mr.  Hoar]  demonstrated  that  the  other  day  in  his  speech.  Our 


APPENDIX.  703 

laborers  there  get  better  wages,  when  they  are  willing  to  work,  than  they 
get  probably  in  any  other  State  in  the  Union.  This  does  not  look  as  if 
Chinese  labor  there  has  ruined  our  working  people. 

But  there  is  another  insuperable  objection  raised.  It  is  said  the  Chinese 
come  here  not  to  stay.  It  is  not  very  consistent  with  the  other  proposition, 
that  they  are  going  to  overrun  the  continent,  to  state  that  they  work  and  get 
our  money  and  then  go  back  home  again.  If  they  work  so  low  that  nobody 
else  can  labor  for  half  as  small  a  price  as  they  do,  for  every  dollar  they  carry 
back  they  leave  two  dollars'  worth  of  labor  here.  That  does  not  destroy  the 
country  much;  that  does  not  injure  the  United  States  a  great  deal.  If  we 
can  keep  them  out  of  conflict  with  other  laborers — and  they  have  been  mostly 
enua'.'ed  in  railroad  building  and  other  pursuits  where  you  could  scarcely  get 
American  laborers,  in  the  wilderness — if  they  do  that  sort  of  labor  for  us 
which  we  cannot  get  our  people  to  do,  and  do  it  at  half  what  the  labor  is 
worth,  and  then  leave  with  the  money,  we  keep  in  improvements  two  dollars 
for  every  one  they  take  away,  and  our  civilization  has  not  been  injured.  So 
that  point,  I  think,  weighs  but  little. 

I  believe,  Air.  President,  I  have  gone  substantially  over  the  ground  I  de 
sired  to  occupy  in  this  case.  As  I  stated  in  the  outset,  I  am  willing  to  vote 
for  a  bill  to  restrict,  limit,  and  for  a  reasonable  time  suspend,  in  accordance 
with  the  spirit  and  provisions  of  this  treaty,  the  importations  of  Chinese  labor 
ers.  I  do  not  think  twenty  years  a  reasonable  period.  I  do  not  think  it  in 
conformity  to  the  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  treaty.  I  do  think  it  a  viola 
tion  of  the  very  spirit  of  the  treaty.  Therefore  on  that  point  I  shall  vote  for 
the  amendment  of  the  senator  from  Kansas  [Mr.  Ingalls],  which  proposes 
to  limit  it  to  ten  years.  I  think  that  is  as  far  as  the  Chinese  Government 
could  permit  us  to  go  with  the  belief  that  we  were  acting  in  good  faith.  And 
to  show  how  careful  they  were  on  this  subject,  they  have  provided  in  the 
treaty  that  any  legislation  we  shall  enact  on  tfiis  point  is  to  be  submitted  to 
them  and  become  the  subject  of  negotiation  if  it  is  not  reason  able.  We  can 
not  expect  they  will  say  that  this  is  within  the  reason  and  spirit  of  the  treaty. 
If  they  say  it  is  not,  and  claim  further  concessions  we  shall  probably  then  be 
too  proud 'to  make  them,  for  we  shall  have  acted  and  will  not  like  to  go  back 
on  our  action,  and  the  result  will  probably  be  disastrous  to  our  intercourse 
and  our  commerce  with  that  empire. 

If  we  commence  by  a  shorter  period  of  limitation  or  suspension,  and  the 
Government  of  China  is  satisfied  with  it,  and  we  still  believe  at  the  end  of 
ten  years  that  the  importation  of  Chinese  laborers  is  a  positive  evil,  we  can 
re-enact  it ;  but  I  do  not  think  it  is  wise  or  just,  or  that  we  keep  faith  when 
we  say  we  will  commence  by  an  absolute  inhibition  for  twenty  years  under 
heavy  penalties.  If  that  is  the  letter  of  the  treaty  it  is  clearly  not  the  spirit 
of  it.  and  as  statesmen,  most  of  us  lawyers,  knowing  something  of  the  rules 
of  construction,  it  is  our  duty  to  deal  fairly  and  construe  this  instrument  as 
we  do  other  legal  documents,  and  then  to  carry  out  faithfully  its  provisions 
until  we  have  changed  them  or  have  given  notice  that  we  will  no  longer  be 
bound  by  the  treaty. 

I  know  I  do  not  occupy  the  popular  side  of  this  question.  In  a  somewhat 
protracted  political  career  it  has  frequently  been  my  misfortune  to  differ  with 
majorities,  and  to  stand  in  the  current  without  flinching,  while  the  surging 
waves  of  popular  disapproval  rolled  over  me  and  lashed  me  with  their  fury. 
And  I  have  afterward  lived  to  see  the  storm  subside,  the  elements  become 
calm  and  tranquil,  and  to  hear  the  plaudit  of  well  done,  for  the  act  that  pro 
voked  the  storm. 

The  statesman  who  adopts  the  rule  of  pandering  to  popular  opinion  may 
float  peacefully  with  the  current  for  the  time,  but  he  will  soon  be  called  to 


704  APPENDIX. 

answer  at  the  same  bar  of  public  opinion  for  acts  which  at  the  time  of  their 
performance  were  hailed  with  delight.  My  rule  is  to  inquire  :  Is  it  right? 
and  if  right  to  move  forward  without  fear.  1  would  rather  be  right  than 
popular.  1  would  rather  have  the  approval  of  my  own  conscience  than  the 
plaudits  of  the  multitude,  or  the  temporary  approval  of  those  who  are  con 
trolled  by  their  passions  and  not  by  their  reason  and  their  judgment. 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  DELIVERED  IN  THE 
SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  MARCH  27,  1882,  ON  THE  TARIFF 
COMMISSION  BILL,  IN  WHICH  FRKE  TRADE,  AND  A  TAKIFF  FOR  PRO 
TECTION,  AND  A  TAKIFF  FOR  REVENUE  WITH  INCIDENTAL  PROTECTION 
ARK  DISCUSSED,  ALSO  THE  INTEREST  WHICH  PLANTKKS,  FAKMKK8, 
HERDSMEN,  WOOL-GROWERS,  FRUIT-GROWERS,  ETC.,  HAVE  IN  A 
TARIFF  FOR  REVENUE  WITH  INCIDENTAL  PROTECTION. 

On  the  bill  (S.  No.  22)  to  provide  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission  to  investi 
gate  the  question  of  the  tariff  and  internal-revenue  laws. 

Mr.  Brown  said : 

Mr.  President :  I  had  not  expected  to  say  anything  whatever  on  the  pend 
ing  bill.  My  throat  is  in  such  a  condition  to-day  that  I  cannot  speak  with 
much  comfort.  However,  as  the  time  agreed  on  for  the  discussion  is  limited, 
and  other  senators  want  to  occupy  the  floor  to-morrow,  1  will  go  on  and  sub 
mit  a  few  remarks  at  this  hour. 

1  am  not  vain  enough  to  suppose  I  can  produce  anything  new  on  this  great 
question.  It  was  discussed  by  the  great  men  who  laid  the  foundations  of 
this  Government.  In  1816  and  for  many  years  after  that  date  it  was  dis 
cussed  by  such  men  as  Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Webster.  It  has  since  been  dis 
cussed  again  and  again  by  the  first  men  of  this  country.  The  principles  of 
each  conflicting  theory  are  well  understood.  I  have  listened  with  great 
interest  to  the  able  debate  which  has  been  conducted  during  this  session,  and 
I  have  heard  but  little  that  I  could  say  was  entirely  new.  It  has  been  an 
able  presentation  of  facts  and  arguments  heretofore  produced  by  the  great 
statesmen  who  have  already  exhausted  the  subject  and  left  nothing  new  to 
be  said  by  those  of  the  present  time. 

I  do  not,  therefore,  propose  to  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  the  principles 
involved  either  in  free  trade  or  protection,  but  I  rose  chit  fly  to  say  that  in 
my  opinion  this  contest  is  more  a  war  of  words  than  of  ideas.  I  do  not 
mean  by  that  that  very  strong  ideas  have  not  been  produced  on  both 
sides,  that  very  forcible  arguments  have  not  been  brought  forth  on  this  floor, 
because  it  is  true  that  there  have  been  many  good  ideas  submitted  on  both 
sides.  If  they  lacked  novelty  that  did  not  detract  from  their  force. 

I  notice  by  turning  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  there 
were  collected  during  the  last  fiscal  year  $198,159,676.02  on  imports.  In 
round  numbers,  I  will  call  it  $200,000,000  per  annum.  How  do  we  propose 
in  future  to  raise  this  sum,  if  we  cannot  dispense  with  it?  As  I  understand, 
it  is  riot  proposed  to  lessen  to  any  great  extent  the  appropriations  which  we 
have  to  make  this  year.  We  still  have  to  pay  interest  upon  the  public  debt, 
and  to  provide  a  proper  sinking  fund  upon  the  debt  each  year,  looking  to  an 
extinction  of  it  after  a  reasonable  time.  We  still  expect  to  pay  a  very  large 
sum  each  year  for  pensions.  We  expect  to  appropriate  large  sums  each  year 
for  rivers  and  harbors,  for  the  Army  and  Navy,  tor  the  Military  and  Naval 
Academies,  for  the  civil  establishment,  for  pensions  and  various  other  ex 
penditures.  I  confess  that  while  I  would  be  very  happy  to  see  a  large  re- 


APPENDIX.  705 

duction  in  the  public  expenditures,  I  do  not  see  that  the  way  is  very  clear 
for  it  at  this  time.  I  do  not  believe  we  ave  likely  to  make  the  appropriation 
at.  this  session,  judging  from  the  appropriation  bills  i  have  already  seen, 
much  less  than  they  were  for  the  present  fiscal  year.  A  very  large  additional 
sum  is  asked  for  the  improvement,  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  the  present 
terrible  destruction  of  property  by  the  great  freshet  would  seem  to  justify 
and  indeed  to  require  it.  Thus  you  must  raise  $200,000,000  by  tariff  for 
the  current  year. 

II  »w  do  you  propose  to  collect  this  1200,000,000  ?  There  are  but  two  modes 
that  I  am  aware  of.  One  is  a  direct  tax  upon  the  people,  the  other  is  collect 
it  upon  imports.  Which  will  we  choose  V  I  have  heard  no  senator  on  this 
side  who  has  discussed  what  might  be  termed  the  free-trade  side  of  the  ques 
tion  propose  to  raise  it  by  a  direct  tax.  What  would  it  amount  to?  We 
have  thirty-eight  States.  Take  my  own  State,  Georgia  ;  say  it  is  an  average 
State.  It'  $200,000.01)0  should  be  raised  by  direct  taxation,  Georgia  must 
raise  each  year  in  addition  to  what  is  now  raised,  by  the  collection  of  inter 
nal  revenue  and  State  tax,  a  sum  amounting  to  over  $5,000,000.  Her  people 
must  submit  to  the  present  State  tax,  school  tax,  county  tax,  corporate 
tax,  and  all  the  taxes  now  collected  which  they  consider  burdensome,  and 
we  must  add  to  that,  if  we  are  to  collect  it  by  a  direct  tax,  more  than  $5,~ 
000,OoO  a  year,  which  would  be  about  four  times  as  much  as  we  now  raise  by 
taxation  added.  I  take  it  for  granted  no  senator  on  this  floor  representing 
any  one  of  the  States  will  advocate  that  course  for  the  collection  of  all  our 
Federal  revenue.  If  he  does,  my  opinion  is  he  will  find  a  large  proportion 
of  his  constituents  differing  in  opinion  with  him.  Then  how  do  we  propose 
to  collect  it?  We  must  collect  it  as  heretofore,  by  levying  a  tariff  upon  im 
ports.  The  addition  of  about  five  and  a  quarter  millions  a  year  to  the  inter 
nal  revenue  paid  in  cash  by  the  people  of  Georgia  for  Federal  purposes  would 
knock  all  the  poetry  out  of  the  able  free-trade  speeches  to  which  we  have 
listened  with  so  much  interest. 

Doubtless  the  same  would  be  true  in  all  other  States.  Our  people  prefer  a 
tariff  to  direct  taxes.  They  are  willing  that  those  who  buy  the  most 
imported  goods  pay  the  most  tax. 

But  I  see  that  we  not  only  collect  in  round  numbers  $200,000,000  a  year 
on  imports,  but  we  also  collect  $135,000,000  per  annum  at  present  by  direct 
tax  laid  upon  certain  articles,  as  whiskey,  tobacco,  etc.  That  tax  I  suppose 
could  not  properly  at  present  be  collected  upon  imports,  and  yet  the  policy 
and  theory  of  this  Government  thus  far  has  been,  excepting  war  measures,  to 
collect  the  entire  revenues  by  a  tax  upon  imports.  This  1  believe  to  be  the 
true  policy.  I  believe  it  was  so  from  the  foundation  of  the  Government 
down  to  the  period  of  the  war  of  1812.  Then,  as  I  understand  it,  we  had  an 
internal-revenue  tax,  something  alter  the  order  of  that  we  have  growing  out 
of  the  late  unfortunate  civil  war;  but  the  country  got  rid  of  it  at  no  late 
period  after  the  war  had  terminated.  Then  our  fathers  of  both  political  par 
ties,  Whig  and  Democrat,  advocated  alike  the  collection  of  the  revenues  for 
the  support  of  the  Government  by  a.  tariff  upon  imports. 

I  consider  the  present  internal-revenue  system  an  excrescence  upon  the 
body-politic.  So  was  that  of  the  war  of  1812.  They  were  war  measures. 
They  were  justifiable  in  public  estimation  upon  no  other  theory.  I  wish  to 
see  the  present  internal-revenue  system  gotten  rid  of,  so  that  we  may  return 
to  the  old  rule  of  the  fathers  as  soon  as  the  expenditures  can  be  reduced  to  a 
point  where  we  can,  without  too  heavy  an  imposition  of  tariff  upon  imported 
goods,  collect  the  entire  money  that  the  Government  must  raise  annually  by 
a  tariff  upon  imports,  as  advocated  and  practiced,  except  in  time  of  war,  by 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Adams,  Madison,  Monroe,  Jackson,  Calhoun,  Clay, 
45 


706  APPENDIX. 

Webster,  and  all  the  great  statesmen  of  this  country.  It  is  safe  to  heed  the 
counsels  and  follow  the  example  of  such  men.  The  sooner  we  return  to  the 
old  beaten  track  trod  by  them  the  better. 

I  have  introduced  no  bill  at  present  for  that  purpose,  because  I  see  that 
we  cannot  probably  at  this  time  raise  the  amount  that  it  is  necessary  to  have 
as  revenue  upon  imports  alone,  but  I  trust  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when 
that  can  be  done. 

In  view  of  that  fact  and  in  view  of  the  large  increase  in  the  population  of 
this  country,  its  increased  resources  of  every  character,  the  necessarily  in 
creased  expenditures  that  we  have  to  make  every  year,  I  do  not  see  the 
period  ahead  when  it  will  be  very  important  to  discuss  the  question  whether 
we  should  collect  a  tax  on  imports  for  revenue  only  or  for  protection.  You 
will  be  obliged  to  collect  more  than  $200,000,000  a  year  probably  for  all  the 
future.  It  was  last  year  over  1360,000,000,  and  $333,000,000  of  it  was  on 
imports  and  by  the  internal-revenue  laws.  If  you  have  to  collect  that,  and 
if  it  is  not  likely  in  future  ever  to  come  below  $250,000,000  or  $300,C  00,000 
a  year,  there  need  be  very  little  dispute  about  whether  the  tariff  is  to  be  laid 
for  revenue  only  or  for  protection.  It  must  be  laid  and  collected,  no  matter 
what  you  call  it.  If  the  tariff  is  properly  distributed  among  the  different 
articles  imported  in  every  instance  there  will  be  a  tariff  affording  as  much 
protection  probably  as  such  interest  will  need. 

If  I  recollect  correctly  the  earliest  tariff  imposed  in  this  country  expressed 
on  the  face  of  it  or  in  the  title  of  the  act  that  it  was  to  be  an  act  to  raise 
revenue  and  for  the  protection  of  manufacturing  establishments.  I  think  it 
was  necessary  at  that  time,  but  the  protection  has  been  enjoyed  for  so  long 
a  period  and  our  manufacturing  establishments  have  so  strengthened  them 
selves  that  they  are  not  in  the  condition  they  then  were.  It  is  not  now 
necessary,  and  probably  will  not  be  necessary  in  the  future,  to  consider  se 
riously  the  question  whether  we  must  lay  a  tax  on  imports  for  the  protection  of 
our  home  ind  ustries.  As  long  as  we  have  to  collect  from  $200,000*000  to  $300,- 
000,000  a  year  for  revenue  that  question  will  not  be  an  important  one.  It 
may  be  very  important,  and  it  is  now,  that  the  $200,000,000  or  $300,000,000 
a  year  shall  be  distributed  in  such  manner  as  to  protect  incidentally  as  far 
as  possible  all  our  home  industries  and  all  our  American  productions,  adjust 
ing  it  so  as  to  do  as  much  good  as  possible  to  all  and  as  little  harm  as  pos 
sible  to  any. 

I  confess  I  take  a  medium  position  here.  I  am  neither  a  free-trade  man, 
willing  to  collect  all  the  money  we  have  to  raise  by  direct  tax  upon  the  peo 
ple,  nor  am  I  willing  to  lay  a  tax  simply  for  protection  when  the  Government 
does  not  need  the  money.  But  if  I  had  it  in  my  power  I  would  raise  all  the 
money  necessary  to  support  the  Government  by  tariff,  and  I  would  so  adjust 
the  tariff  which  we  have  to  raise  to  meet  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  Gov 
ernment  as  to  afford  as  far  as  possible  an  incidental  protection  to  home  in 
dustry  and  to  American  productions.  It  seems  to  me  that  is  common  sense, 
and  that  patriotism  and  statesmanship  alike  require  it.  We  of  the  South 
are  more  interested  in  incidental  protection  than  the  manufacturers  of  the 
North.  We  are  now  in  our  infancy ;  they  have  reached  nearly  to  mature 
manhood.  Many  of  them  are  now  able  to  take  care  of  themselvr s.  We  are 
not-  They  have  skilled  labor  and  the  most  improved  machinery ;  we  have 
little  skilled  labor  and  much  of  our  machinery  is  not  the  best. 

Some  of  the  senators  whose  arguments  seem  to  look  in  the  direction  of 
free  trade  point  out  to  the  planters  and  farmers  of  this  country  the  advan 
tages  of  free  trade,  and  tell  them  that  as  the  law  now  stands  they  pay  a 
heavy  per  cent,  on  the  imported  goods  purchased  by  them,  and  grow  eloquent 
about  the  amount  of  money  they  would  save  on  the  goods  purchased  by  them 


APPENDIX.  707 

if  there  were  no  tariff.  But  I  have  noticed  that  no  one  of  them  has  told 
the  people  how  much  direct  tax  they  would  be  compelled  to  pay  on  their 
lands  and  all  their  other  property  to  raise  the  $200,000,000  annually  which  is 
necessary  to  meet  the  demands  on  the  Federal  Treasury  and  which  must  be 
raised  by  a  direct  tax  if  it  is  not  collected  by  a  tariff.  They  forget  to  tell 
the  people  of  Georgia,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Alabama,  and  other  States  how 
much  of  the  $200,000,000  direct  tax  would  fall  to  their  share  if  there  were  no 
tax  on  imports.  There  are  planters  in  Georgia,  worth  ten  or  twenty  thou 
sand  dollars,  who  live  so  nearly  within  themselves  that  they  pay  very  little 
toward  the  support  of  the  Federal  Government,  as  they  buy  very  little  of 
the  imported  goods  that  are  taxed.  Their  coffee  and  tea  are  on  the  free  list, 
and  their  part  of  the  burden  is  very  light.  Others  who  purchase  largely  of 
fine  clothes  and  luxuries  pay  most  of  the  tax.  But  if  we  abolish  the  tariff 
and  raise  the  money  by  direct  tax,  the  property  of  those  who  live  within  their 
means  and  live  on  the  production  of  their  farms  will  be  taxed  more  than 
many  others  who  purchase  much  more  largely  of  luxuries  or  imported  goods, 
because  they  have  more  property  to  be  taxed  than  those  have  who  live  more  ex 
travagantly  and  own  less  property.  This  very  independent  class^of  substan 
tial  planters  would  for  the  first  time  feel  the  weight  of  the  burden  when 
called  on  annually  to  pay  in  cash  five  times  as  much  direct  tax  as  they 
now  pay. 

There  are  gentlemen  of  great  ability  who  believe  that  the  true  theory  is  to 
lay  tax  on  imports  with  a  view  to  the  collection  of  revenue  only.  Then,  why 
is  it  that  we  find  coffee  and  tea  upon  the  free  list?  I  see  by  looking  at  the 
last  official  report  that  there  were  during  the  year  1881  imported  tree  into 
this  country  over  $56,000,000  worth  of  coffee;  the  year  before  that  over  $60,- 
000,000  worth.  I  see  also  that  during  the  year  1881  more  than  $21,000,000 
worth  of  tea  was  imported  free  into  this  country.  If  we  are  laying  a  tariff 
for  revenue  only,  why  not  put  it  heavily  upon  tea  and  coffee  ?  The  people  of 
this  country  did  not  dispense  with  the  use  of  whiskey  and  tobacco  because 
you  doubled  the  price  by  the  tax  ou  them  ;  and  if  you  are  after  revenue  only 
you  may  put  100  per  cent,  of  the  value  upon  tea  and  coffee  and  there  will 
still  be  silmost  as  large  a  quantity  used  as  there  now  is.  I  advocate  no  such 
thing.  I  do  not  ask  that  coffee  be  taken  off  the  free  list,  I  only  say  the  peo 
ple  of  this  country  drink  it,  and  intend  to  continue  to  drink  it,  and  you  can 
put  no  reasonable  tax  upon  it  that  will  cause  them  to  cease  the  use  of  it.'  I 
would  not  advocate  the  change,  but  I  ask  my  friends  \\ho  advocate  a  tariff 
for  revenue  only,  without  any  regard  to  incidental  protection  to  home  in 
dustry,  why  not  put  a  very  heavy  tax  upon  these  articles  that  nobody  doubts 
would  be  paid?  If  revenue  is  what  you  want  to  raise,  you  can  raise  forty 
millions  on  coffee.  If  you  want  revenue  without  regard  to  incidental  protec 
tion,  tea  will  pay  you  many  millions  of  dollars  if  you  will  put  a  tariff  upon  it 
and  not  let  it  stand  upon  the  free  list. 

I  take  it  when  we  sit  down  and  undertake  to  draw  a  tariff  bill  and  under 
take  to  pass  it  through  the  senate,  placing  twenty-five  per  cent,  or  fifty  per 
cent,  upon  tea  and  coffee,  which  will  bear  it  for  revenue  only,  it  would  find 
few  advocates.  Yet  why  not  put  a  tariff  upon  them  if  we  are  not  afraid  of 
the  people,  and  if  we  go  for  revenue  only,  and  prefer  not  to  give  incidental 
protection  to  home  industry  and  home  productions  ?  A  tariff  on  tea  and 
coffee  protects  no  American  industry,  and  if  we  are  opposed  to  the  incidental 
protection  of  American  industry  and  want  to  so  levy  the  tax,  as  simply  to 
raise  revenue,  then  why  not  put  it  on  tea  and  coffee?  We  raise  no  tea  in 
this  country  worth  mentioning;  we  raise  no  coffe'e  here;  yet  we  bring  in  of 
these  articles  a  very  large  amount  of  merchandise  free  of  tax,  because  every 
body  uses  them,  and  statesmen  are  not  willing  to  meet  the  popular  clamor 


708  APPENDIX. 

that  would  be  raised  by  putting  a  heavy  tax  upon  them.  At  present  we  per 
mit  these  articles  to  come  in  free,  and  I  think  correctly,  because  the  people 
of  this  country  so  desire  it,  and  the  poorer  classes  are  better  able  to  use  them. 
I  think  instead  of  putting  the  tax  upon  tea  and  coffee,  that  protects  no 
American  industry,  it  is  better  that  we  put  it  on  other  things  which  shall 
protect  American  industry.  Therefore  I  am  not  finding  fault  with  the  law 
as  it  now  stands  in  reference  to  tea  and  coffee.  Let  the  people  have  them  as 
cheap  as  possible.  I  am  simply  saying  that  if  we  are  for  revenue  only  we 
are  then  inconsistent  in  not  imposing  a  heavy  tax  upon  those  articles. 

To  illustrate,  suppose  the  whole  amount  to  be  raised  by  tariff  to  be 
$20,000,000.  Tea  and  coffee  would  bear  the  whole  amount  and  still  be  im 
ported  and  used  almost  as  extensively  as  they  now  are.  Now  as  we  do  not 
raise  tea  and  coffee  in  this  country  we  would  give  no  protection,  incidental 
or  otherwise,  to  American  industry  or  American  productions  by  collecting 
the  whole  amount  on  those  articles.  But  suppose  you  put  the  120,000,000  of 
tariff  on  manufactured  articles,  made  of  cotton  and  flax,  then  you  give  $20,- 
01)0,000  incidental  protection  to  factories  and  laborers  engaged  in  the  produc 
tion  of  those  articles.  In  each  case  the  people  pay  precisely  the  same  amount 
of  tax  or  tariff,  to  wit :  $20,000,000.  If  it  is  collected  on  tea  and  coffee  the 
tax  is  more  generally  distributed,  and  more  of  it  is  paid  by  the  poorer  class 
of  our  people  who  use  tea  or  coffee  and  who  purchase  but  few  manufactured 
articles.  In  the  other  case,  the  wealthier  class,  who  purchase  more  manu 
factured  articles  pay  most  of  the  tax.  Now,  I  submit  it  to  every  candid 
American  citizen,  which  would  best  promote  American  interest:  to  collect 
the  amount  which  we  are  compelled  to  pay  by  putting  it  upon  such  articles 
as  give  incidental  protection  to  home  industry,  or  on  such  articles  as  discrim 
inate  in  favor  of  foreign  industry  and  foreign  production  ?  It  seems  to  me 
too  clear  for  controversy  that  we  should  give  the  incidental  protection  to  our 
own  home  industries. 

I  find  in  looking  at  the  last  official  report  that  there  were  $650,000,000  of 
merchandise  in  round  numbers,  I  do  not  quote  the  thousands,  imported  last 
year.  Of  this  $448,000,000  paid  revenue  and  $202,000,000  came  in  on  the 
free  list;  and  a  large  number  of  those  articles  on  the  free  list  are  articles  that 
we  do  not  compete  with  here.  1  think  it  is  judiciously  put  where  it  is  in 
most  cases.  If  we  could  get  rid  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau,  with  all  its 
consequences,  which  I  do  not  care  to  speak  about  at  present,  I  would  be  will 
ing  to  put  some  tariff  on  a  number  of  articles  that  are  now  upon  the  free  list. 
As  matters  now  stand  we  maintain  two  armies  of  collectors — those  at  the 
custom-house  and  those  at  the  internal-revenue  offices.  It  is  an  immense  ex 
pense,  and  it  is  an  immense  engine  of  political  power,  and  I  do  not  think  it 
is  desirable  that  it  should  be  in  the  hands  of  either  political  party.  While 
the  internal-revenue  system  is  at  present  an  engine  of  power  in  the  hands  of 
the  Republican  party,  if  the  Democracy  were  in  power  to-day  and  our  imports 
would  bear  it,  I  would  advocate  abolishing  the  internal-revenue  system  entire 
ly.  Let  us  have  but  the  one  corps  of  collectors,  and  let  those  be  at  the  ports. 

But  again,  I  see  that  of  the  total  amount  of  duties  collected,  $47,000,000 
in  round  numbers  was  collected  on  sugar  and  molasses.  This  gives  a  pro 
tection  of  about  40  per  cent,  to  our  sugar  planters.  This  is  protection  to 
Southern  planters.  I  simply  submit  it  to  my  free-trade  friends,  if  there  be 
any  here,  whether  we  could  maintain  the  Southern  sugar  plantations  one 
year  after  that  tariff  is  taken  off.  If  with  $47,000,000  of  protection  we 
are  hard  run  to  make  anything  under  the  present  system  of  labor  on  our 
sugar  plantations,  what  would  it  be  if  you  should  enact  free  trade  there? 
Much  ado  is  already  made  about  the  sugar  that  comes  in  free  under  the 
Hawaiian  treaty  of  reciprocity,  and  it  is  getting  to  be  a  serious  evil. 


APPENDIX.  .          700 

Again,  $27,000,000  was  collected  on  wool  and  the  manufactures  thereof. 
What  would  our  free-trade  friends,  if  there  be  any  here,  say,  or  rather  what 
would  the  constituents  of  those  friends  say  to  them  in  all  places,  in  the  pas 
toral  lands  of  Texas  and  the  great  West  where  there  are  such  immense  flocks 
of  sheep,  if  you  were  to  remove  this  tax  upon  woolens,  for  wool  and  woolens 
stand  next  to  sugar  and  molasses  in  the  quantity  of  tariff  raised  upon  them  ? 
They  are  no\v  protected  by  $27,000,000  raised  on  wool  and  woolens.  And  if 
you  were  to  impose  a  direct  tax  in  lieu  of  this — in  other  words,  if  you  were 
to  withdraw  the  protection  that  you  now  give  them  on  wool,  and  put  about 
five  times  as  much  direct  tax  (as  a  United  States  tax)  as  they  now  pay  as  a 
State  tax  upon  their  flocks  and  the  property  they  use  in  producing  wool, 
what  would  they  say  to  you?  I  do  not  think  that  such  action  would  be  ap 
proved  by  any  Western  constituency  where  sheep  are  raised. 

The  third  largest  item  is  the  duties  on  iron  and  steel  and  the  manufactures 
thereof,  amounting  to  $21,000,000  in  round  numbers.  There  may  be  some 
portions  of  the  Middle  States  where  they  are  far  enough  advanced  in  the 
manufacture  of  iron  and  steel  to  afford  to  have  the  tariff  removed  and  have 
a  direct  tax,  four  or  five  times  as  much  tax  as  is  now  collected,  imposed  upon 
the  plant  and  machinery  and  everything  used  in  making  iron,  but  I  do  not 
think  there  is  such  a  place  in  Pennsylvania,  which  I  believe  has  the  lead  in 
the  iron  business.  I  am  very  sure  we  could  not  stand  a  moment  under  it  in 
Georgia,  Alabama  and  Tennessee,  where  the  iron  interest  is  in  future  to  be 
one  of  the  greatest  interests  of  the  South,  if  not  crushed  by  unfriendly  legis 
lation.  Large  amounts  of  capital  are  now  being  invested  in  it,  and  it  is  af 
fording  employment  to  a  large. number  of  people. 

The  fourth  largest  item  is  the  manufacture  of  silk,  $19,000,000.  That  is  a 
great  growing  interest  in  this  country,  that  I  suppose  no  statesman  desires 
to  destroy.  I  am  not  in  this  connection  discussing  whether  any  of  the  pres 
ent  tariff  rates  are  too  high  or  too  low,  or  what  adjustment  they  need  ;  I  sim 
ply  say  I  presume  no  member  of  the  senate  would  desire  to  withdraw 
entirely  the  tax  from  silk  and  let  that  interest  go  down.  There  has  been  an 
immense  amount  of  capital  invested  in  it,  and  we  import  most  of  the  raw 
material  from  abroad,  in  fact  nearly  all  of  it.  To  remove  the  tariff  from  it 
would  be  to  entirely  crush  it.  It  seems  to  me  it  would  not  be  good  states 
manship  to  do  it,  and  then  impose  a  direct  tax,  as  the  free-trade  advocates 
must  do  to  raise  the  necessary  revenue  after  they  abolish  the  tariff,  of  more 
than  four  times  as  much  as  the  owners  of  the  silk  factories  now  pay  upon 
the  plant  and  machinery  and  everything  connected  with  it.  That  interest 
could  not  stand  a  moment  under  such  legislation. 

The  fifth  in  the  list  is  cotton  and  the  manufactures  of  it.  As  much  as  has 
been  said  about  cotton-mills,  there  are  four  other  great  interests  that  stand 
ahead,  and  more  revenue  is  paid  on  account  of  them  than  on  account  of  the 
importations  of  cotton  and  cotton  goods.  There  it  is  only  $10,UOO,000  in 
round  numbers  that  is  collected. 

The  sixth  item  is  flax.  That  is  grown  by  our  farmers  in  several  of  the 
States  of  the  Union,  and  is  a  very  important  interest.  Flax  and  the  manu 
factures  of  flax  yield  a  revenue  of  nearly  $7,000,000  a  year  to  the  Govern 
ment.  What  would  those  who  raise  flax  in  the  West  and  to  some  extent  in 
the  South  say  to  us  if  we  were  to  take  this  tariff  entirely  off  and  put  from 
three  to  five  times  as  much  tax  as  we  now  do  upon  the  lands  on  which  they 
raise  the  flax?  That  would  be  carrying  out  free  trade  and  direct  taxation  to 
its  legitimate  result.  I  do  not  believe  any  senator  desires  that.  Hence  T 
do  not  believe  there  is  a  senator  here  who  is  an  open  advocate  of  free  trade 
in  this  country  while  we  are  obliged  to  make  the  immense  collections  of  rev 
enue  that  we  now  make.  If  there  is,  I  have  heard  no  one  so  express  it.  The 


710  APPENDIX. 

remarks  of  some  senators  indicate  free  trade.  But  I  ask  senators  if  they 
are  for  free  trade  with  its  legitimate  consequences?  Free  trade  means  to 
raise  $200,000,000  annually  by  direct  taxation  upon  the  property  of  all  the 
people  in  addition  to  the  present  internal  revenue  and  State  taxes.  I  ask 
senators  if  they  are  for  it? 

There  are  a  great  many  other  articles  that  are  protected  which  are  not 
simply  manufactured  articles.  The  six  items  I  have  referred  to,  however, 
and  they  are  all  very  important  ones  in  the  industry  of  this  country,  yield 
$133,000,000  of  revenue,  or  over  69  per  cent,  of  the  whole  amount  of  revenue 
collected  on  imports.  No  one,  I  presume,  desires  to  crush  any  one  of  those 
great  interests. 

But  there  are  other  important  interests  of  the  farmer  that  are  protected  by 
the  present  tariff.  There  is  a  tariff  upon  live-stock ;  you  may  say  it  does  not 
need  protection.  Why?  There  was  $3,700,000  worth  of  live-stock  brought 
into  this  country  last  year  to  get  in  and  compete  with  our  stock-raisers  that 
paid  tariff.  Your  herdsmen  would  not  be  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  tak 
ing  off  the  present  tariff  that  protects  their  live-stock,  and  adding  four  or 
five  times  as  much  direct  tax  on  the  herds  as  they  now  pay.  This  is  the  in 
evitable  result  of  free  trade. 

Then  I  find  that  barley  is  protected.  That  is  a  product  of  the  farmer 
again  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  tariff,  there  was  $7,200,000  worth  of  barley 
and  barley  malt  that  paid  the  tariff  and  came  in  last  year  to  compete  with 
our  farmers  who  raise  barley.  What  would  the  people  of  Missouri,  Ken 
tucky  and  other  Western  States  that  raise  barley  say  to  the  free-trade  man 
who  would  propose  to  take  off  that  tariff  and  let  all  the  barley  of  foreign 
countries  come  in,  and  add  a  tax  of  from  three  to  five  times  as  much  as  is 
now  collected  upon  the  plantation  where  the  barley  is  raised?  The  farmer 
who  plants  barley  would  not  like  that  sort  of  free  trade. 

Then  on  the  article  of  cotton  and  cotton  manufactures  there  was  over 
$30,000,000  worth  imported  last  year  that  paid  the  tariff.  If  you  will  remove 
the  tariff  from  the  statute-book,  and  impose  upon  our  cotton  plantations  and 
factories  from  three  to  five  times  the  present  amount  of  taxes,  they  will  not 
be  much  obliged  to  you.  If  you  repeal  the  tariff  and  enact  free  trade  there 
is  not  a  cotton  plantation  in  the  South  that  will  not  have  to  pay  from  three 
to  five  times  as  much  direct  tax  as  it  now  pays.  Many  of  them  now  buy 
little  that  is  imported,  and  pay  little  of  the  tax.  Then  they  would  all  be 
taxed  on  the  value  of  their  plantations,  adding  for  United  States  tax  three 
to  five  times  as  much  as  they  now  pay  the  State. 

There  was  over  $16,000,000  worth  of  flax,  and  articles  manufactured  of 
flax,  that  came  in  last  year  and  paid  the  tariff.  Would  you  take  the  tariff 
from  flax  and  load  the  lands  upon  which  our  farmers  produce  it  with  a  heavy 
direct  tax? 

Take  the  item  of  fruits  and  nuts,  another  item  in  which  the  planters,  the 
farmers,  the  orchard  men  and  gardeners  are  interested.  There  was  over 
$12,000,000  worth  of  fruits  and  nuts  imported  last  year  that  paid  tariff  be 
fore  they  could  compete  with  our  fruits  and  nuts.  Your  fruit  men  would  not 
bless  your  memory  if  you  were  to  take  off  all  the  tariff  that  now  protects 
them,  and  impose  a  heavy  direct  tax  upon  their  orchards,  their  vineyards 
and  their  gardens. 

There  was  over  four  million  dollars'  worth  of  furs  imported  last  year  that 
paid  the  tariff  and  came  in.  Your  Western  hunters  would  not  be  much 
obliged  to  you  for  taking  off  all  tariff  that  protects  their  furs.  WThether 
you  could  impose  any  direct  tax  on  their  business  or  not,  they  would  still 
want  the  protection  they  now  have.  But  other  articles  besides  those  men 
tioned  in  which  the  farmer  is  interested  are  protected  by  the  present  tariff. 


APPENDIX.  711 

Indian  corn,  oats,  rye,  wheat,  and  the  meal  or  flour  made  of  the  qualities  of 
grain  mentioned  are  protected,  and  some  of  each  has  come  in  and  paid  the 
tariff  to  »ret  in  during  the  past  year;  pease,  beans,  and  other  seeds  of  legu 
minous  plants  were  imported  last  year  to  the  value  of  $337,000,  and  paid 
tariff  to  get  into  competition  with  our  own  farmers;  about  one  million  of 
dollars'  worth  of  bristles  annually  pay  tariff  to  get  in  ;  hair  to  the  value  of 
over  $660,000  paid  tariff  and  came  in;  "jute  and  other  grasses"  which  can 
be  raised  in  Florida  and  other  Southern  States,  and  the  different  manufac 
tures  of  those  products  came  in  to  the  value  of  about  $9,000,000,  and  paid 
tariff;  leather  and  the  manufacture  of  leather  of  all  kinds,  worth  nearly 
$6,000,000,  did  the  same;  the  same  is  true  of  potatoes  to  the  value  of  over 
$874.000 ;  provisions,  (meats,  poultry,  lard,  butter,  cheese,  etc.,)  not  includ 
ing  vegetables,  to  the  value  of  $1,278.000,  paid  tariff  before  they  could  get 
in  and  compete  with  our  farmers ;  flax-seed  or  linseed,  and  other  seeds,  worth 
$1,713,000,  did  the  same:  the  same  was  true  of  tobacco  and  cigars,  worth 
over  $6,000,000;  the  same  is  true  of  wines,  spirits,  and  cordials,  to  the  value 
of  over  $8,000.000,  which  can  be  raised  on  the  Pacific  slope  as  well  as  in 
Europe,  which  is  soon  to  become  one  of  our  great  agricultural  interests ;  the 
same  i*  true  of  woods,  including  board?,  joists,  scantling,  shingles,  etc.,  worth 
over  $8,000,000;  rice  to  the  amount  of  over  61,000,000  of  pounds,  worth 
$1,413,000,  also  paid  tariff  and  came  in.  I  might  add  still  others  to  the 
long  li-*t  of  protected  articles  which  pertain  to  the  interests  of  our  farmers, 
planters,  herdsmen,  gardeners,  fruit-growers,  etc.,  but  I  do  not  deem  it  nec 
essary. 

Now,  I  ask  senators,  would  your  sugar-planters,  your  rice-planters,  your 
hemp-planters,  your  flax-planters,  your  fruit-growers,  your  herdsmen  and 
garden-men,  and  all  the  others  I  have  mentioned,  approve  your  action  if  you 
should  remove  all  protection  from  them  and  load  them  with  a  heavy  burden 
by  direct  taxation  't  ]f  that  is  not  what  you  mean  by  free  trade,  what  do 
you  mean?  You  can  mean  nothing  else.  I  believe  no  senator  will  get  up 
here  and  say  he  advocates  it.  Then,  if  that  be  true,  it  is  understood,  1  sup 
pose,  that  we  are  to  continue  to  collect  the  revenues,  or  much  the  larger 
portion  of  them  at  least,  and  I  trust  at  no  distant  day  all  of  them,  by  a  tariff 
upon  imports.  If  so,  on  what  articles  will  you  impose  that  tariff?  It  is  an 
immense  sum  you  have  to  raise.  You  cannot  get  rid  of  it.  There  is  no  es 
cape  from  it ;  you  mu.st  collect  it ;  and  you  will  continue  to  collect  it.  There 
is  a  vast  amount  of  protection  in  it,  no  matter  how  you  shape  the  tariff.  Hut 
the  question  is,  will  you  so  shape  it  as  to  give  sufficient  incidental  protection 
to  American  interests,  or  will  you  try  to  shape  it  so  as  to  cripple  those  great 
interests  ? 

1  repeat  it,  What  will  you  put  the  tariff  upon  ?  Will  you  protect  Ameri 
can  industry  and  American  productions,  or  select  such  articles  as  tea  and 
coffee  and  others  that  we  do  not  cultivate  in  this  country  and  in  which  we 
do  not  compete,  and  put  it  upon  them  to  avoid  the  protection  of  American 
industry?  I  presume  not.  Then  where  will  you  place  it?  You  have  to 
collect  it,  or  if  not  tell  me  how  you  will  get  rid  of  it,  and  what  substitute  you 
will  put  in  its  place  as  a  mode  of  collection  of  revenue  to  support  the  Gov 
ernment?  I  apprehend  no  one  will  suggest  a  new  plan.  Then  it  seems  to 
me  that  it  is  proper  we  should  so  adju-t  it  as  to  afford,  as  far  as  possible,  in 
cidental  protection  to  every  American  industry  and  every  American  laborer. 
There  may  be  some  branch  of  American  labor  that  it  is  not  in  our  power  to 
protect.  There  is  no  tariff  now,  I  believe,  imposed  upon  raw  cotton  intro 
duced  into  this  country.  There  is  a  very  considerable  number  of  pounds 
brought  in  that  now  pays  no  tariff,  yet  on  account  of  our  superior  climate, 
soil,  manner  and  quality  of  production  we  need  very  little  done  in  our  favor 


712  APPENDIX. 

South  by  imposing  a  tariff  on  cotton  to  keep  it  out  of.  our  markets.  We 
cannot,  I  grant,  afford  equal  protection  to  the  labor  in  all  the  different  fields  ; 
but  is  that  a  reason  why  we  should  not  so  adjust  the  tariff  as  to  protect  as 
far  as  we  can  incidentally  the  laborers  in  other  pursuits  where  it  is  in  our 
power?  We  surely  are  not  antagonistic  to  American  interests.  We  do  not 
prefer  the  interests  and  the  labor  of  other  countries.  Jf  we  do  not,  the  pre 
sumption  is,  we  prefer  our  own.  If  we  do  prefer  our  own,  why  not,  in  the 
collection  of  the  large  amount  that  must  he  collected,  so  impose  the  duty  as 
to  give  incidental  protection  to  the  extent  of  our  power  to  our  own  ?  It 
seems  to  me  that  is  not  only  wise  statesmanship  but  common  sense  and 
patriotism.  What  other  course  would  be  better?  I  confess  it  does  not 
occur  to  me. 

I  may  not  understand  this  question,  bnt  I  would  be  very  thankful  to  any 
Senator  on  either  side  who  will  point  out  to  me  a  better  mode  of  collecting 
this  three  hundred  and  odd  million  dollars  a  year  that  we  now  collect  by 
tariff  and  internal  revenue,  or  the  $200,000,000  that  we  now  collect  by  tariff. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that  the  present  tariff  is  a  just  one;  I  do  not  be 
lieve  it. 

As  to  the  point  in  reference  to  the  commission,  taking  this  view  of  the 
question,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  very  important  that  early  action  should  be 
taken  to  so  equalize  and  adjust  the  protection  given  by  this  $200,001  >,000  that 
we  have  to  raise  every  year  on  imports  as  to  do  the  most  good,  to  foster  in 
cidentally  as  far  as  we  can  American  productions  and  American  industries 
without  doing  injustice  to  other  American  industries.  I  am  aware  that  the 
task  is  a  very  delicate  one.  There  has  never  been  a  perfect  tariff ;  I  sup 
pose  there  never  will  be;  but  I  presume  every  senator  who  ha.s  studied  this 
question  feels  anxious  to  approximate  perfection  in  it  as  nearly  as  possible, 
to  raise  as  small  an  amount  as  we  can  raise  for  the  support  of  the  (Jovern- 
ment,  but  to  raise  it  as  it  is  at  present  raised,  by  a  tariff,  and  in  collecting 
that  tariff  to  do  what  we  can  incidentally  to  build  up  American  industry  and 
not  to  crush  it. 

Mr.  President,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  the  two  Houses  of  Congress 
are  not  competent  to  take  up  this  question  and  dispose  of  it,  but  it  has  heen 
here  for  many  years  not  disposed  of.  I  see  no  movement  that  indicates  that 
it  is  likely  to  be  disposed  of  at  this  session  in  any  other  manner  than  by  a 
commission.  With  the  immense  amount  of  business  Congress  now  has  be 
fore  it  I  do  not  think  any  committee  of  gentlemen  of  the  two  Houses  under 
standing  this  question  can  afford  to  absent  themselves  from  the  deliberations 
of  their  respective  Houses  long  enough  to  frame  and  bring  in  anything  like 
a  perfect  tariff  bill.  When  the  commission  is  raised  it  is  simply  one  to  in 
vestigate  and  report.  It  is  presumed  the  President  will  appoint  men  of 
known  ability,  representing  the  different  shades  of  opinion  on  this  question. 
He  cannot  do  his  duty  and  act  otherwise.  Such  a  commission  in  some 
months  or  a  year,  if  you  please,  if  they  shall  be  diligent,  taking  hold  of  the 
whole  question,  can  find  where  the  friction  is;  they  can  see  where  it  is 
necessary  to  trim  off. 

Mr.  Bayard.     They  can  report  from  time  to  time. 

Mr.  Brown.  As  the  senator  from  Delaware  suggests,  they  can  from  time 
to  time  report.  They  can  take  up  for  instance  a  particular  subject,  as  cotton 
and  articles  manufactured  of  cotton,  or  sugar  and  molasses,  or  whatever 
articles  they  may  think  best,  and  if  they  desire  they  can  report  very  fre 
quently  upon  the  question.  After  they  have  made  their  report  wre  are  not 
bound  by  it.  The  object  is  simply  to  give  us  information  on  the  subject. 
When  we  get  that  information  it  will  be  proper  that  we  should  so  use  it  as 
to  promote  the  public  interest,  and  that  we  should  frame  with  that  informa- 


APPENDIX.  713 

tion  in  our  possession  a  tariff  bill  that  will  approximate  as  nearly  as  possi 
ble  justice  to  all  sections  and  all  interests.  It  is  not  a  heavy  expense ;  it 
takes  no  time  that  is  not  likely  to  be  taken  anyhow,  as  every  senator  sees. 
Then  why  not  create  the  commission  and  let  it  go  to  work  energetically  at 
once,  get  up  the  information  desired  and  communicate  it  to  us,  and  then  let 
us  act  upon  it?  I  see  nothing  better  in  the  present  state  of  things  than  a 
commission,  and  on  that  account  I  shall  support  the  pending  measure. 

As  between  the  proposition  of  the  committee  and  the  proposition  of  the 
senator  from  Arkansas,  I  prefer  that  of  the  committee  for  the  reason  that  I 
do  not  think  at  this  stage  of  the  session  any  three  senators  on  this  floor,  or 
any  three  members  of  the  House,  would  give  up  their  legislative  duties  and 
go  into  such  an  investigation.  If  it  is  said  :  let  it  lie  over  until  vacation, 
that  is  consuming  a  great  deal  of  time,  it  seems  to  me  unnecessarily  ;  and  I 
presume  there  are  lew  senators  here,  after  they  have  been  exhausted  as 
much  as  they  will  be  by  the  labors  of  this  long  session,  who  would  undertake 
to  spend  the  vacation  in  the  investigation  of  this  subject.  If  you  were  to 
call  for  volunteers,  Mr.  President,  I  apprehend  it  would  be  hard  to  get  a  re 
sponse.  Then  it  seems  to  me  it  would  be  better  to  appoint  rnen  of  marked 
ability  and  disconnected  with  Congress,  representing  all  the  shades  of  opin 
ion,  and  let  them  get  the  facts  for  us,  report  them  to  us,  and  then  let  us  act 
as  we  think  best  for  our  constituents  with  all  the  facts  before  us. 

Mr.  President,  a  good  deal  has  been  said  here  about  Democratic  platforms, 
and  North  and  South.  I  see  no  reason  why  that  should  enter  into  this  dis 
cussion.  The  Democratic  party,  to  which  I  am  proud  to  belong,  will  not 
again,  in  my  opinion,  incorporate  in  its  platform  a  tariff  plank  that  calls  for 
"a  tariff  for  revenue  only."  I  believe  its  platform  will  be  for  revenue  with 
incidental  protection,  and  as  much  of  it  as  the  amount  required  to  be  raised 
when  properly  distributed  will  reasonably  afford. 

Again,  there  are  many  Democratic  districts  in  the  United  States  that  are  now 
represented  by  Democratic  members  of  the  House, that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  carry  upon  a  free-trade  platform  or  a  platform  of  a  tariff  for  revenue  only 
without  any  incidental  protection.  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  [Mr. 
Butler]  asks  me  if  there  are  some  in  Georgia  of  that  kind.  I  tell  him  very 
frankly  I  think  there  are.  I  am  not  sure  but  that  there  ma)'  be  some  in  the 
senator's  own  State.  When  you  come  to  removing  tlie  tariff  from  the  rice- 
fields  of  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  and  imposing  a  heavy  direct  tax  on  the 
rice  plantations,  there  is  a  large  class  there  who  would  demur;  when  you 
come  to  removing  the  tariff  entirely  from  sugar,  there  is  a  large  class  that 
would  demur  in  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  which  is  going  to  b.e  one  of  the 
great  sugar  States;  when  you  come  to  removing  the  tariff  entirely  from 
wool,  the  large  class  of  wool-growers  will  demur.  Therefore,  I  a»j;ree  with 
the  senator  1'rom  South  Carolina  that  there  are  districts  in  the  South,  as  well 
as  in  the  North,  which  the  Democracy  cannot  carry  on  a  platform  of  a  tariff 
for  revenue  only.  On  the  other  hand,  from  the  best  information  I  have,  I 
believe  there  are  districts  in  the  West  where  there  are  no  manufacturing 
establish ment?,  that  are  strongly  Republican,  that  my  Republican  friends 
would  have  difficulty  in  carrying  on  a  platform  to  raise  money  for  protection 
for  protection's  sake.  I  do"  not  think  they  can  do  it.  In  other  words,  the 
people  of  this  country  are  not  ready  to  adopt  either  of  the  extremes.  The 
medium  ground  is  the  ground  they  will  occupy,  and  the  sooner  this  whole 
tariff  question  is  eliminated  from  the  politics  of  the  country  and  dropped 
from  the  platforms  of  the  two  parties,  leaving  it  to  the  representatives  of 
each  district,  and  of  each  State  and  Territory  to  take  such  course  here  as 
they  think  for  the  best  interest  of  their  constituents,  the  better,  in  my  opin 
ion,  it  will  be  for  the  whole  country. 


714  APPENDIX. 

Entertaining  this  view,  T  cannot  enter  into  any  party  discussion  here,  for 
I  do  not  think  either  party  is  irrevocably  committed  for  the  future  on  this 
question.  It  is  a  grave  question  ;  it  is  a  great  question  ;  it  is  full  of  embar 
rassments,  and  it  ought  to  be  the  pleasure  and  pride  of  every  statesman  to 
do  all  he  can  to  solve  it  in  such  manner  as  will  best  promote  the  interests  of 
the  whole  American  people,  north,  south,  east  and  west. 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  DELIVERED  IN  THE 
SKNATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  DECEMBER  14,  1882,  ON  THE  BILL 
FOR  CIVIL-SERVICE  REFORM.  ITS  PASSAGE  NOT  DEMANDED  BY  THE 
PEOPLE.  IN  ITS  PRESENT  SHAPE  IT  IS  EITHER  A  DELUSION  OR  AN  ACT 
OF  INJUSTICE  TO  A  MAJORITY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  Senate,  as  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  having  under  consideration  the  Bill  (S. 
133)  to  regulate  and  improve  the  civil  service  of  the  United  States — 

Mr.  Brown  said  : 

Mr.  President :  I  admit  it  is  very  important  that  there  be  a  better  system 
of  administration  inaugurated  than  we  have  had  for  many  years  past.  I  do 
not  think,  however,  that  the  bill  now  before  the  senate,  if  passed,  will  in 
augurate  any  such  system.  I  think  it  will  prove  a  mere  delusion.  If  we 
pass  it  we  excite  popular  expectation,  and  popular  expectation  will  be  greatly 
disappointed  in  the  workings  of  the  system.  I  have  heard  the  British  sys 
tem  spoken  very  highly  of;  many  eulogies  passed  upon  it.  It  has  been  said 
by  advocates  of  this  bill — probably  not  on  the  floor,  but  again  and  again  out 
side  of  the  Chamber — that  we  should  adopt  something  similar  to  that  system, 
if  not  the  exact  system  itself. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  the  forms  of  the  two  governments  are  entirely  differ 
ent,  the  circumstances  are  different,  and  the  surroundings  are  different.  The 
system  that  may  work  well  there  in  a  limited  monarchy,  the  policy  of  which 
is  to  maintain  an  aristocracy,  even  a  landed  aristocracy,  is  not  appropriate  to 
a  republican  form  of  government  like  ours. 

In  Great  Britain  the  executive  is  hereditary.  The  incumbent  derives  his 
right,  not  by  election  of  the  subjects  or  citizens  of  that  country,  but  by  birth 
right.  The  upper  house  of  the  British  Parliament  is  not  elected,  but  those 
who  occupy  seats  there,  unlike  this  body,  are  dependent  upon  the  accidents 
of  birth  for  them,  not  upon  any  special  merits  or  personal  qualifications  that 
they  may  have,  but  the  duke  takes  his  seat  because  he  is  the  son  of  the  for 
mer  duke. 

That  is  not  our  American  system.  It  is  very  consonant,  however,  with  that 
system  to  adopt  a  civil-service  rule  that,  while  the  executive  is  for  life  and 
hereditary  and  the  higher  branch  of  the  legislative  department  holds  for  life 
and  is  hereditary,  will  make  the  subordinate  officers  hold  for  life.  I  say  it 
is  consistent  and  compatible  with  that  system.  It  is  not  so  here.  Under  our 
republican  system  no  man  takes  anything  by  hereditary  right,  but  the  way  is 
open  to  the  son  of  the  humblest  peasant  within  the"  broad  limits  of  our 
domain,  if  he  has  merit  and  energy  and  ability,  to  occupy  the  highest  posi 
tion  in  the  Government.  Our  theory  is  that  men  are  to  be  promoted  on 
account  of  merit  and  qualifications.  It  may  not  always  be  carried  out — of 
course  it  cannot  always  be — but  that  is  the  nature  of  the  system  and  that  is 
the  general  practice.  It  is  compatible,  therefore,  with  that  system  to  leave 
the  changes  in  the  legislative  department,  in  the  executive  department,  and  in 
every  department  except  the  judicial  to  the  frequent  mutations  of  parties  and 
to  the  supposed  merits  of  the  competitors  who  compete  for  the  prizes.  In 


APPENDIX.  715 

all  the  departments,  legislative  and  executive,  qualification  is  supposed  to  be 
looked  to.  Election  of  representatives  and  the  higher  officers  is  the  general 
idea.  Why  in  the  face  of  that  should  we  establish  for  the  subordinate  offi 
cers  in  the  different  executive  departments  and  in  all  the  larger  offices  within 
the  limit  of  the  United  States  a  system  of  lifetime  tenure  for  the  very  large 
class  of  persons  who  fill  those  places  ?  I  say  it  is  not  compatible  with  our 
very  form  of  government.  It  is  one  step  in  the  direction  of  the  establish 
ment  of  an  aristocracy  in  this  country,  the  establishment  of  another  privi 
leged  class. 

It  may  be  said,  however,  and  I  believe  that  sentiment  was  uttered  only  a 
few  days  ago,  though  not  in  the  language  I  use,  probably,  that  it  takes  away 
from  persons  who  hold  these  positions  the  inducement  to  be  active  politi 
cians.  In  some  cases  that  might  be  the  working  of  it ;  but  bear  in  mind, 
Mr.  President,  it  leaves  it  in  the  power  of  every  one  of  them  to  become  an 
active  politician,  and  if  the  spirit  of  the  system  is  carried  out  as  claimed  by 
the  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Hoar]  the  officers  can  be  as  active  as 
they  choose  on  one  side,  and  one  side  alone,  and  run  no  risk  of  losing  their 
positions.  It  builds  up  a  powerful  class  supported  out  of  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States,  out  of  the  taxes  of  the  people,  and  places  in  their  hands  the 
power,  if  they  choose  to  exercise  it — and  there  is  a  great  deal  of  human 
nature  in  man,  so  that  they  probably  would  exercise  it — the  power  to  do 
much  to  control  the  future  rulers  and  destinies  of  this  Government. 

I  am  not  very  fresh  from  my  reading  of  Roman  history ;  but  as  I  recollect 
it  there  was  a  period  in  the  history  of  that  government  when  it  became 
necessary  to  establish  the  Praetorian  guard  to  protect  the  ruler  against  the 
populace.  It  would  naturally  enough  have  been  claimed  that  that  guard 
would  take  no  part  in  the  politics  of  Rome,  and  yet  in  the  workings  of  time 
that  Praetorian  guard  became  the  master  of  Rome  and  assumed  control  of 
the  government.  As  they  protected  the  sovereign,  they  dictated  who  should 
be  the  sovereign,  and  for  a  large  enough  amount  of  money  they  would  dis 
place  one  sovereign  to  make  room  for  another.  How  do  we  know  that  we 
may  not  build  up  a  similar  class  here  when  we  build  up  a  lifetime  aristoc 
racy  in  office,  or  when  we  establish  a  lifetime  tenure  of  office?  It  is  con 
trary  to  the  very  genius  and  spirit  of  our  Government. 

My  honorable  friend  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Pendleton],  who  has  this  bill  in 
charge,  stated  yesterday  that  the  bill  did  not  make  any  provision  preventing 
removals  from  office.  I  do  not  find  that  it  does  in  language,  but  the  honor 
able  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Hoar]  tells  us  to-day  that  that  is  the 
spirit  of  it;  that  that  is  what  is  contemplated,  and  that  it  is  not  likely  that 
an  executive  officer  would  venture  to  make  removals,  acting  under  this  bill, 
unless  for  cause,  as  misconduct  in  office  and  the  like. 

That  is  what  the  movers  of  this  bill  look  to.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  what 
the  senator  from  Ohio  looks  to,  or  that  such  is  his  purpose ;"  but  as  I  under 
stand  it,  it  is  the  purpose  of  those  who  lead  on  the  other  side  of  this  Cham 
ber  and  bring  to  this  bill  its  most  efficient  support.  But  that  is  not  all — 

Mr.  Hawley.  I  do  not  like  to  interrupt;  I  refrain  from  it  as  much  as  I 
can;  but  I  desire  to  call  the  senator's  attention  to  the  fact  that  those  who 
have  spoken  for  the  bill  affirm  in  the  most  vigorous  and  unlimited  manner 
the  right  and  duty  of  the  Executive  to  remove  at  pleasure.  I  will  not  take 
it  away  from  the  Executive.  I  do  not  see  how  the  Praetorian  guard  can  hurt 
him  much  if  he  can  take  the  Praetorian  guard  by  the  ear  and  lead  them  out 
any  morning  he  pleases. 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  I  ask  what  is  the  value  of  this  bill?  It  is  the  sheerest 
humbug  and  the  sheerest  deception  and  nonsense.  If  we  are  to  go  through 
all  this  great  ado  before  the  country  of  passing  a  civil-service  bill,  which  it 


716  APPENDIX. 

is  said  is  so  much  demanded  by  popular  sentiment  at  this  lime,  if  we  have 
to  satisfy  popular  clamor  by  the  enactment  of  a  civil-service  bill,  what  a  de 
ception,  what  a  fraud  upon  the  people  to  tender  them  this  bill !  If  there  be 
really  in  the  popular  mind  a  demand  for  any  such  bill  as  is  usually  termed 
civil-service  reform,  it  is  a  bill  to  make  permanent  the  positions  of  those  who 
hold  offices,  to  confine  removals  to  cause  alone.  The  class  who  sisk  for  it,  I 
think,  are  a  very  small  minority  of  the  American  people.  At  the  same  time 
they  ask  for  it  in  that  spirit  and  with  that  purpose,  and  they  would  consider 
themselves  mocked  if  this  bill  is  passed  containing  no  protection  for  the  in 
cumbents  against  removal  without  cause.  What  good  does  it  do  as  a  meas 
ure  of  reform  if  the  power  of  removal  is  unlimited  and  without  cause  at  the 
mere  will  or  whim  of  the  appointing  power?  The  civil-service  reformers 
who  are  most  clamorous  for  action,  and  who  are  in  earnest  about  the  matter, 
would  consider  such  a  measure,  if  that  is  all  it  means,  as  a  trick,  a  sham,  a 
delusion. 

But  it  requires  a  competitive  examination,  say  the  senators  on  the  other 
side,  before  you  put  a  man  into  office.  There  again  the  bill  is  a  cheat  and  a 
mockery.  It  does  no  such  thing  in  spirit  and  substance.  For  fear  there 
miyht  come  a  day  when  a  Democratic  executive  would  administer  the  affairs 
of  this  Government,  and  that  day  might  not  be  very  distant,  there  is  a  care 
ful  provision  in  this  bill  that  it  shall  apply  only  to^the  lowest  class  who  are 
to  hold  office.  There  shall  be  a  competitive  examination  for  the  lowest  grade 
only;  that  is  free  to  all;  and  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  who  took  his 
seat  a  few  minutes  ago  very  earnestly  stated  that  that  was  one  of  the  strong 
features  in  it. 

Now,  I  believe  that  there  is  a  very  large  number  of  employes  in  the  De 
partments  at  present,  occupying  different  positions  in  them,  some  of  them 
high  positions,  who  are  not  fit  for  those  places,  morally,  intellectually,  or  in 
any  other  manner;  but  the  charmed  circle  in  not  to  be  disturbed.  If  there 
chances  to  be  one  of  the  lower  clerkships  vacant,  then  the  doors  are  thrown 
wide  open  by  this  bill  and  every  American  citizen  may  come  up  and  com 
pete  for  it.  It  will  not  do  to  go  higher  than  that,  for  too  many  Democrats 
might  get  in.  You  Democrats  may  come  up  and  compete  for  the  lowest 
clerkships  that  are  to  be  filled;  but  if  a  vacancy  occurs  above  that,  then  the 
Republican  employes  and  officers  already  in  office,  and  they  alone,  can  apply 
for  the  advancement  or  promotion.  That  is  the  civil-service  reform  that  this 
bill  gives  to  the  country;  that  is  the  share  that  the  Democratic  party  gets 
in  it.  I  repeat  it,  under  the  provisions  of  this  bill  the  competition  is  only 
general  for  the  lowest  office  that  can  become  vacant.  There  a  Democrat 
stands  a  chance  to  get  in  this  lowest  position,  but  if  fifty  vacancies  occur 
above  it  only  the  present  incumbents,  the  Republican  office-holders,  can  com 
pete  for  the  promotion.  That  is  what  it  holds  out  to  the  Democratic  party. 
That  is  our  share  in  its  benefits. 

Now,  I  am  going  to  talk  plainly  to  Democrats.  It  is  not  required  for  us  to 
mince  words  here,  for  the  country  very  well  understands  this  whole  question. 
The  Republican  party  have  had  the  offices  of  this  Government  for  the  last 
twenty-two  years  consecutively.  The  Executive  has  been  Republican,  and 
they  have  had  the  distribution  of  the  offices  and  places.  They  still  have  it. 
True  an  avalanche  has  swept  over  the  country,  and  with  it  the  strongest  con 
demnation  of  the  practices  of  that  party.  It  is  true  this  was  in  the  off  year, 
and  not  the  Presidential  year;  but  prudent,  sagacious  men  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Chamber  understand  this  as  well  as  we  do  on  this  side.  Jf  we  make  no 
great  blunders — and  I  know  I  have  heard  it  said  on  the  other  side  that  they 
rely  a  great  deal  on  Democratic  blunders,  for  we  sometimes  make  them — un 
less  the  Democracy  is  guilty  of  great  folly  on  some  important  questions  there 


APPENDIX.  717 

can  be,  to  my  mind,  and  I  think  to  the  minds  of  senators  generally,  but  little 
doubt  that  the  next  president  of  this  republic  will  be  a  Democrat, 

J  am  speaking  now  to  Democrats.  How  do  you  go  into  that  campaign? 
Suppose  you  put  my  honorable  and  worthy  friend  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Pendleton] 
or  my  honorable  friend  from  Delaware  [Mr.  Bayard],  or  any  other  one  of  the 
prominent  and  able  gentlemen  mentioned  for  the  place,  in  nomination  for 
the  Presidency,  and  you  go  before  the  Democratic  masses  of  the  United  States 
and  tell  them  that  you  are  handicapped ;  that  all  the  offices  that  amount  to 
anything,  the  higher  and  more  important  places,  are  already  disposed  of. 
'•  Disposed  of  how?"  they  will  inquire.  ''  Why,  the  Republican  party  have 
had  them  for  twenty-two  years,  and  seeing  that  there  was  a  probability 
of  a  change  of  administration" — to  put  it  in  no  stronger  light — "they 
have  hedged,  and  they  have  taken  good  care  of  themselves ;  they  have  passed 
a  civil-service  bill  and  Democrats  .have  helped  them  to  enact  it;  and  we  have 
it  on  the  statute-book  now  that  there  is  no  Democrat  to  be  put  into  office  in 
any  of  the  executive  departments  except  in  the  lowest  positions.  Above 
them  the  Republicans  alone  may  compete  with  each  other  for  the  places; 
but  there  is  no  chance  for  a  Democrat." 

In  a  free  republican  government,  like  this  those  who  belong  to  both  par- 
t;es  fight  for  office  as  well  as  principle.  Do  you  believe  that  the  Democratic 
leaders  in  all  the  different  States  would  work  with  the  same  energy,  and  zeal, 
and  ability  as  they  would  if  you  held  out  to  them  a  chance  of  a  change  of  the 
offices  with  the  change  of  the  Executive?  Jt  would  be  contrary  to  all  the 
history  of  the  past  to  expect  any  such  work. 

I  know  it  has  been  replied  to  this  that  the  Democratic  candidate  would 
not  likely  have  so  strong  opposition  from  the  Republican  office-holders  in 
office.  I  have  no  faith  in  that.  The  Republican  office-holders  are  usually 
ardent,  true  Republicans;  they  believe  in  the  principles  and  practices  of  their 
party,  and  they  want  to  promote  and  perpetuate  them,  and  they  believe  that 
that  party  lias  a  sort  of  divine  right  to  the  offices  of  this  Government,  and 
they  will  be  as  true  to  their  party  in  the  campaign  as  the  needle  is  to  the 
pole,  while  you  deaden  the  energies  of  the  Democratic  leaders  from  the  low 
est  to  the  highest  by  taking  away  any  inducements  you  would  otherwise  hold 
out  to  them  to  fight  with  the  view  of  reaping  any  of  the  rewards  of  success. 
They  would  vote  the  ticket  patriotically  as  true  Democrats,  but  they  would 
not  exert  themselves  as  they  would  do  if  they  believed  there  would  he  a  gen 
eral  change  or  even  a  change  of  one-half  the  persons  holding  the  offices. 

I  say,  then,  take  it  any  way  you  will,  I  do  not  see,  with  great  deference  to 
my  friend  from  Ohio,  why  at  this  time  a  Democrat  should  vote  for  this  bill; 
certainly  not  without  important  amendments,  that  destroy  the  aristocracy  of 
Republican  office-holding  that  this  bill  provides  for.  Will  Democrats  vote 
for  it  when  it  closes  the  doors  of  the  competitive  examination  against  Demo 
crats  for  every  position  except  the  very  lowest?  I  do  not  wonder  that  our 
Republicans  friends  are  very  unanimous,  and  very  anxious  at  this  time  for 
the  passage  of  this  bill.  The  only  wonder  I  have  is  that  it  has  taken  them 
so  long  to  reach  this  point.  The  first  four  years  when  they  were  in  power 
vere  years  of  war.  It  was  then  no  time  to- discuss  civil-service. 

Perhaps  the  next  two  or  three  years  ought  not  to  be  counted,  during  the 
stormier  period  of  reconstruction  ;  but  take  off  six  years  from  twenty-two  and 
it  leaves  about  sixteen  years  of  peace,  when  senators  and  representatives 
were  in  condition  here  to  consider  the  best  interests  of  the  whole  country. 
It  has  taken  them  sixteen  years  to  reach  the  point  of,  as  they  consider,  a  real 
civil-service  reform. 

Well,  now,  to  show  the  humbuggery  in  this  whole  affair,  there  was  a  very 
good  civil-service  statute  put  upon  the  book  some  years  ago  when  General 


718  APPENDIX. 

Grant  was  president,  and  the  law  was  not  only  enacted  but  the  machinery 
\vas  provided.  The  three  commissioners — I  believe  three  was  the  number — 
were  appointed.  As  is  contemplated  by  the  act,  they  went  to  work ;  civil- 
service  reform,  it  was  said,  was  going  to  be  given  to  the  country  then.  Broad 
plenary  powers  were  given  to  the  President. 

There  were  some  very  patriotic  and  able  gentlemen,  too,  on  the  commission. 
One  of  them  was  from  my  own  State,  Judge  D.  A.  Walker,  an  honored  name, 
a  worthy  gentleman,  a  true  Republican.  They  worked  and  did,  no  doubt, 
the  best  they  knew  how;  and  what  real  substantial  reform  did  the  country 
see?  It  became  so  much  of  a  mockery  that  Congress  in  a  few  years  after 
ward  refused  to  appropriate  the  salaries  of  the  commissioners.  It  was  seen 
to  be  a  deception  and  a  fraud  in  practice,  whatever  might  have  been  intended 
and  however  sincere  President  Grant  might  have  been  in  his  purpose  to  carry 
it  out  in  good  faith.  It  failed.  It  was  an  inglorious  failure ;  and  matters 
went  on  as  matters  will  go  on  in  this  Government. 

This  is  a  republican  government ;  it  is  democratic  in  form,  and  you  have 
to  change  the  nature  of  the  Government  and  change  human  nature  also  be 
fore  you  will  be  able  to  adopt  in  practice  here  any  Utopian  theories  about 
civil-service. 

I  do  not  laud  the  sentiment  mentioned  by  the  honorable  senator  from 
Massachusetts,  which  he  attributes  to  Mr.  Marcy,  that  "  to  the  victors  belong 
the  spoils."  He  said  it  was  rather  coarse.  Probably  it  was;  but  yet  to  a 
very  great  extent  it  has  been  the  system  practiced  from  the  first  day  of  the 
inauguration  of  this  Government;  and  whatever  you  may  put  upon  the 
statute-book  it  will  be  the  system  practiced  until  its  funeral  knell  is  sounded. 
And  no  party  in  this  Government  ever  practiced  the  spoils  system  with  more 
zeal  and  energy  than  the  Republican  party  has.  "  To  the  victors  belong  the 
spoils,"  has  been  its  constant  motto  in  practice  ;  and  still  would  be,  if  impend 
ing  defeat  did  not  stare  it  in  the  face.  There  may  be  some  reforms,  some  of 
the  worst  features  may  be  cut  off;  but  in  the  main  the  Executive  who  comes 
into  power  when  his  party  has  long  been  deprived  of  power  will  find  a  way, 
and  the  heads  of  departments  under  him  will  find  a  way  to  give  to  his  fol 
lowers  the  benefit  of  the  offices  or  a  large  proportion  of  them. 

While  General  Grant  had  the  power  with  a  commission  to  inaugurate  civil- 
service  reform— and  I  suppose  he  doubtless  did  all  he  could  in  good  faith  to 
do  it,  for  he  seemed  intent  on  it — yet  the  heads  of  departments  and  the  sub 
ordinate  heads  found  ready  ways  of  evading  it,  and  you  may  put  this  on  the 
statute-book — 
-  Mr.  George.  May  I  interrupt  the  senator  from  Georgia  to  ask  a  question? 

Mr.  Brown.     Certainly. 

Mr.  George.  If  it  be  true,  as  the  senator  from  Georgia  suggests,  that  a 
new  President  and  new  heads  of  departments  can  find  a  way,  notwithstand 
ing  the  statutes  that  we  may  put  on  our  statute-books,  to  reward  their  fol 
lowers,  their  supporters,  then  I  ask,  in  anticipation  (as  the  senator  seems  to 
think  we  are  about  to  have  one)  of  a  Democratic  success  in  1884,  how  can 
this  measure  prevent  a  Democratic  president  and  Democratic  heads  of  De 
partments  from  rewarding  their  followers? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  answer  the  senator  from  Mississippi  as  I  answered  the 
senator  from  Connecticut  a  while  ago.  He  will  not  be  restrained  from  doing 
it,  and  that  shows  the  miserable  fraud  and  humbuggery  of  this  measure.  In 
effect  it  will  amount  to  nothing,  and  cannot  amount  to  anything. 

Mr.  George.  Then  will  the  senator  from  Georgia  allow  me  to  say  that  it 
is  not  a  fair  argument  to  excite  the  prejudice  of  the  Democratic  party  of  this 
country  against  this  measure  on  the  ground  that  its  effect  will  be  to  prevent 
a  Democratic  president  from  appointing  Democrats  to  office? 


APPENDIX.  719 

Mr.  Brown.  I  argued  that  proposition  on  the  theory  of  the  advocates  of 
the  bill,  that  if  you  can  carry  out  your  policy,  that  will  be  the  effect;  but  I 
say  you  cannot  do  it;  and  then  you  are  engaged  in  that  which  is  worse  than 
idle  when  you  are  here  enacting  this  law. 

Mr.  George.  Will  the  senator  allow  me  to  say  that  it  is  the  statute  and 
not  the  theory  of  its  advocates  that  is  to  have  force  in  this  country. 

Mr.  Brown.  In  fact  it  id  the  practice  of  those  who  execute  the  statute  that 
has  force  in  this  country.  That  is  what  it  is.  You  may  put  on  the  statute- 
book,  laws  as  stringent  as  you  please  to  make  them,  and  if  popular  sentiment 
and  the  sentiment  of  those  in  power  do  not  approve  those  laws,  they  will  be 
evaded  in  the  execation  and  will  be  a  mockery ;  and  so  this  will  be. 

I  say  the  argument  is  legitimate,  that,  give  the  measure  all  you  claim  for 
it,  then  as  Democrats  you  should  not  vote  to  handicap  your  candidate,  and 
you  should  not  vote  to  retain  in  office  for  life  those  who  have  held  the  posi 
tions  for  so  long  a  time,  and  who  are  your  political  enemies.  But  if  it  is  not 
true,  that  it  will  be  executed  or  that  it  amounts  to  anything,  then  this  is  a 
vain  business  in  which  we  are  engaged  and  we  had  better  spend  our  time  in 
something  that  is  ol  some  practical  utility. 

The  preamble  of  this  bill  promises  very  finely.     I  desire  to  read  it : 

**  Whereas  common  justice  requires  that,  so  far  as  practicable,  all  citizens' 
duly  qualified  shall  be  allowed  equal  opportunities,  on  grounds  of  personal 
fitness,  for  securing  appointments,  employment,  and  promotion  in  the  subor 
dinate  civil  service  of  the  United  States." 

That  is  very  broad.  It  would  seem  to  be  a  very  good  doctrine.  But  I  con 
fess  I  was  struck  when  I  looked  further  over  and  saw  that  in  the  very  teeth 
of  that  recital  of  the  proper  principle  the  competitive  examinations  are  lim 
ited  to  the  lowest  grade  of  offices.  That  means,  I  suppose,  that  it  is  justice 
in  case  of  the  lowest  grade  to  give  everybody  a  chance;  but  above  that  the 
benefit  must  be  confined  to  the  inner  circle,  those  who  have  held  office  a  long 
time  and  want  to  continue  to  hold  it;  in  other  words,  to  Republicans. 

Again  the  preamble  says  : 

•*  Whereas  justice  to  the  public  likewise  requires  that  the  Government  shall 
have  the  largest  choice  among  those  likely  to  answer  ihe  requirements  of  the 
public  service." 

That  is  good  doctrine,  but  the  body  of  the  act  is  in  the  teeth  of  it.  The 
Government  should  have  the  largest  choice  among  those  likely  to  answer  the 
requirements  as  to  qualifications  for  office,  and  yet  you  limit  the  choice  of 
the  Government  in  the  body  of  the  bill  to  the  lowest  grade. 

Again : 

"  Whereas  justice,  as  well  as  economy,  efficiency,  and  integrity  in  the  pub 
lic  service,  will  be  promoted  by  substituting  open  and  uniform  competitive 
examinations  for  the  examinations  heretofore  held  in  pursuance  of  the  stat 
utes  of  1853  and  1855." 

Economy,  efficiency,  and  the  integrity  of  the  service  will  be  promoted, 
says  the  preamble,  by  substituting  competitive  examinations,  and  yet  the 
bo*dy  of  the  bill  denies  the  competitive  examination,  so  far  as  the  public  gen 
erally  are  concerned,  to  all  persons  except  for  the  lowest  grade  of  offices. 

But  reference  has  been  made  here  to  the  letter  and  doctrines  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  on  this  question.  He  has  been  cited  as  authority,  and  he  is  very  high 
authority  on  any  subject  that  he  ever  handled.  There  are  certain  expres 
sions  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln  that  are  warped  to  mean  that  removals 
should  take  place  for  cause  only,  and  that  qualifications  and  fitness  alone 
should  be  looked  to.  Mr.  Jefferson  made  very  important  qualifications  of 
that  doctrine  in  that  letter.  I  propose  to  read  a  portion  of  it.  He  speaks  of 
the  action  of  the  leaders  of  the  Federal  party  at  the  time,  and  says :  (See 


720  APPENDIX. 

his  letter  to  Levi  Lincoln,  dated  25th  of  October,  1802,  vol.  4  Jefferson's 
works,  page  450.) 

"  They  are  trying  slanders  now  which  nothing  could  prompt  but  a  gall 
which  blinds  their  judgments  as  well  as  their  consciences.  I  shall  take  no 
other  revenge  than  by  a  steady  pursuit  of  economy  and  peace,  and  by  the  es 
tablishment  of  Republican  principles  in  substance  and  in  form,  to  sink  Fed 
eralism  into  an  abyss  from  which  there  shall  be  no  resurrection  for  it.  I  still 
think  our  original  idea  as  to  office  is  best:  that  is,  depend  for  the  obtaining 
a  just  participation  on  deaths,  resignations,  and  delinquencies."  % 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  says  more  than  that: 

"  This  will  least  affect  the  tranquillity  of  the  people  and  prevent  their  giv 
ing  in  to  the  suggestion  of  our  enemies,  that  ours  has  been  a  contest  for  office, 
no!  for  principle.  This  is  rather  a  slow  operation  " — and  if  he  had  been 
confined  to  the  lowest  grade  of  office  alone  he  would  have  thought  it  a  great 
deal  slower — "  but  it  is  sure  if  we  pursue  it  steadily,  which,  however,  has 
not  been  done  with  the  undeviating  resolution  I  could  have  wished." 

Mr.  Jefferson  only  waited  for  deaths,  resignations,  and  delinquencies. 
When  these  came  a  Republican,  as  the  Democrats  were  then  called,  was  to 
be  put  into  office.  He  declares  that  was  very  slow.  And  what  does  this  bill 
•do?  It  waits  in  the  same  manner  for  deaths,  resignations,  or  delinquencies, 
but  only  in  the  lower  grades.  It  does  not  give  us  the  chance  of  putting  in  a 
Democrat  in  every  grade  that  becomes  vacant,  because  the  competitive  ex 
amination  must  be  from  those  in  office  at  the  time;  for  all  above  the  lowest 
grade.  It  confines  us  to  the  lowest  grade.  What  would  Mr.  Jefferson  have 
said  if  there  had  been  an  attempt  to  confine  him  to  the  lowest  grade  in  fill 
ing  offices  where  vacancies  occurred  in  the  manner  already  designated?  He 
would  have  thought  it  was  a  great  deal  slower  than  the  slowness  of  which  he 
complained. 

Ai>ain,  he  said: 

*'  To  these  means  of  obtaining  a  just  share  in  the  transaction  of  the  public 
business  shall  be  added  one  other,  to  wit,  removal  for  electioneering  ac 
tivity." 

What  would  he  have  said  to  the  hundreds  of  clerks  who  are  given  time 
when  elections  come  on  to  go  to  Ohio  and  the  extreme  limits,  wherever  there 
is  a  Republican  State,  to  take  an  active  part  in  controlling  the  State  elections? 
Would  he  not  have  swept  the  last  one  of  tbem  from  office? 

He  adds : 

"Or  open  and  industrious  opposition  to  the  principles  of  the  present  Gov 
ernment,  legislative,  and  executive." 

If  they  took  an  active  part  in  politics  against  him,  or  if  they  were  open  in 
opposition  to  the  principles  of  the  party  in  power  administering  the  Govern 
ment  they  were  to  go  by  the  board.  Hear  him  again: 

"  Every  officer  of  the  Government  may  vote  at  elections  according  to  his 
conscience  ;  but  we  should  betray  the  cause  committed  to  our  care  were  we  to 
permit  the  influence  of  official  patronage  to  be  used  to  overthrow  that  cause. 
Your  present  situation  will  enable  you  to  judge  of  prominent  offenders  in 
your  State,  in  the  case  of  the  present  election." 

"Prominent  offenders  in  your  State."  That  is,  those  who  had  taken  a 
prominent  part  against  his  party  in  Connecticut.  That  was  what  he  meant, 
and  it  would  be  left  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  judge  of  those  who  had  been  promi 
nent  in  that  way.  Then  he  adds : 

"  I  pray  you  to  seek  them,  to  mark  them,  to  be  quite  sure  of  your  ground, 
that  we  may  commit  no  error  or  wrong,  and  leave  the  rest  to  me." 

He  was  President  and  said,  "  Seek  them ;  mark  them ;  be  quite  sure  of 
your  ground,  and  then  leave  the  rest "  to  him ;  he  would  take  care  of  it. 


APPENDIX.  721 

'    Again  he  says  : 

44 1  have  been  urged  to  remove  Mr.  Whittemore,  the  surveyor  of  Glouces 
ter,  on  grounds  of  neglect  of  duty  and  industrious  opposition.  Yet  no  facts 
are  so  distinctly  charged  as  to  make  the  step  sure  which  we  should  take  in 
this.  Will  you  take  the  trouble  to  satisfy  yourself  on  this  point?  I  think  it 
not  amiss  that  it  should  be  known  that  we  are  determined  to  remove  officers 
who  are  active  or  open-mouthed  against  the  Government,  by  which  I  mean 
the  Legislature  as  well  as  the  Executive." 

Mark  his  language.  He  thought  it  not  amiss  that  it  should  be  known  that 
they  were  determined  to  remove  from  office  those  who  had  been  active  and 
open-mouthed  against  the  Government,  whether  in  the  legislative  or  the  ex 
ecutive  department.  That  was  the  sort  of  civil  service  that  Mr.  Jefferson  ad 
vocated  ;  that  was  the  advice  he  gave  to  his  friend  Lincoln  of  Connecticut; 
and  mind  you,  he  says,  "  Mark  them,  and  leave  the  rest  to  me."  And  so  it 
will  be,  no  matter  what  civil-service  bill  you  may  pass;  whenever  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  heads  of  Departments  desire  to  do  so  they  will  mark  them,  aud 
they  will  find  a  way  of  getting  rid  of  them. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  one  word  as  to  the  natural  inherent  justice  of  this 
case  aside  from  all  political  views  of  it,  or  any  partisan  view ;  what  is  right, 
what  is  just.  According  to  this  preamble  it  is  right  and  just  that  men  should 
take  their  chances  in  procuring  office,  and  have  a  fair  chance  in  accordance 
with  their  ability,  their  intelligence,  and  their  fitness  for  the  place;  all  tax 
payers  and  all  citizens  should  stand  upon  grounds  of  equality,  taking  chances 
alike,  with  no  favored  class  and  no  proscribed  class. 

What  is  the  state  of  things  in  this  Republican  Government  of  ours  ? 
There  are  now,  it  is  said,  about  55,000,000  people;  there  are  about  110000 
officers  and  persons  holding  employment  under  the  Government,  and  those 
places  are  held  by  Republicans  almost  invariably. 

It  is  true  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  told  us  a  while  ago  that  the 
President  of  the  United  States  now  stands  pledged  to  sign  and  support  a 
measure  for  civil-service  reform.  Why  does  he  stand  so?  What  new-born 
idea  has  put  him  on  that  platform  V  I  speak  kindly  of  him  personally,  for  I 
have  great  regard  for  him;  but  his  political  course  we  have  aright  to  discuss. 
What  administration,  at  any  time  since  the  foundation  of  this  Government, 
has  ever  been  more  prescriptive,  so  far  as  appointments  to  office  are  concerned  ? 
How  many  Democrats  has  he  left  in,  holding  offices  of  any  importance? 
Some  of  his  predecessors  were  more  liberal  on  that  subject.  But  when  he  came 
in  I  presume  those  having  influence  required  of  him  that  he  should  make  a 
clean  sweep,  and  he  has  made  it  as  near  as  any  administration  ever  can. 

What,  then,  is  the  modest  proposition  here?  It  is  to  give  to  the  Repub 
lican  party,  according  to  the  theory  of  the  advocates  of  the  bill,  especially  the 
theory  of  the  senator  from  Massachusetts,  a  permanency  in  these  offices. 
What  is  the  Republican  party  of  this  country?  It  is  a  minority  of  the  peo 
ple  of  this  country.  la  1876  Samuel  J.  Tiiden  was  elected  President  of 
these  United  States,  and  he  got  a  popular  majority  of  about  250,000.  la 
1880  James  A.  Garfield  was  legally  and  constitutionally  elected  President  of 
these  United  States,  but  he  was  elected  by  a  plurality  only  ;  adding  the  Dem 
ocratic  vote  and  the  Greenback  vote  together,  he  was  beaten  on  the  popular 
vote  by  over  300,000  majority. 

The  Republican  party,  then,  are  a  minority  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  yet  they  hold  to-day  almost  all  the  offices  connected  with  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  Is  it  right,  Mr.  President,  as  a  naked 
question  of  justice,  equity,  and  fair  play,  that  this  state  of  things  should 
continue?  They  have  had  this  advantage  for  twenty-two  years.  How  long 
has  this  minority  a  divine  right  to  govern  this  country? 
46 


722  APPENDIX. 

No,  if  we  are  to  have  a  just  and  equitable  civil-service  reform  let  it  be  a 
reform  of  the  abuses  of  the  party  that  has  so  long  wielded  the  power  of  the 
Government,  and  let  that  reform  be  put  upon  the  basis  that  in  future  com 
petitive  examinations  when  you  ascertain  the  two  highest  the  Democrat 
shall  be  preferred  until  one-half  the  office-holders  are  Democrats.  I  can  see 
an  equity  in  that;  not  if  you  confine  it,  however,  as  this  bill  does,  to  the 
lowest  grade  of  officers;  but  if  you  will  throw  all  the  offices  in  these  depart 
ments  open  to  competition  when  vacancies  occur,  and  then  take  the  two 
highest  and  give  the  preference  to  the  Democrat  until  the  Democrats  have 
half  the  offices,  there  is  something  like  a  just  and  equitable  civil  service. 
You  would  have  to  give  the  Greenback  party  some  portion,  but  I  am  willing 
to  meet  this  question  anywhere  upon  the  equity  and  justice  of  the  case.  I  do 
not  fear  to  go  before  the  populace  upon  it  and  say  that  I  do  not  favor  this 
policy  of  civil  service,  because  of  its  injustice,  its  inequality,  and  its  want  of 
equity.  The  Democrats  perform  their  part  of  the  duties  and  bear  their  part 
of  the  burdens  of  this  Government;  they  pay  their  portion  of  the  taxes; 
they  do  their  part  of  the  military  service;  in  a  word,  they  do  faithfully  the 
duties  incumbent  upon  citizens. 

Why  is  it  then  that  they  should  be  proscribed  not  only  for  the  long  period, 
when  it  has  already  been  so,  but  for  all  future  time?  Why  are  they  not 
worthy  of  their  part  in  the  patronage  and  offices  of  the  Government  if  they 
bear  their  part  in  the  burdens  of  the  Government?  Will  some  senator  who 
is  so  anxious  for  this  civil-service  reform  please  tell  me  why  it  is  that  the 
Democrats  have  no  equity,  no  rights  as  a  class?  I  know  it  has  become  popu 
lar  to  prate  about  civil-service  reform.  We  have  had  it  in  President's  mes 
sages  and  in  reports  of  heads  of  the  departments  until  it  is  in  everybody's 
mouth,  and  yet  how  delusive.  In  practice  it  amounted  to  nothing  from  the 
very  commencement,  and  now  this  bill  proposes  to  make  it  an  engine  of  in 
equality,  injustice,  and  wrong  to  the  larger  half  of  the  tax-payers  and  voters 
and  people  of  the  United  States. 

I  will  give  my  sanction  to  no  such  measure,  and  if  no  other  man  in  this 
Chamber  votes  against  it  I  will  pride  myself  in  recording  my  vote  against  a 
measure  that  proscribes  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  with 
which  majority  I  act,  and  drives  them  from  public  positions  for  almost  a 
generation  to  come,  opens  the  way  to  the  lowest  grades  that  we  may  come 
into  the  lowest  positions  only,  and  leaves  the  balance  to  those  already  in, 
who  are  all  Republicans.  I  treat  it  on  its  equities,  I  treat  it  on  its  justice, 
and  denounce  it  as  unfair,  as  fraught  with  wrong,  injustice,  and  inequality, 
and  I  ask  any  one  who  can  to  defend  it  as  a  principle  of  equity.  If  the 
Democracy  had  been  twenty  two  years  in  power,  and  had  the  control  of  the 
offices  and  patronage  of  this  Government,  I  say  to  my  colleagues  on  this  side 
you  would  hear  a  oifferent  voice  from  the  other  side,  in  my  opinion  ;  I  think 
they  would  see,  and  have  no  difficulty  in  reaching  the  conclusion,  that  the  bill 
was  unjust,  unequal,  and  ought  not  to  pass. 

I  have  noticed  ever  since  I  have  had  the  honor  to  occupy  a  seat  on  this 
floor,  that  the  Republicans  have  touched  this  question  a  little  tenderly,  and 
it  has  been  kept  before  the  popular  mind  in  a  very  gentle  manner  all  the 
while,  by  messages  and  reports,  and  so  on  ;  but  when  it  came  right  down  to 
action  they  were  a  little  dilatory  about  it.  But  since  the  elections  of 
November  last  their  energies  have  been  quickened,  their  convictions  have 
been  strengthened,  and  to-day  they  are  not  only  almost  persuaded,  but  they 
are  full  converts  to  the  doctrine  that  civil-service  reform  is  imperatively 
necessary,  and  necessary  just  at  this  particular  time. 

I  do  not  blame  them,  i  do  not  see  that  their  course  is  what  it  ought  to 
be,  if  we  go  on  the  principles  of  justice  and  equality;  but  as  a  party  measure, 


APPENDIX.  723 

if  we  will  sit  here  and  permit  them  to  enact  such  a  law,  I  cannot  blame  them 
for  doing  it.  The  Democrats  will  not  hold  them  responsible,  they  will  hold 
us  responsible  for  it;  and  the  Republicans,  looking  to  the  action  of  their 
senators,  no  doubt  will  applaud  their  energy  and  their  skill  in  providing  for 
their  office-holders  for  a  lifetime  in  the  future,  just  as  the  period  has  come 
when  there  is  danger  that  they  may  have  to  leave. 

But  there  is  another  provision  in  connection  with  this  bill  which  may  re 
quire  some  attention.  The  country  has  been  greatly  shocked  by  the  prac 
tices  of  the  Republican  party,  by  their  levying  assessments  upon  subordinates 
in  the  various  offices  of  the  Government  to  be  used  for  political  purposes, 
and  both  sides  seem  now  to  agree  on  the  propriety  of  enacting  stringent  laws 
against  such  a  practice  in  future.  In  other  words,  we  propose  in  future  to 
make  it  highly  penal,  if  not  a  penitentiary  crime,  for  any  officer  or  commit 
tee  to  do  what  the  Republican  committee  did  in  the  last  campaign.  And 
while  I  deny  that  the  great  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  have 
either  clamored  or  called  for  a  civil-service  measure  of  the  character  con 
templated  by  this  act,  I  admit  that  there  is  a  general  demand  for  the  enact 
ment  of  a  law  to  punish,  and  punish  severely,  the  practice  of  soliciting  and 
virtually  compelling  donations  of  part  of  their  salaries  from  subordinates  in 
the  different  departments.  But  why  pass  a  civil-service  bill  of  the  character 
of  this  to  get  that  provision  into  it?  Why  not  meet  the  question  fairly  and 
squarely,  like  bold,  sensible  men,  and  amend  the  penal  code  of  the  United 
States  by  the  enactment  ot  a  law  providing  ample  punishment  for  those  who 
practice  this  system  in  future?  No  civil-service  bilHs  necessary.  It  wants  a 
penal  statute  to  make  the  infamous  practice  a  high  misdemeanor,  if  not  a 
felony.  Those  who  claim  that  the  people  at  the  last  election  not  only  con 
demned  the  corrupt  methods  and  practices  of  the  Republican  party ;  but 
that  they  demand  the  so-called  civil-service  reform  contemplated  by  this  bill 
as  a  remedy,  make  a  great  mistake.  The  corrupt  practices  have  been  con 
demned.  The  people  have  spoken  in  thunder  tones  of  condemnation  and 
denunciation,  which  can  neither  be  ignored  nor  misunderstood.  They  de 
nounce  the  admitted  malpractice  of  Republican  officials,  and  demand  a 
remedy.  But  what  remedy  ?  Not  that  we  pass  a  law  to  continue  the  perpe 
trators  of  these  great  wrongs  in  office  for  life  or  a  term  of  years.  The  party 
to  which  they  belong  has  held  power  twenty-two  years.  It  is  time  there  was 
a  change.  And  the  people  demand  as  a  remedy  for  existing  abuses,  a 
change  of  officials.  They  demand  that  the  unfaithful  public  servant,  whose 
maladministration  cannot  be  denied,  be  hurled  from  power,  and  that  their 
places  be  filled  by  honest,  capable  men,  who  will  reform  the  public  service  by 
a  return  to  the  purer  and  better  methods  practiced  by  the  fathers  of  the  re 
public;  who  will  cut  off  all  surplus  and  unnecessary  officials,  clerks,  and  em 
ployes  ;  and  all  extravagant  waste  of  the  public  treasure,  which  is  wrung  by 
taxation  from  the  labor  of  the  people. 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  am  aware  that  I  have  already  occupied  the  floor  too 
long.  Before  taking  my  seat,  however,  I  desire  to  announce  certain  amend 
ments  that  at  the  proper  time,  whenever  I  can  get  an  opportunity,  I  propose 
to  offer  to  this  bill.  On  line  22,  section  2,  page  3,  I  find  this  language : 

"  Third,  that  original  entrance  to  the  public  service  aforesaid  shall  be  at 
the  lowest  grade,  and  appointments  thereto  in  the  departments  at  Washing 
ton  shall  be  apportioned,  as  nearly  as  practicable,  among  the  several  States  and 
Territories  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  upon  the  basis  of  population  ascer 
tained  at  the  last  preceding  census." 

There  I  shall  move  to  strike  out  the  words  "shall  be  at  the  lowest  grade," 
so  as  to  read  : 


724  APPENDIX. 

"  That  original  entrance  to  the  public  service  aforesaid  and  appointments 
thereto  in  the  departments  at  Washington  shall  be  apportioned,  etc." 

Then  I  find,  on  page  4,  section  2,  line  30,  this  language : 

"  Fifth,  that  promotions  shall  be  from  the  lower  grades  to  the  higher  on 
the  basis  of  merit  and  competition." 

I  shall  move  to  strike  that  out  entirely. 

Then  on  page  10.  in  section  7, 1  find  this  language : 

"  That  after  the  expiration  of  six  months  from  the  passage  of  this  act  no 
officer  or  clerk  shall  be  appointed,  and  no  person  shall  be  employed  to  enter 
or  be  promoted  in  either  of  the  said  classes  now  existing,  or  that  may  be  ar 
ranged  hereunder  pursuant  to  said  rules,  until  he  has  passed  an  examination, 
or  is  shown  to  be  specially  exempted  from  such  examination  in  conformity 
herewith." 

There  I  shall  move  to  add  : 

"  Whenever  a  vacancy  occurs  in  either  of  said  classes  it  shall  be  filled  with 
one  of  the  two  persons  who  stood  highest  on  the  competitive  examination,  and 
the  selection  for  appointment  shall  not  be  confined  to  the  persons  in  the  office, 
or  who  at  the  time  hold  positions  under  the  department  in  which  the  vacancy 
occurs,  but  other  persons,  citizens,  desiring  the  position  shall,  on  application, 
be  permitted  to  participate  in  the  competitive  examination,  and  shall  receive 
the  appointment  if  the  examination  shows  that  they  possess  qualifications  supe 
rior  to  the  competitors  who  may  be  in  position  at  the  time  of  the  examination." 

In  other  words  my  object  is  to  get  rid  of  that  feature  which  confines  the 
competitive  examinations  to  the  applicants  for  the  lowest  class.  Why  should 
not  a  person  occupying  no  position  under  the  Government,  who  is  eminently 
qualified,  have  a  right  to  apply  for  a  vacancy  in  a  higher  class?  1  know  uo 
reason  except  that  he  is  a  Democrat,  and  he  must  not  interfere  with  the  in 
ner  circle  or  with  the  political  power  of  it.  I  want  to  open  the  door  wide,  if 
we  have  competitive  examiiations,  and  let  every  citizen  who  feels  that  he 
has  claims  superior  to  an  inferior  man  now  in  position  go  and  compete  for 
the  prize,  and  if  he  wins  it,  though  he  be  a  Democrat,  let  him  have  it.  I 
think  this  is  right.  I  do  not  feel  that  I  should  do  my  duty  if  I  were  to  sit 
here  and  see  this  bill  pass  without  doing  all  in  my  power  to  see  that  justice 
is  done  to  the  larger  half  of  the  people  of  this  country  in  giving  them  an 
actual  chance  to  compete  for  these  positions.  The  bill,  as  it  now  stands, 
does  not  give  it.  I  seek  to  amend  it  so  that  all  who  feel  that  they  are  really 
qualified  shall  have  a  chance  for  the  offices. 

I  know  there  are  stringent  provisions  in  the  bill  about  any  one  doing  any 
thing  to  promote  the  claim  of  one  applicant  or  injure  the  claim  of  another. 
There  is  simply  nothing  in  that.  The  head  of  a  department  may  give 
stringent  orders  to  have  everything  go  right,  but  he  has  men  under  him  who 
have  been  there  probably  for  twenty  years,  shrewd,  sharp  managing  fellows, 
and  they  will  find  a  way  to  get  the  preference  given  by  examiners  to  a  favorite 
who  is  wanted  by  them  and  against  those  they  do  not  want.  You  will  never 
purify  this  service  until  you  drive  these  old  rats  from  the  malt.  You  will 
never  purify  it  as  long  as  those  who  have  had  control  of  things  for  a  long 
time  wield  the  power.  They  have  had  it  long  enough.  If  the  Democrats 
come  into  power  let  all  the  worst  of  them  retire.  We  have  plenty  of  men 
every  way  their  equals,  socially,  morally,  intellectually,  educationally,  in  any 
way  you  may  put  it.  Why,  then,  should  Democrats  take  a  position  in  favor 
of  proscribing  men  of  that  class  of  our  own  party,  and  keep  in  power  those  of 
the  other  party  who  have  for  so  long  a  time  been  in  office  ? 

I  do  not  know,  Mr.  President,  whether  there  is  any  other  amendment 
pending  at  the  present  time  that  has  preference  over  those  I  have  mentioned 
or  not.  If  there  is  not — 


APPENDIX.  725 

The  presiding  officer  (Mr.  Morgan  in  the  chair).  The  amendment  of  the 
senator  from  Iowa  [Mr.  Allison]  is  pending. 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  I  give  notice  that  I  shall  propose  these  amendments 
when  they  are  in  order. 

Mr.  Hawley.  Before  the  senator  passes  from  the  point  he  has  been  just 
discussing,  I  should  like  to  make  a  suggestion  to  him  in  the  form  of  a  ques 
tion.  There  are  in  the  departments  quite  a  considerable  number  of  Demo 
cratic  employes  and  clerks,  and  some  of  them  have  been  there  ten,  fifteen, 
twenty,  twenty-five  years.  Now,  I  wish  to  know  whether  their  continuance 
in  the  service  with  the  testimonial  in  their  favor  that  it  has  been  under  an 
adverse  Administration  because  of  their  admirable  record,  whether  the  fact 
that  they  have  been  a  long  time  in  the  service  is  so  much  against  them  that 
the  senator  would  turn  them  out  also? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  would  put  them  on  their  merits,  Mr.  President.  If  their 
practices  were  clean  and  their  conduct  right,  if  they  had  behaved  themselves 
well,  I  would  not  turn  them  out  simply  because  they  held  office  under  Re 
publicans,  and  I  would  not  probably  turn  out  every  Republican  there  who 
held  an  office  and  showed  a  fair  and  clean  record ;  but  I  would  do  this :  I 
would  so  amend  this  bill  that  any  one  outside  who  was  the  superior  of  either 
of  them  might  come  in  and  compete  for  the  place,  and  if  he  took  it  by  virtue 
of  his  merits  and  his  qualifications  over  either  a  Democrat  or  a  Republican  I 
would  let  him  do  so.  This  would  be  true  civil-seivice  reform.  Both  parties 
mnst  be  fairly  represented  in  the  offices  before  any  such  enactment  will  meet 
with  public  favor  or  produce  any  beneficial  results. 

If  my  amendments  are  not  acted  on  this  afternoon,  I  shall  ask  that  they 
be  printed  and  laid  on  the  table  by  the  morning  session. 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  DELIVERED  IN  THE 
SENATK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  JANUARY  8,  1883,  ON  THE  RIGHTS 
OF  THE  CITIZENS  OF  THE  LATE  CONFEDERATE  STATES  TO  THK 
$10,000,000  NOW  IN  THE  TREASURY,  WHICH  is  THE  PROCEEDS  OF 
THE  SALE  OF  THEIR  COTTON  AND  OTHER  PROPERTY  SEIZED  BY  THE 
AGENTS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT,  THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  PRESIDENT'S 
PARDON  ON  THEIR  RIGHTS  CONSIDERED,  ETC. 

The  Senate,  as  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  resumed  the  consideration  of  the  bill 
(H.  R.  H84)  to  afford  assistance  and  relief  to  Congress  and  the  Executive  departments 
in  their  investigation  of  claims  and  demands  against  the  Government. 

Mr.  Brown  said . 

Mr.  President :  I  desire  to  give  notice  first  of  an  amendment  which  I  shall 
offer  to  the  bill  whenever  it  is  in  order  to  consider  it.  I  wish  to  have  the 
amendment  read : 

The  Principal  Legislative  Clerk.  It  is  proposed  to  add  as  an  additional 
section  to  the  bill  the  following  : 

SEC.  — .  That  the  right  of  action  in  said  Court  of  Claims  under  the  provisions  of 
the  captured  and  abandoned  property  acts,  where  the  money  arising  from  the  sale 
of  the  property  is  now  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  be,  and  the  same  hereby 
is,  revived  and  extended  for  two  years  from  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  includ 
ing  all  cases  of  seizure  under  said  act,  or  under  color  thereof,  without  regard  to  any 
statute  of  limitations;  and  all  claims  for  such  property  not  filed  in  said  court  within 
that  period  shall  be  forever  barred:  Provided,  however,  That  where  any  of  such  claims 
have  been  filed  before  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  proof  taken  in  relation 
thereto,  under  the  provisions  of  the  fifth  section  of  the  act  of  May  18,  1872,  the  proof 
so  taken,  whether  upon  the  part  of  the  Government  or  the  claimant,  where  it  is  made 


726  APPENDIX. 

to  appear  by  affidavit  that  the  witnesses  are  dead  or  cannot  be  found,  shall  be  used 
in  evidence  in  the  said  Court  of  Claims  as  though  taken  in  pursuance  of  the  rules  of 
said  court,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  upon  the  call  of  said  court,  on  the 
motion  of  either  party,  shall  transmit  said  proofs  and  all  the  papers  in  the  case  to  the 
said  Court  of  Claims. 

T  think  the  bill  before  the  senate  to  refer  the  large  number  of  claims  of 
different  character?,  involving  investigations  of  questions  of  fact,  to  be 
audited  at  least  by  the  Court  of  Claims,  for  I  believe  that  is  about  the  effect 
of  the  bill,  is  a  good  one  in  its  main  features. 

I  do  not  approve,  however,  of  the  section  that  requires  of  the  suitor  in 
that  court,  or  the  claimant,  any  proof  as  to  his  loyalty  during  the  war.  I 
deny,  under  the  Constitution  and  laws  and  the  amnesty  proclamations  of  the 
President,  that  any  such  proof  can  be  required  of  the  claimant  who  did  par 
ticipate  in  the  rebellion.  That  question  has  been  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  again  and  again,  and  that  court  has  decided  the  iden 
tical  question,  as  I  understand  it,  that  a  claimant  who  did  participate  in  the 
rebellion,  and  who  has  been  pardoned  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
may  prefer  his  claim  in  the  Court  of  Claims  without  the  allegation  or  proof 
that  he  did  not  participate  in  the  rebellion. 

Therefore  I  think  that  provision  of  the  bill  now  before  the  senate  is  ob 
jectionable  in  a  twofold  sense  :  one,  that  it  would  be  a  violation  of  the  Con 
stitution,  of  the  proclamations  of  the  President,  and  the  laws  as  they  now 
stand ;  and  another,  that  it  tends  all  the  while  to  keep  up  the  distinction  be 
tween  those  who  were  once  engaged  in  rebellion,  as  it  is  now  termed,  and  citi 
zens  who  were  not  so  engaged,  though  all  are  now  loyal,  all  are  enjoying  alike 
the  privileges  of  the  Government,  and  each  sharing  his  part  in  its  burdens. 

Mr.  Cameron,  of  Wisconsin.  Will  it  interrupt  the  senator  if  I  ask  him  a 
question  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  No,  not  if  you  confine  it  to  a  question.  This  is  a  subject 
that  we  differ,  probably,  a  good  deal  about,  and  I  would  prefer  to  proceed 
with  my  argument  without  too  many  interruptions,  though  I  am  not  captious 
about  it.  I  will  hear  the  senator. 

Mr.  Cameron,  of  Wisconsin.  Has  the  senator  ever  looked  at  the  question 
in  this  view :  that  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  which  he  refers  had 
reference  to  a  court  that  had  jurisdiction  to  render  a  judgment  in  the  case? 
Under  this  bill  the  Court  of  Claims  has  not  authority  to  render  judgment, 
but  merely  to  find  the  facts  and  report  the  facts  to  Congress;  and  in  the 
cases  that  are  referred  to  that  court  by  departments  of  the  Government  they 
are  required  to  find  the  facts  and  the  law.  Suppose  Congress,  instead  of 
referring  these  cases  to  the  Court  of  Claims,  had  said,  "  We  will  refer  them 
to  the  Attorney-General  and  impose  upon  him  the  duty  of  examining  them 
and  reporting  the  facts  to  Congress,"  would  or  would  not  that  be  constitu 
tional,  and  would  not  Congress  have  a  right  to  refer  any  class  of  cases  that 
it  pleased  to  the  Attorney-General  if  it  saw  fit  to  do  so? 

Mr.  Frye.  If  the  senator  will  pardon  me  one  moment,  as  I  understood 
the  amendment  offered  by  him  it  goes  the  full  length ;  it  gives  full  and  com 
plete  jurisdiction  to  the  Court  of  Claims  in  the  abandoned  property  claims. 
That  is  as  I  understand  the  amendment. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  prefer  to  proceed  with  my  argument  in  rny  own  way.  I 
think  I  shall  cover  all  the  ground,  before  I  take  my  seat,  that  senators  have 
called  my  attention  to,  and  it  rather  breaks  the  thread  of  my  argument  and 
disjoints  the  different  propositions  that  I  may  have  connected  together  to 
have  to  submit  to  frequent  interruptions.  As  I  say,  I  am  always  willing  to 
be  interrupted  if  it  is  thought  important  by  any  senator,  but  I  shall  cover 
the  ground  mentioned  by  both  the  senators  before  I  take  my  seat. 


APPENDIX.  727 

Now,  Mr.  President,  before  I  proceed  further  with  the  discussion,  I  desire 
to  remark  that  at  the  opening  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  there  were  two 
funds  lying  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  each  in  amount  about 
$10,000,000,  to  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  set  up  no  just  or 
equitable  claim,  but  the  authorities  of  the  United  States  admitted  that  the 
money  belonged  to  private  individuals  or  firms,  persons  in  legal  contempla 
tion,  either  artificial  or  to  natural  persons. 

One  of  these  funds  was  known  as  the  Geneva  award  fund.  We  had  held 
a  convention  with  Great  Britain,  and  had  agreed  upon  an  arbitration  of  the 
mutual  claims  and  charges  that  each  government  had  against  the  other, 
especially  pertaining  to  matters  growing  out  of  the  action  and  conduct  of 
the  Confederate  cruisers  during  the  war. 

The  award  given  to  the  United  States  by  the  arbitrators  was,  as  we 
thought,  a  liberal  one — fifteen  and  a  half  million  dollars.  Something  over 
five  millions,  or  from  five  to  seven  millions,  of  that  amount  paid  all  the 
claims  that  the  loyal  people  of  the  United  States,  as  they  were  termed  and 
known  during  the  war,  the  ship-owners  and  those  engaged  in  transportation 
upon  the  high  seas,  had  suffered  so  far  as  related  to  property  captured  or 
destroyed.  After  all  that  was  paid  there  was  a  balance  of  about  ten  millions 
left  in  the  Treasury.  It  was  claimed,  and  as  I  thought  justly,  by  the  people 
of  the  New  England  States  and  of  the  Middle  States  mostly,  for  they  were 
generally  the  parties  in  interest — there  may  have  been  some  exceptions — 
that  they  ought  to  have  the  balance  of  that  amount  on  account  of  losses  that 
they  had  sustained  during  the  war,  not  by  the  actual  seizures  of  their  prop 
erty  by  the  Confederate  cruisers  upon  the  high  seas,  but  that  they  had  sus 
tained  heavy  losses  on  account  of  marine  insurance  and  war  risks  that  they 
had  to  pay  as  merchants  during  the  war.  For  instance,  there  were  two 
merchants  in  New  York  trading  abroad  ;  one  put  his  goods  under  a  foreign 
flag,  brought  them  here  on  English  bottoms,  and  he  got  a  very  low  rate  of 
insurance  because  there  was  no  war  risk.  Another  merchant  next  door 
shipped  articles  of  like  character  from  foreign  ports  to  ports  in  the  United 
States,  and  he  chose  to  ship  them  on  American  bottoms.  They  were  subject 
to  capture  by  the  Confederate  cruisers,  and  he  had  to  pay  3,  4,  or  5  per  cent, 
more  insurance  upon  them.  He  claimed,  and  it  seemed  to  me  very  justly, 
that  he  labored  under  very  great  disadvantage  as  compared  with  his  neighbor 
because  he  cho--e  to  patronize  American  vessels  and  shipped  by  them,  while 
his  neighbor  shipped  upon  foreign  vessels.  That  class  of  citizens  came  and 
asked  us — and  there  were  other  classes  which  I  need  not  stop  to  mention — 
to  pass  an  act  of  Congress  for  their  relief,  to  distribute  this  balance  of  about 
810,000,000  of  the  Geneva  award  that  lay  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States  among  the  classes  of  claimants  who  were  thus  interested. 

There  was  at  that  time  another  fund  of  about  $10,000,000  lying  in  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States  that  the  United  States  had  as  little  or  less 
claim  to  than  it  had  to  the  balance  of  the  Geneva  award.  That  was  a  fund 
which  arose  from  the  sale  of  captured  and  abandoned  property  during  the 
war  and  during  the  reconstruction  period  soon  after  the  war.  For  months, 
and  probably  1  might  say  a  year  or  two,  after  the  surrender  of  Lee's  and 
Johnston's  armies,  the  property  of  the  Southern  people  had  been  seized  by 
the  agents  of  the  Treasury  Department,  under  the  authority  of  the  act  of 
Congress  known  as  the  captured  and  abandoned  property  act,  and  it  had 
been  sold  and  the  proceeds  paid  into  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  and 
it  lay  there,  not  the  property  of  the  United  Stares,  because,  as  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  has  said,  the  United  States  was  trustee  for  the 
true  owner  of  it.  It  was  like  the  Geneva  award  fund,  only  I  think  with  a 
stronger  equity  against  the  Government.  It  lay  in  the  Treasury  of  the 


728  APPENDIX. 

United  States,  and  lies  there  still.  Why  did  it  lie  there?  Because  there 
was  a  statute  of  limitations,  of  which  I  shall  speak  at  a  later  period  in  my 
remarks,  that  bars  the  claimant  and  owners  from  going  into  court  to  recover 
this  money.  So  in  the  case  of  the  Geneva  award  there  was  no  law  which 
authorized  the  claimant  to  draw  it  without  an  act  of  Congress.  Therefore 
neither  of  these  large  funds  in  the  Trensury,  which  did  not  belong  to  the 
United  States  Government,  could  be  reached  without  legislation. 

When  the  bill  was  up  to  distribute  the  Geneva  award  fund  I  proposed  to 
offer  an  amendment  to  it  making  provision  also  for  the  removal  of  the  statute 
of  limitations,  so  that  this  fund  belonging  to  Southern  citizens  might  be 
distributed,  which  lies  now  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  and  which 
is  not  claimed  by  the  United  States.  1  was  asked  by  one  or  two  senators  on 
the  other  side  not  to  do  this.  They  said  it  would  embarrass  their  case;  that 
they  had  their  measure  then  in  a  shape  that  it  was  likely  to  go  through,  and 
that  we  should  consider  this  question  on  its  merits  and  do  justice  at  a  sub 
sequent  period.  I  acquiesced  in  that  view.  As  their  measure  had  been 
matured  and  brought  before  Congress,  and  was  in  a  shape  that  justice  might 
be  done,  as  I  thought,  I  would  not  embarrass  it  by  offering  an  amendment 
requiring  the  distribution  at  the  same  time  of  both  these  funds  that  lay  in 
the  Treasury  that  ought  to  be  in  the  pockets  of  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
The  result  was  that  the  act  was  passed  for  the  distribution,  under  proper 
restrictions,  of  the  Geneva  award  fund.  Nothing  has  been  done  yet,  how 
ever,  for  the  relief  of  citizens  of  the  Southern  section  of  the  Union,  who  own 
this  other  large  fund  of  about  equal  amount.  The  first,  the  Geneva  award 
fund,  went  almost  exclusively  to  citizens  of  what  are  known  as  the  Northern 
States,  or  the  Middle  and  New  England  States  I  might  say. 

Mr.  Hoar.     Largely  in  California. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  says  some  of  it  went  to  California;  at  any  rate, 
all  went  to  what  were  known  during  the  war  as  the  loyal  States.  I  believe 
that  is  a  safe  statement.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fund  of  which  I  am  speak 
ing  would  go  almost  exclusively  to  citizens  of  the  Southern  States.  But  the 
equities  in  each  case,  I  think,  are  the  same;  in  other  words,  as  the  Govern 
ment  did  not  own  the  fund,  and  did  not  claim  to  own  it,  and  as  citizens  of 
the  different  sections  did  own  it,  tho^e  of  one  section  being  owners  in  one 
fund,  and  of  the  other  sections  in  the  other  fund,  I  can  see  no  reason  why 
there  should  be  a  discrimination  against  citizens  of  my  section;  why  money 
belonging  to  them,  honestly  and  legally  and  justly  theirs,  should  lie  in  the 
Treasury  undisturbed  because  it  is  necessary  to  have  legislation  to  remove 
the  bar  of  the  statute,  when  in  the  other  case  we  passed  an  act  of  legislation 
removing  whatever  obstacles  there  might  be  in  the  way  of  the  distribution 
of  the  fund.  It  is  admitted  that  neither  could  be  distributed  without 
legislation. 

Now  I  say  to  senators  of  what  were  formerly  termed  the  loyal  States,  that 
we  from  the  South  interposed  no  difficulties  in  the  way  of  your  getting  the 
Geneva-award  fund ;  most  of  us  voted  for  your  bill,  and  it  has  been  and  is 
being  distributed,  I  presume,  and  I  think  rightly  so.  Now  we  appeal  to  you 
to  do  us  the  justice  to  remove  this  bar  of  the  statute,  and  let  us  come  in  and 
get  the  fund  which  honestly  and  fairly  and  justly  belongs  to  our  people, 
many  of  them  widows  and  orphans.  Remove  the  bar  of  the  statute,  and  let 
us  draw  that  fund,  and  let  it  go  to  those  who  are  entitled  to  it. 

Mr.  Hoar.     How  much  is  that  fund? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  do  not  know  the  exact  sum ;  I  understand  it  is  about 
$10  000,000,  nearly  the  same  amount  that  lay  in  the  Treasury  in  case  of  the 
Geneva  award  undistributed.  The  two  funds  were  practically  of  equal 
amount. 


APPENDIX.  729 

It  has  been  said  that  this  cannot  be  done  because  many  of  these  claimants 
participated  in  the  rebellion  and  forfeited  their  rights  to  sue  in  the  courts, 
and  that  they  cannot  corne  now  and  claim  the  benefit  of  the  fund  on  that 
account,  even  if  the  bar  of  the  statute  of  limitations  were  removed. 

Now,  a  word  as  to  the  bar  of  the  statute.  In  March,  1863,  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  passed  a  law  known  as  the  ciiptured  and  abandoned 
property  act,  which  was  peculiar  in  its  provisions.  It  authorized. the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  to  send  his  agents  into  the  insurrectionary  States  and 
seize  the  property  of  the  citizens  of  those  States  which  were  then  regarded 
as  in  rebellion,  and  so  declared  by  the  authorities  of  the  United  States,  with 
the  exception  of  such  property  as  munitions  of  war,  vessels  used  for  the  pro 
motion  of  the  rebellion,  and  other  property  of  that  character,  which  Treasury 
agents  had  no  right  to  seize,  because  such  property  if  seized  by  the  armies 
would  become  ipso  facto  the  property  of  the  United  States,  f  should  say, 
however,  that  prior  to  the  passage  of  that  act  there  had  been  one  or  more 
acts  of  Congress  passed  declaring  the  property  of  those  in  rebellion  subject 
to  confiscation,  and  tribunals  had  been  provided  for  carrying  that  law  into 
execution  and  confiscating  the  property  of  rebels. 

But  I  ask  senators  to  bear  in  mind  that  confiscation  was  not  accomplished 
simply  by  act  of  Congress,  nor  could  it  be.  It  could  only  be  done  by  trial 
and  judgment  in  some  court  authorized  by  Congress  to  adjudicate  the  case. 
In  other  words,  Congress  had  no  right  to  declare  any  man  a  rebel  and 
adjudge  that  he  was  guilty  of  treason  without  a  trial  in  court,  and  Congress 
had  no  right  to  take  the  private  property  of  any  one  in  rebellion  and  forfeit 
it  by  act  of  Congress.  It  could  only  be  done  by  a  proper  proceeding  in  the 
courts,  unless  it  was  such  property  as  was  used  in  carrying  on  military  opera 
tions. 

And  I  will  here  remark  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had 
adopted  the  modern  law  of  nations  on  this  question.  They  did  not  act  .on 
the  practice  that  the  private  property  of  non-combatant  enemies  was  liable 
to  seizure  as  booty  of  war.  Therefore  they  had  no  right,  unless  they  de 
parted  from  that  wise  and  humane  and  just  rule  now  practiced  by  modern 
civilized  nations,  to  seize  and  confiscate  the  property  of  non-combatant  ene 
mies  as  booty  of  war,  but  must  if  they  seized  it  make  just  compensation 
for  it. 

Chief  Justice  Chase,  delivering  the  opinion  of  the  court,  said  in  the  case 
of  the  United  States  vs.  Klein,  13  Wallace,  page  137 : 

"The  Government  recognized  to  the  fullest  extent  the  humane  maxims  of 
the  modern  law  of  nations,  which  exempt  private  property  of  non-combatant 
enemies  from  capture  as  booty  of  war." 

Then  according  to  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
as  delivered  by  a  Republican  chief  justice,  who  was  an  able  statesman  and  an 
enlightened  jurist,  the  Government  practiced  upon  the  rule  that  the  private 
property  of  non-combatant  enemies  was  exempt  from  seizure  as  booty.  If 
this  was  so,  of  course  it  followed  that  it  could  not  be  taken  without  com 
pensation. 

That  being  the  practice  of  the  Government,  it  had  no  right  to  seize  the 
property  of  non-combatants  in  the  Southern  States  that  were  declared  in 
rebellion  and  appropriate  it  to  the  uses  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  without  paying  just  compensation,  as  required  by  the  Constitution. 
In  other  words,  the  Government  was  applying,  and  must  apply  if  it  complied 
with  this  modern  rule  of  the  law  of  nations,  the  same  rule  to  the  Southern 
rebel,  as  he  was  termed,  who  was  engaged  in  war  against  the  United  States, 
that  it  would  have  applied  to  a  subject  of  Great  Britain  or  a  citizen  of 
Mexico  if  we  had  been  at  war  with  either  of  those  powers.  What  would 


730  APPENDIX. 

have  been  the  rule  there  ?  It  would  have  been  that  the  property  of  non-com 
batants  seized  for  the  uses  of  the  army,  where  it  was  not  of  the  character  of 
ordnance,  military  stores,  or  the  like,  must  be  paid  for  by  the  Government. 
This  is  a  necessary  conclusion  from  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  the  chief 
justice  already  quoted. 

But  there  were  stronger  reasons  here  why  it  should  be  so.  No  particular 
citizen  of  the  South  was  known  to  the  law  to  be  in  rebellion ;  no  one  of  them 
was  a  traitor  until  he  was  tried  and  a  competent  court  pronounced  him  such 
by  its  judgment.  Then  he  became  legally  a  traitor,  and  then  his  property 
might  be  confiscated  or  taken  by  a  proper  proceeding  in  court  under  a  judg 
ment  of  the  court,  but  this  could  riot  be  done  as  long  as  he  was-a  citizen  of 
the  United  States  not  convicted  of  treason,  and  he  was,  according  to  the 
theory  of  the  Government,  notwithstanding  we  had  seceded,  still  a  citizen, 
but  a  citizen  in  rebellion.  The  Constitution  fixes  that  point  arid  I  desire  to 
read  it ;  I  read  from  the  fifth  article  of  the  amendments  : 

"  No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital,  or  otherwise  infamous 
crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury,  except  in  cases 
arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the  militia,  when  in  actual  service  in 
time  of  war  or  public  danger ;  nor  shall  any  person  be  subject  for  the  same 
offence  to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy  of  life  or  limb;  nor  shall  be  compelled  in 
any  criminal  case  to  be  a  witness  against  himself,  nor  be  deprived  of  lile, 
liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law ;  nor  shall  private  property 
be  taken  for  public  use,  without  just  compensation." 

Therefore  so  long  as  he  was  a  citizen  the  Government  had  no  right  to  take 
his  private  property  without  paying  him  just  compensation,  unless  he  was 
convicted  and  deprived  of  his  property  by  due  process  of  law. 

That  being  the  status  then  of  our  people  at  and  near  the  termination  of  the 
war,  the  Government  had  the  right  to  proceed  against  a  citizen  who  had  par 
ticipated  in  the  rebellion  as.  a  rebel,  and  it  had  a  right  to  push  the  case  to 
the  extent  of  the  forfeiture  of  his  property  if  his  guilt  were  legally  established. 
The  forfeiture  would  have  been  subject  to  the  provision  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  It  had  the  right  to  proceed  against  him  as  a  rebel  if 
it  chose  to  do  so.  The  Government  did  not  choose  to  do  this  in  all  cases. 
Indeed  there  was  legal  condemnation  of  property  in  but  few  cases. 

What  was  the  action  of  the  Government?  The  executive  of  the  United 
States,  who  had  the  pardoning  power,  interposed  his  pardon  first  to  certain 
classes;  or  rather  I  might  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation  at  first  em 
braced  everybody  in  rebellion  who  came  in  and  took  an  oath  and  complied 
with  certain  conditions.  Then  at  the  end  of  the  war — by  the  end  of  the  war 
now  I  mean  the  surrender  of  Lee  and  Johnston — President  Johnson  issued 
his  proclamation  of  pardon  embracing  almost  all  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
except  certain  classes  upon  whom  he  imposed  certain  restrictions  and  terms 
before  they  could  be  pardoned.  At  a  subsequent  period  he  finally  issued  a 
proclamation  extending  pardon  and  amnesty  to  every  person  who  had 
engaged  in  the  rebellion  with  full  and  perfect  restoration  of  all  his  civil 
rights  and  rights  of  property.  When  this  was  done  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  we  were  all  placed  back  again,  so  far  as  our  rights  in  the 
courts  and  our  rights  of  property  and  our  rights  as  citizens  were  concerned, 
upon  exactly  the  same  basis  as  any  citizen  who  had  never  engaged  in 
rebellion. 

I  want  to  refer  to  some  authority  on  that  point.  I  take  the  position  that 
the  pardon  not  only  relieved  the  person  pardoned,  the  person  who  had  been 
in  rebellion,  from  punishment,  but  it  relieved  him  of  every  disability,  and 
where  it  was  a  full  pardon,  and  went  to  the  extent  of  restoration  of  civil 
rights  and  rights  of  property,  it  placed  him  exactly  in  the  same  legal  position 


APPENDIX.  731 

which  he  would  have  occupied  if  he  had  never  committed  the  offence.  I  will 
read  a  little  authority  on  that  question,  which  is  doubtless  familiar  to  the 
senate,  but  it  comes  in  the  line  of  my  argument,  and  I  prefer  to  refer  to  it. 
The  first  is  the  case  of  ex  parte  Garland,  4  Wallace,  page  360.  The  Supreme 
Court  says : 

"  The  Constitution  provides  that  the  President  'shall  have  power  to  grant 
reprieves  and  pardons  for  offences  against  the  United  States,  except  in  cases 
of  impeachment.'  The  power  thus  conferred  is  unlimited,  with  the  excep 
tion  stated.  It  extends  to  every  offence  known  to  the  law,  and  may  be  exer 
cised  at  any  time  after  its  commission,  either  before  legal  proceedings  are 
taken,  or  during  their  pendency,  or  after  conviction  and  judgment.  This 
power  of  the  President  is  not  subject  to  legislative  control.  Congress  can  neither 
limit  the  effect  of  his  pardon  nor  exclude  from  its  exercise  any  class  of 
offenders.  The  benign  prerogative  of  mercy  reposed  in  him  cannot  be 
fettered  by  any  legislative  restrictions. 

"Such  being  the  case,  the  inquiry  arises  as  to  the  effect  and  operation  of  a 
pardon,  and  on  this  point  all  the  authorities  concur.  A  pardon  reaches  both 
the  punishment  prescribed  for  the  offence  and  the  guilt  of  the  offender ;  and 
when  the  pardon  is  full  it  releases  the  punishment  and  blots  out  of  existence 
the  guilt,  so  that  in  the  eye  of  the  law  the  offender  is  as  innocent  as  if  he 
had  never  committed  the  offence.  If  granted  before  conviction,  it  prevents 
any  of  the  penalties  and  disabilities  consequent  upon  conviction  from  attach 
ing;  if  granted  afrer  conviction,  it  removes  the  penalties  and  disabilities  and 
restores  him  to  all  his  civil  rights ;  it  makes  him,  as  it  were,  a  new  man  and 
give*  him  a  new  credit  and  capacity. 

"There  is  only  this  limitation  to  its  operation,  it  does  not  restore  offices 
forfeited  or  property  or  interests  vested  in  others  in  consequence  of  the  con 
viction  and  judgment. 

•'  The  pardon  produced  by  the  petitioner  is  a  full  pardon  'for  all  offences 
by  him  committed,  arising  from  participation,  direct  or  implied,  in  the  rebel 
lion,'  and  is  subject  to  certain  conditions,  which  have  been  complied  with. 
The  effect  of  this  pardon  is  to  relieve  the  petitioner  from  all  penalties  and 
disabilities  attached  to  the  offence  of  treason  committed  by  his  participation 
in  the  rebellion.  So  far  as  that  offence  i^  concerned,  he  is  thus  placed  beyond 
the  reach  of  punishment  of  any  kind.  But  to  exclude  him  by  reason  of  that 
offence  from  continuing  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  previously  acquired  right  is  to 
enforce  a  punishment  for  that  offence  notwithstanding  the  pardon.  If  such 
exclusion  can  be  effected  by  the  exaction  of  an  expurgatory  oath  covering 
the  offence,  the  pardon  may  be  avoided,  and  that  accomplished  indirectly 
which  cannot  be  reached  by  direct  legislation.  It  is  not  within  the  constitu 
tional  power  of  Congress  thus  to  inflict  punishment  beyond  the  reach  of  exec 
utive  clemency.  From  the  petitioner,  therefore,  the  oath  required  by  the 
act  of  January  24,  1865.  could  not  be  exacted,  even  if  that  act  were  not  sub 
ject  to  any  other  objection  than  the  one  thus  stated." 

Mr.  Morgan.  I  should  like  to  ask  the  senator  from  Georgia  if  he  holds 
that  if  the  property  of  a  man  who  was  engaged  in  the  rebellion  has  been  con 
fiscated  by  the  judgment  of  a  court  and  that  person  is  subsequently  pardoned, 
that  pardon  has  such  relation  back  as  to  restore  him  to  his  rights  of  prop 
erty  notwithstanding  the  judgment  of  that  court?  That  is  the  question  I 
desire  to  ask  the  senator. 

Mr.  Brown.     I  will  reply  in  the  language  of  the  Supreme  Court  just  read  : 

"  There  is  only  this  limitation  to  its  operation,  it  does  not  restore  offices 
forfeited  or  property  or  interests  vested  in  others  in  consequence  of  the 
conviction  and  judgment." 

There  is  no  other  exception  ;  offices  forfeited  are  not  restored  by  the  par- 


732  APPENDIX. 

don,  and  so  far  as  the  rights  of  others  are  concerned — for  instance,  inform 
ers — the  pardon  does  not  interfere  with  the  rights  of  third  persons  ;  but  so 
far  as  property  forfeited  by  the  judgment  of  the  courts  is  concerned,  if  the 
rights  of  third  persons  have  not  attached,  the  pardon,  I  hold,  restores  the 
property  forfeited  and  restores  the  party  to  all  the  rights  that  he  had  as 
though  he  had  never  committed  the  offence. 

Mr.  Morgan.  The  senator  holds  then,  that  notwithstanding  there  is  a  valid 
judgment  of  confiscation  which  remains  unexecuted  because  the  property 
has  not  been  sold,  the  pardon  of  the  President  reverses  and  annuls  that 
judgment? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  do ;  just  as  it  reverses  the  judgment  of  conviction  of 
treason. 

Mr.  Morgan.  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  agree  with  the  senator  in  that  proposi 
tion.  By  parity  of  reasoning  also,  why  can  he  not  hold  that  after  property 
had  been  lawfully  captured  by  an  army  in  the  field  during  the  war,  and  had 
been  consumed  by  that  army  after  having  been  captured  from  an  enemy, 
afterward  the  pardon  of  the  President  of  a  man  who  was  then  engaged  in 
rebellion  would  restore  him  or  give  him  a  right  of  action  against  the  Govern 
ment  for  the  property  thus  destroyed?  I  do  not  believe  that  the  pardoning 
power  has  that  extent. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  should  prefer  that  the  senator,  as  the  senators  on  the  other 
side  have  done,  would  make  his  interruptions  as  short  as  he  can  conveniently. 

Mr.  Morgan.     I  beg  pardon. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  do  not  object  to  my  attention  being  drawn  to  the  point.  I 
will  state  in  reply  to  the  senator,  however,  that  it  is  not  important  to  the 
objects  of  this  discussion  whether  I  be  right  or  whether  he  be  right  on  the 
point  already  mentioned,  because  the  money  I  design  to  reach  now  for  those 
who  are  entitled  to  it  that  arose  from  the  sale  of  captured  and  abandoned 
property  was  not  money  forfeited  by  any  judgment  of  any  court  of  the  United 
States.  No,  it  has  not  been  so  forfeited.  The  Supreme  Court  has  decided 
over  and  over  again  that  it  was  not  the  intention  of  Congress  to  do  that  be 
cause  no  provision  was  made  for  its  confiscation  by  any  court  whatever. 
Then  the  point  between  us  is  not  an  important  one  so  far  as  this  question  is 
concerned. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     Was  it  not  forfeited  as  prize  of  war  taken  on  land? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  stated  distinctly  at  the  outset  of  my  argument  that  anything 
like  ordnance  or  boats  or  ships  used  for  the  purposes  of  war  and  small  arms 
and  accoutrements  and  everything  of  that  kind  became  the  property  of  the 
captor  immediately  on  capture,  and  in  case  of  vessels,  on  judgment  in  the 
proper  prize  court. 

Mr.  Edmunds.  Take  the  case  of  private  property  of  enemies  of  the  peor 
pie  which  was  turned  into  money  and  put  into  the  Treasury  and  then  came 
peace,  what  then? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  have  just  read,  while  the  senator  was  absent,  from  the  de 
cision  of  Chief  Justice  Chase  in  the  case  of  the  United  States  vs.  Klein  what 
he  has  to  say  on  that  subject. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     The  senator  need  not  read  it  again. 

Mr.  Brown.  It  relates  to  the  very  point  to  which  the  senator  from  Ver 
mont  calls  my  attention  and  is  short,  and  I  will  read  it  for  the  benefit  of  the 
senator  from  Vermont. 

Chief  Justice  Chase  says  : 

"  The  Government  recognized  to  the  fullest  extent  the  humane  maxims  of 
the  modern  law  of  nations,  which  exempt  private  property  of  non-combatant 
enemies  from  capture  as  booty  of  war." 

Was  that  true  ? 


APPENDIX.  733 

Mr.  Edmunds.  But  suppose  there  is  a  capture  of  booty  of  war,  does  it 
pertain  to  any  judicial  tribunal  to  undertake  to  give  it  back?  Suppose  the 
sovereign  war-making  power  does  not  choose  to  recognize  this  humanity,  but 
is  savage,  what  then  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  Then  the  party,  if  he  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  as 
these  former  rebels  were,  and  the  rule  was  adopted  as  stated  by  the  chief 
justice,  may  seek  his  rights  in  the  courts  or  before  the  legislative  department 
whenever  lie  can  establish  that  claim.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  I  read  while  the  senator  was  out,  says  distinctly  that  no  citizen  shall 
be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law,  and  that 
private  property  shall  not  be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation. 

Chief  Justice  Chase  says  that  the  Government  adopted  to  the  fullest  extent 
the  humane  maxims  of  the  modern  law  of  nations,  that  the  property  of  non- 
combatant  enemies  is  not  liable  to  capture  as  booty  of  war.  Then  if  these 
non-combatant  enemies  were  citizens  of  the  United  States,  when  we  con;e 
down  to  the  dry  legal  question  they  have  rights.  But  that  is  not  what  1  am 
trying  to  get  at  now ;  I  am  trying  to  get  money  out^)f  the  Treasury  which  no 
one  claims  that  the  Government  owns;  which  the  United  States  do  not 
claim ;  which  the  Supreme  Court  says  the  Government  holds  as  trustee  for  the 
owners.  I  am  trying  to  reach  that,  and  nothing  more.  And  it  seems  to  me 
that  there  is  no  question  of  the  character  raised  by  the  senator  in  the  way. 
Whatever  might  be  the  trouble  about  a  suit  brought  by  any  one  for  property 
taken  when  he  was  in  rebellion — and  I  do  not  care  to  discuss  that  now — I 
think  these  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  opin 
ion  of  Chief  Justice  Chase  would  go  very  far  in  that  direction.  But  1  am 
only  seeking  to  open  the  Court  of  Claims  to  the  owners  of  the  money  now  in 
the  Treasury  which  the  Government  does  not  claim.  But  as  1  stated  while 
the  senator  from  Vermont  was  out  of  the  Chamber,  this  captured  and  aban 
doned  property  act  was,  as  the  court  said,  a  peculiar  one.  I  desire  now  to 
read  a  portion?  of  what  the  court  does  say  on  that  subject. 

I  read  from  13  Wallace,  page  136.     The  court  says : 

"  The  answer  to  this  question  requires  a  consideration  of  the  rights  of 
property,  as  affected  by  the  late  civil  war,  rn  the  hands  of  citizens  engaged 
in  hostilities  against  the  United  States. 

"  Jt  may  be  said,  in  general  terms,  that  property  in  the  insurgent  States 
may  be  distributed  into  four  classes. 

"  First.  That  which  belonged  to  the  hostile  organizations  or  was  employed 
in  actual  hostilities  on  land. 

"  Second.     That  which  at  sea  became  lawful  subject  of  capture  and  prize. 

"  Third.     That  which  became  the  subject  of  confiscation. 

"  Fourth.  A  peculiar  description,  known  only  in  recent  war,  called  cap 
tured  and  abandoned  property." 

Now,  it  is  the  latter  class  only  that  I  am  dealing  with  in  the  amendment 
which  I  have  proposed,  and  therefore  it  is  not  very  important  to  me  so  tar 
as  the  present  discussion  is  concerned  how  the  other  questions  may  be  ruled 
or  what  may  be  the  opinion  of  the  senate  on  them.  But  the  court  adds : 

"It  is  thus  seen  that  except  to  property  used  in  actual  hostilities,  as  men 
tioned  in  the  first  section  of  the  act  of  March  12, 1863,  no  titles  were  divested 
in  the  insurgent  States  unless  in  pursuance  of  a  judgment  rendered  after 
due  legal  proceedings."  That  idea  is  repeated  in  other  portions  of  the 
opinion.  "And  it  is  reasonable  to  infer  " — says  the  chief  justice,  on  page  138 
— "  that  it  was  the  purpose  of  Congress  that  the  proceeds  of  the  property  for 
which  the  special  provision  of  the  act  was  made  should  go  into  the  Treasury 
without  change  of  ownership.  Certainly  such  was  the  intention  in  respect  to 
the  property  of  loyal  men.  That  the  same  intention  prevailed  in  re- 


734  APPENDIX. 

gard  to  the  property  of  owners  who.  though  then  hostile,  might  subsequently 
become  loyal,  appears  probable  from  the  circumstance  that  no  provision  is 
anywhere  made  for  confiscation  of  it,  while  there  is  no  trace  in  the  statute- 
book  of  intention  to  divest  ownership  of  private  property  not,  excepted  from 
the  effect  of  this  act  otherwise  than  by  proceedings  tor  confiscation." 

Again  he  says,  on  the  same  page : 

"In  the  case  of  Padelford  we  held  that  the  right  to  the  possession  of  private 
property  was  not  changed  until  actual  seizure  by  proper  military  authority, 
and  that  actual  seizure  by  such  authority  did  not  divest  the  title  under  the  pro 
visions  of  the  abandoned  and  captured  property  act.  The  reasons  assigned 
seem  fully  to  warrant  the  conclusion.  The  Government  constituted  itself 
the  trustee  for  those  who  were  by  that  act  declared  entitled  to  the  proceeds  of 
captured  and  abandoned  property,  and  lor  those  whom  it  should  thereafter 
recognize  as  entitled." 

I  have  a  use  for  that  in  the  latter  part  of  this  argument.  The  Government 
did  recognize  as  entitled  all  who  were  pardoned  without  confiscation  of  prop 
erty.  * 

Mr.  Edmunds.     That  is,  the  court  said  so,  not  Congress. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  court  is  now  speaking  of  what  it  understands  Congress 
to  have  held;  at  least  I  am  reading  the  decision  of  the  court,  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  I  suppose  as  it  is  the  highest 
judicial  tribunal  we  have  to  take  its  decisions  without  going  further.  Again, 
on  page  139  the  chief  justice  says  : 

"  The  property  of  the  original  owner  is  in  no  case  absolutely  divested. 
There  is,  as  we  have  already  observed,  no  confiscation,  but  the  proceeds  of 
the  property  have  passed  into  possession  of  the  Government,  and  restora 
tion  of  the  property  is  pledged  to  none  except  to  those  who  have  continually 
adhered  to  the  Government.  Whether  restoration  will  be  made  to  others, 
or  confiscation  will  be  enforced,  is  left  to  be  determined  by  considerations 
of  public  policy  subsequently  to  be  developed." 

In  other  words,  as  I  understand  the  court,  they  mean  fhat  there  was  pro 
vision  in  the  captured  and  abandoned  property  act  for  a  restoration  of  the 
property  of  all  who  did  not  aid  or  in  any  way*  participate  in  the  rebellion. 
The  property  of  the  disloyal  was  not  confiscated  by  this  act,  but  its  proceeds 
were  put  into  the  Treasury,  the  Government  remaining,  as  the  chief  justice 
says,  the  trustee  for  the  owner  ;  and  the  question  was  held  open  whether 
Congress  would  direct  the  courts  to  proceed  and  in  a  legal  way  confiscate 
the  property,  or  whether  a  different  course  should  be  taken  as  to  the  parties 
in  rebellion  who  were  entitled  to  the  property  and  they  restored  to  all  their 
rights,  civil  and  of  every  other  character,  with  power  to  go  into  the  courts 
and  claim  their  property. 

In  this  connection  I  desire  to  state  that  during  the  war  President  Lincoln 
issued  more  than  one  proclamation  tendering  amnesty.  He  had  the  author 
ity  of  an  a^t  of  Congress  for  doing  so;  but  in  a  message  to  Congress  he 
stated  that  that  gave  no  additional  force  to  it ;  he  claimed  the  absolute 
power  himself,  and  that  Congress  had  no  control  over  the  pardoning  power. 
He  issued  his  proclamation  declaring  that  all  persons  who  would  then  lay 
down  their  arms  and  return  to  their  allegiance,  who,  of  course,  could  not 
swear  that  they  had  never  taken  any  part  against  the  Government,  should  be 
pardoned  and  restored  to  all  their  civil  rights  and  rights  of  property.  Padel 
ford  was  one  of  the  persons  who  availed  themselves  of  this  amnesty,  the  case 
to  which  the  chief  justice  refers  Klein's  case,  from  which  I  have  just  read  in 
13  Wallace. 

Mr.  Cameron,  of  Wisconsin.  Padelford's  property  was  taken  after  he 
had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  not  before. 


APPENDIX.  735 

Mr.  Brown.     So  I  am  aware. 

Mr.  Edmunds.     That  was  the  property  of  a  loyal  citizen. 

Mr.  Brown.  That  is  the  very  point.  Padelford's  property  was  taken 
after  he  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  therefore  it  was  as  the  sena 
tor  from  Vermont  says,  the  property  of  a  loyal  citizen,  which  I  grant.  Pad- 
elford  had  aided  the  rebellion  and  was  pardoned.  His  property  was  the 
property  of  a  loyal  citizen  only  because  he  was  pardoned.  The  property  of 
every  other  Confederate  who  participated  in  the  rebellion  and  who  has  been 
restored  by  the  pardon  of  the  President  to  all  his  rights  of  property  becomes  the 
property  of  a  loyal  citizen  in  like  manner  and  for  the  same  reason, and  therefore 
he  has  a  right  in  each  case  to  go  into  court  and  claim  his  property.  Congress 
has  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  effects  of  that  pardon,  to  destroy  its  legal 
consequences,  to  limit,  abridge,  or  in  any  way  take  from  the  person  to  whom 
it  was  extended  the  full  extent  of  the  force  and  the  benefits  of  the  pardon. 

That  was  attempted  by  the  Drake  amendment,  as  is  well  known  to  sena 
tors,  and  was  the  very  point  in  the  case  which  I  have  been  reading  in  13 
Wallace.  The  Drake  amendment  proposed  in  substance 

Mr.  Edmunds.  That  the  Court  of  Claims  should  not  have  jurisdiction  of 
certain  class  of  claims.  The  Supreme  Court  said  they  should,  although  the 
act  of  Congress  forbade  it. 

Mr.  Brown.     I  will  take  the  language  of  the  chief  justice  on  that : 

"The  substance  of  this  enactment  is  that  an  acceptance  of  a  pardon  with 
out  disclaimer  shall  be  conclusive  evidence  of  the  acts  pardoned,  but  shall  be 
null  and  void  as  evidence  of  the  rights  conferred  by  it,  both  in  the  Court  of 
Claims  and  in  this  court  on  appeal." 

The  Drake  amendment,  therefore,  attempted  to  exclude  the  pardoned  per 
son  from  a  portion  of  the  benefits  of  his  pardon  by  denying  to  him  the  right 
to  plead  his  pardon  or  introduce  his  pardon  as  evidence  in  a  case  before  the 
Court  of  Claims.  The  Drake  amendment  laid  down  the  rule  that  the  pardon 
was  good  as  proof  that  the  claimant  had  participated  in  the  rebellion  if  he 
accepted  it  without  any  qualification  or  protestation,  but  that  it  should  not 
be  given  in  evidence  in  any  case  where  he  could  use  it  for  the  protection  of 
his  rights  in  court. 

Mr.  Hoar.     May  T  ask  the  honorable  senator  a  question  ? 

Mr.  Brown.     If  it  is  a  short  one. 

Mr  Hoar.  It  will  be,  perhaps,  a  short  one.  I  was  a  member  of  the  com 
mittee  that  reported  this  bill.  I  should  like  to  ask  the  honorable  senator  if  he 
supposes  it  would  be  illegal  for  Congress  to  direct  the  attorney-general  to  ex 
amine  and  report  the  facts  on  a  certain  class  of  claims  against  the  Govern 
ment  except  those  which  arose  in  the  State  of  Mississippi,  or  except  those 
where  the  persons  making  them  had  taken  part  in  the  rebellion? 

Mr.  Edmunds.     Or  had  red  hair. 

Mr.  Hoar.  Before  the  senator  answers  the  question  I  will  make  a  state 
ment.  We  do  not  understand — perhaps  we  are  wrong — that  in  this  bill  we 
are  giving  jurisdiction  to  a  court  or  that  any  citizen  is  coming  before  a  court 
with  a  legal  right.  In  the  Drake  amendment  there  was  a  judgment  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  on  appeal  from  the  Court  of  Claims  pro 
vided  for,  and  the  Supreme  Court,  whether  right  or  not,  came  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  the  senator  has  stated ;  but  this  committee  have  framed  this  bill 
under  the  belief,  whether  they  are  right  or  wrong,  that  they  were  simply  tak 
ing  a  committee — they  might  just  as  well  have  taken  a  committee  of  the  sen 
ate,  or  any  other  set  of  men,  who  should  have  the  power  to  examine  applica 
tions  and  hear  both  sides  and  report  the  facts — that  the  jurisdiction  of 
Congress  is  retained  in  Congress  just  as  it  was  before. 

Every  person  who  took  part  in  the  rebellion  can  come  to  Congress  with 


736  APPENDIX. 

his  petition  for  Congress  to  act  upon  just  as  before;  but  as  tliere  is  not  a 
man  on  either  sideof  the  Chamber  who  proposes  to  pay  for  this  class  of  losses, 
and  there  cannot  be  found  probably  a  prominent  person  in  the  country 
who  so  proposes,  and  as  they  amount  to  millions,  we  simply  say  to  the  Court 
of  Claims,  "You  need  not  trouble  yourselves  to  investigate  or  report  on  this 
class  of  cases."  Does  the  senator  suppose  that  if  you  took  that  bill  and  struck 
out  the  words  "court  of  claims  "  and  put  in  "  the  attorney-general  of  the  United 
States"  or  "the  chief  clerk  of  the  treasury  department,"  it  would  be  uncon 
stitutional  to  let  him  make  the  report  ?  That  is  the  question  I  desire  to  put. 

Mr.  Brown.  Oh,  no;  the  senator  knows  very  well  that  I  do  not  hold  it  to 
be  unconstitutional,  and  I  was  not  saying  it  was,  and  my  argument  did  not 
tend  to  any  such  conclusion.  And  I  will  remark  that  the  senator  does  not 
btate  the  Drake  amendment  correctly. 

Mr.  Hoar.  I  thought  the  senator  cited  the  decision  of  the  court  on  the 
Drake  amendment  to  show  that  this  was  a  similar  case,  and  that  they  held 
it  to  be  unconstitutional. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  referred  to  the  case  decided  by  Chief  Justice  Chase,  and 
read  from  that.  I  have  not  denied  the  constitutionality  of  this  reference  to 
a  court;  but  let  me  ask  the  senator  now,  suppose  a  bill  of  this  character  were 
to  come  up  for  action  and  we  were  to  enact  that  all  the  States  of  the  Union 
should  have  the  benefit  of  it,  except  the  New  England  States,  because  they 

fot  cross  or  disloyal  during  the  war  of  1812  and  behaved  badly  and  held  the 
lartford  convention,  and  therefore  that  no  disloyal  New  Englander  and  no 
person  descended  from  any  New  England  State  should  have  anything  to  do  with 
the  investigation  or  have  any  rights  under  it,  would  he  vote  for  it  ?  If  not, 
does  he  think  a  Southern  senator  should  vote  for  this  act,  which  makes  this 
odious  discrimination  against  the  best  class  of  the  Southern  people? 

Mr.  Hoar.  If  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  had  been  in  the  habit  for 
twenty  or  thirty  years,  when  the  anti-war  Democrats  were  in  power,  of  re 
jecting  various  claims  from  New  England  on  the  ground  that  she  behaved 
badly  in  the  war  of  1812,  I  have  no  doubt  it  would  have  been  perfectly  con 
stitutional  for  the  men  who  acted  on  that  theory  that  those  claims  should  not 
be  paid,  in  providing  a  tribunal  to  investigate  claims  to  say  that  that  class 
of  claims  the  tribunal  need  not  trouble  itself  with,  need  not  investigate,  and 
anybody  who  thought  they  ought  not  to  have  been  paid,  would  have  been 
justified  in  putting  that  into  the  bill.  Now  we  think,  the  senator  and  I  both 
think,  this  class  of  Southern  claims  ought  not  to  be  paid.  Therefore  we  say 
that  the  court  need  not  trouble  itself  with  them. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  New  England  States  have  never  been  backward,  never 
tardy,  in  presenting  their  claims.  And  they  have  received  a  large  and  liberal 
share.  They  shared  largely  in  the  Geneva  fund  under  act  of  last  session. 
They  have  always  got  the  full  measure  of  their  rights.  They  would  be  ex 
ceedingly  restless  and  resentful  of  a  proposition  to  exclude  them  from  equal 
rights  and  equal  privileges  in  any  investigation  of  legal  claims.  As  to  the 
class  of  claims  embraced  in  my  amendment,  I  do  not  agree  with  the  senator, 
and  I  do  not  believe  he  agrees  with  himself. 

I  am  referring  simply  to  the  $10,000,000  in  the  Treasury  that  Chief  Justice 
Chase,  in  the  opinion  I  have  just  read,  said  the  Government  holds  as  a  trus 
tee  for  the  owners.  I  am  referring  to  that  class  alone,  no  other  claim  or 
class  of  claims.  1  do  not  believe  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  will  say 
that  ought  not  to  be  paid.  Indeed,  I  believe  he  will,  as  an  American  senator, 
feel  it  his  imperative  duty  to  vote  for  my  amendment.  He  knows  it  is  just. 
He  knows  the  money  is  in  the  Treasury,  that  the  Government  is  trustee  for 
the  true  owners,  and  that  they  are  entitled  to  it  on  every  principle  of  equity 
and  good  conscience. 


APPENDIX.  737 

Mr.  Hoar.  Admitting  that  to  be  so,  does  not  the  honorable  senator  agree 
with  me  that  there  is  no  occasion  to  refer  the  cotton  claims  to  the  Court  of 
Claims?  We  know  all  about  the  facts.  That  is  a  question  that  Congress 
can  settle  as  well  as  anybody  else.  Then  why  should  they  be  put  into  the 
bill? 

Mr.  Brown.  It  is  not  a  question  that  Congress  alone  can  settle.  Two 
things  should  be  done.  One  is  the  removal  by  Congress  of  the  bar  of  the 
statute  of  limitations  that  prevents  the  owners  of  this  fund  from  suing  for  it 
in  the  Court  of  Claim.*,  and  the  other  is  a  provi.«»ion  to  try  each  case  and  see 
who  is  entitled  to  the  property  ;  this  must  be  done  in  court.  I  do  not  be 
lieve  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  can,  and  I  doubt  whether  there  is  any 
senator  here  who  can  afford  to  vote  against  a  measure  that  is  so  obviously 
just.  Certainly  no  senator  can  whose  constituents  have  the  benefit  of  the 
distribution  of  the  Geneva  award  voted  them  in  large  degree  by  Southern 
senators.  I  do  not  believe  any  one  of  them  can  afford  to  vote  that  the  true 
owners  of  this  fund,  many  of  them  widows  and  orphans,  shall  not  be  per 
mitted  to  pursue  their  rights  in  the  Court  of  Claims  and  have  them  adjudi 
cated  there.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  that  much  prejudice  now  existing. 
Hostilities  ceased  some  eighteen  years  ago,  and  almost  a  generation  has 
parsed  since  that  time;  and  the  people,  whatever  politicians  may  .think 
about  it,  have  become  tired  of  the  distinctions  of  loyalty  and  disloyalty.'  We 
are  now  all  trying  to  be  loyal.  In  each  section  we  are  vicing  with  each  other 
who  can  do  most  in  loyalty  for  the  general  good  of  the  whole  people  of  the 
United  States.  Why  retain  these  distinctions  or  discriminations?  Would  the 
senator  from  Massachusetts,  if  the  case  were  reversed,  vote  for  a  bill  which 
made  any  such  provision  or  discrimination  against  New  England?  Clearly 
not.  Not  a  New  England  senator  here  would  vote  for  it.  If  the  discrimina 
tion  were  made  against  the  people  of  any  other  section,  the  Western  or  Mid 
dle  States,  they  would  spurn  the  idea  and  would  resist  it  to  the  last  moment 
Why  then  should  they  a?k  us  of  the  South,  eighteen  years  after  the  war  has 
closed,  to  sit  by  arid  quietly  vote  for  a  provision,  that  even  in  an  investiga 
tion  of  this  character  in  the  Court  of  Claims  where  the  facts  are  to  be  brought 
before  Congress,  the  rights  of  the  Confederate  shall  not  be  considered,  and 
no  evidence  shall  be  received  in  his  behalf  to  sustain  his  rights,  until  he  first 
swears  and  proves  that  he  was  always  loyal  to  the  Government  during  the 
war  ?  We  have  passed  that  day.  The  Supreme  Court  has  passed  it  over  and 
over  again. 

A  word  as  to  that  statute  of  limitations.  How  happened  it  that  these 
suits  were  not  brought  within  the  time  allowed?  The  act  was  passed  in 
1663,  when  the  war  was  raging  in  its  deadliest  fury.  Provision  was  made 
for  the  seizure  of  this  property,  provision  was  made  for  the  sale  of  it,  and 
the  payment  of  the  proceeds  into  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States, and  that 
the  money  lie  there  until  the  true  owners  could  produce  proof  of  their  owner 
ship.  If  they  were  loyal  it  was  provided  they  might  have  time  to  do  so ;  if 
they  were  disloyal  there  was  no  provision  made  for  confiscation,  but  the 
money  lay  there  subject  to  the  future  disposition  of  the  Government.  At  a 
subsequent  period  the  Government  proclaimed,  through  its  proper  depart 
ment,  a-nnesty  and  pardon  to  everybody,  and  opened  the  doors  of  the  courts 
and  of  the  Court  of  Claims  again  to  those  who  were  the  claimants  and  owners 
of  this  fund. 

You  may  ask  why  did  not  everybody  avail  himself  of  the  benefit?  For 
this  reason:  Nobody  knew,  not  even  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
at  the  time,  when  the  statute  of  limitations  commenced  to  run,  or  when  the 
right  of  action  was  barred. 

it  was  provided  in  the  captured  and  abandoned  property  act,  that  it  should 
47 


738  APPENDIX. 

commence  to  run  at  the  time  of  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  and  it  should 
run  two  years  from  that  time.  When  was  the  rebellion  suppressed?  That 
was  a  question  which  perplexed  the  heads  of  the  wisest  men  of  this  country 
for  a  long  while.  Was  it  suppressed  when  Lee  and  Johnston  and  Kirby 
Smith  and  every  Confederate  commander  laid  down  his  arms,  and  all  the 
people  of  the  Southern  States  returned  to  their  allegiance  and  submitted  to 
the  laws  of  the  United  States?  Was  it  suppressed  when  the  post  offices 
were  all  opened,  post-routes  established,  postmasters  appointed?  Was  it 
suppressed  when  the  courts  were  opened  and  when  everybody's  rights  could 
be  adjudicated  in  court,  when  everything  was  going  on  orderly  and  peace 
fully  ?  Was  it  then  suppressed,  or  when  was  it  suppressed?  That  ques 
tion  was  never  decided  until  about  one  year  and  a  half  after  the  time  that 
the  statute  of  limitations  is  now  held  to  have  run  and  to  have  become  a  com 
plete  bar. 

At  the  fall  term  in  1869  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  the  pres 
ent  honored  President  of  the  senate,  I  believe,  delivering  the  opinion,  held 
that  the  rebellion  was  finally  suppressed  when  President  Johnson  on  the 
20th  of  August,  1866,  issued  his  proclamation  declaring  its  suppression. 
Then  it  had  two  years  to  run  from  that  time,  and  on  the  20th  of  August, 
1868,  the  bar  of  the  statute  was  complete.  Who  knew  that  fact?  It  was 
not  known  to  any  of  the  departments  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  ;  it  was  not  known  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  until 
the  year  following  the  time  when  the  decision  was  made  to  which  I 
have  just  referred.  I  allude  to  the  case  of  The  United  States  ys.  Anderson, 
9  Wallace,  which  was  adjudicated  at  the  December  term,  1869,  a  year  and 
some  months  after  the  bar  of  the  statute  had  completely  attached,  when  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  ruled  fixing  the  time  when  the  rebellion 
was  suppressed. 

Why  did  not  these  claimants  within  the  two  years  commence  proceedings 
in  the  courts  to  recover  the  money  which  was  due  them  in  the  Treasury  for 
their  cotton  and  other  property  sold?  They  did  not  do  it  because  they  knew 
nothing  of  the  time  when  the  statute  commenced  to  run  or  when  the  bar  at 
tached.  Not  only  that,  we  were  then  in  the  throes  of  reconstruction,  we 
were  then  almost  in  a  condition  of  anarchy  and  great  confusion  ;  we  were  a 
portion  of  the  time  under  military  dictators,  and  we  did  not  know  one  day 
what  our  fate  was  to  be  the  next. 

Take  my  own  State  for  instance.  Up  to  the  very  time  or  even  after  the 
time  that  the  bar  of  the  statute  had  completely  run,  a  military  dictator  sat 
in  Atlanta  and  removed  the  governor  of  the  State  from  his  office  and  ap 
pointed  a  military  man  in  his  place.  He  also  removed  the  treasurer  of  the 
State  from  office  and  he  appointed  another  in  his  place.  He  removed  judges 
and  appointed  others  in  their  places.  This  was  done  even  after  the  period 
when  according  to  the  ruling  of  the  Supreme  Court  the  time  within  which 
suit  could  be  brought  had  absolutely  expired.  Not  only  that,  but  subse- 
quent  to  that  period  of  time  a  military  dictator  sat  in  his  seat  at  Atlanta  and 
ordered,  like  Cromwell  of  England,  the  Legislature  of  Georgia  to  disperse, 
and  sent  an  outsider  not  a  member  to  take  the  chair  and  reorganize  the  Leg 
islature.  That  was  the  state  of  things  in  the  South  at  the  time  this  bar  of 
the  statute  of  limitations  attached  against  these  Southern  claims. 

Another  thing  should  be  remembered.  There  had  been  great  confusion, 
great  trouble,  destruction  of  property,  destruction  of  railroads,  and  the  means 
of  communication  were  nothing  like  what  they  now  are.  Large  numbers  of 
persons  who  were  interested  in  this  property  had  been  killed  in  battle  or 
died  in  service;  their  widows  and  orphans  knew  nothing  about  this  statute. 
They  knew  not  that  there  was  any  probability  that  they  would  ever  get  any 


APPENDIX.  739 

compensation.  They  did  not  know  that  there  was  provision  made  for  the 
commencement  of  suits  in  the  Court  of  Claims  until  long  after  the  time  had 
expired.  Their  cotton  and  other  property  were  taken  from  them  by  the 
military  after  the  surrender  of  Lee  and  Johnston,  sent  to  New  York,  and 
sold,  and  the  money  put  into  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States.  The  chief 
justice  of  the  United  States  says  the  United  States  Treasury  had  no  right 
to  it;  that  the  United  States  is  a  trustee  for  the  owners.  And  yet  in  the 
face  of  all  these  tacts  shall  it  be  said  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
denies  to  these  claimants  the  right  to  come  into  the  courts  and  litigate  their 
rights  and  establish  them  by  the  judgment  of  the  courts  of  the  Union? 
Surely  this  is  not  the  feeling  of  honorable  senators  or  of  honest  men  in  of 
out  of  this  Chamber. 

I  see  no  room  for  any  politics  in  this  question.  It  is  a  simple  question  of 
sheer  justice.  Will  you  permit  these  parties,  widows  and  orphans — a  large 
portion  of  them — as  I  have  said,  to  whom  this  property  belongs,  which  was 
seized  and  taken  from  them  and  the  proceeds  paid  into  your  Treasury,  to 
come  and  establish  that  fact  in  your  courts  and  draw  their  proportion,  or 
will  the  Government  of  the  United  States  deny  that  right  to  her  citizens  who 
are  now,  and  in  contemplation  of  law  have  always  been,  loyal  ?  This  is  all 
I  am  asking  for.  I  am  not  asking  you  to  extend  the  law  a  particle  further, 
to  embrace  any  other  claim  of  any  character,  only  the  simple  claims  of  those 
whose  property  was  seized  and  sold,  and  who  can  establish  the  fact  that  the 
money  now  in  the  Treasury  belongs  to  them  under  the  rulings  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  because  it  arose  from  the  sale  of  their  property.  I  simply  ask 
the  senate  to  remove  the  bar  of  the  statute,  and  let  them  be  heard. 

Is  it  unreasonable  ?  Will  you  deny  to  a  large  and  needy  class  of  your  cit 
izens  this  simple  measure  of  justice?  But  I  may  be  met  here  by  the  objection, 
and  I  was  on  that  part  of  the  argument  when  I  was  drawn  off  by  the  long 
question  of  the  senator  from  Massachusetts,  that  the  owners  of  this  cotton 
and  other  property,  or  many  of  them,  were  disloyal  to  the  Government,  and 
that  they  cannot  now  come  into  the  Court  of  Claims  and  establish  their  right 
unless  they  can  show  that  they  were  always  loyal.  I  say  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  has  ruled  the  exact  reverse  of  that.  It  has  held  that  a 
party  after  he  has  been  pardoned  is  placed  exactly  where  he  would  have 
stood  if  he  had  never  been  disloyal,  and  has  a  right,  having  been  pardoned, 
to  come  into  court  and  litigate  his  rights  just  as  though  he  had  never 
engaged  in  the  rebellion.  The  Padelfotd  case  I  have  already  referred  to. 
There  Mr.  Padelford  availed  himself  of  President  Lincoln's  proclamation, 
and  after  he  had  taken  the  oath,  complying  with  the  terms  and  conditions  of 
the  proclamation,  his  property  was  seized.  What  says  the  Supreme  Court  on 
this  subject?  I  read  from  9  Wallace,  page  543 : 

"  But  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  property  was  captured  in  fact,  if  not 
lawfully,  and  that  the  proceeds  having  been  paid  into  the  Treasury  of  the 
United" States,  the  petitioner  is  without  remedy  in  the  Court  of  Claims  un 
less  proof  is  made  that  he  gave  no  aid  or  comfort  to  the  rebellion.  The  sug 
gestion  is  ingenious,  but  we  do  not  think  it  sound.  The  sufficient  answer  to 
it  is  that  after  the  pardon  no  offence  connected  with  the  rebellion  can  be  im 
puted  to  him.  ]f  in  other  respects  the  petitioner  made  the  proof  which 
under  the  act  entitled  him  to  a  decree  for  the  proceeds  of  his  property,  the 
law  makes  the  proof  of  pardon  a  complete  substitute  for  the  proof  that  he 
gave  no  aid  or  comfort  to  the  rebellion.  A  different  construction  would,  as 
it  seems  to  us,  defeat  the  manifest  intent  of  the  proclamation  and  of  the  act 
of  Congress  which  authorized  it.  Under  the  proclamation  and  the  aot,  the 
Government  is  a  trustee,  holding  the  proceeds  of  the  petitioner's  property  for 
his  benefit;  and  having  been  fully  reimbursed, for  all  expenses  incurred*  in 


740  APPENDIX. 

that  character,  loses  nothing  by  the  judgment,  which  simply  awards  to  the 
petitioner  what  is  his  own." 

That  is  Padelford's  case,  and  it  comes  exactly  to  the  point  that  the  pardon 
when  established  stands  in  lieu  of  the  proof  that  the  claimant  was  loyal  dur 
ing  the  war. 

I  desire  on  that  same  point  also  to  refer  to  the  case  of  Armstrong  vs.  The 
United  States,  13  Wallace,  154.  The  syllabus  is  : 

"1.  The  President's  proclamation  of  the  25th  of  December,  1868,  grant 
ing  '  unconditionally  and  without  reservation  to  all  and  every  person  who 
directly  or  indirectly  participated  in  the  late  insurrection  or  rebellion,  a  full 
pardon  and  amnesty  for  the  offence  of  treason  against  the  United  States,  etc., 
with  restoration  of  all  rights,  privileges  and  immunities  under  the  Constitu 
tion  and  the  laws  which  have  been  made  in  pursuance  thereof,'  granted 
pardon  unconditionally  and  without  reserve;  and  enables  persons  otherwise 
entitled  to  recover  from  the  United  States  the  proceeds  of  captured  and 
abandoned  property,  under  the  abandoned  and  captured  property  act,  to  re 
cover  it  though  no  proof  be  made,  as  was  required  by  that  act,  that  the  claim 
ant  never  gave  any  aid  or  comfort  to  the  rebellion. 

"2.  The  proclamation  referred  to  is  a  public  act,  of  which  all  courts  of 
the  United  States  are  bound  to  take  notice,  and  to  which  all  courts  are 
bound  to  give  effect." 

The  case  of  Pargoud  vs.  United  States,  13  Wallace,  page  156,  is  to  the 
same  point:  • 

"APPEAL  FROM  THE  COURT  or  CLAIMS. 

"  Pargoutf  filed  a  claim  in  the  court  below  to  recover  under  the  abandoned 
and  captured  property  act  the  proceeds  of  certain  cotton.  This  act,  as  by 
reference  to  its  provisions  on  page  151,  supra,  will  be  seen,  makes  'proof 
that  the  claimant  had  never  given  aid  or  comfort  to  the  late  rebellion  '  a  pre 
requisite  to  recovery.  Pargoud's  petition,  however,  averred  no  loyalty  at  all. 
On  the  contrary,  it  set  forth  in  the  first  sentence  of  it  'that  he  was  guilty  of 
participating  in  the  rebellion  against  the  United  States,'  adding,  however, 
'that  he  had  been  duly  and  legally  pardoned  for  such  participation  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States:  and  that  he  had  received  a  pardon  under 
the  great  seal,  dated  on  the  llth  day  of  January,  1866,  which  had  been  duly 
accepted  by  him,  and  that  his  acceptance,  duly  notified  to  the  Secretary  of 
State,  was  now  on  file  in  the  office  of  that  Department ;  and  that  he  had 
complied  with  all  the  legal  formalities  in  such  case  made  and  provided,  and 
under  the  proclamations  of  amnesty  and  pardon  issued  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  now  stands  and  is  entitled  to  be  considered  in  law  as  if 
he  never  had,  in  point  of  fact,  participated  in  the  late  rebellion  against  the 
United  States,  and  consequently  he  now  avers  that  in  legal  intendment 
and  under  the  allegations  already  made  he  has  at  all  times  borne  true  allegi 
ance  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  ;  and  that  he  has  not  in  any 
way  aided,  abetted,  or  given  encouragement  to  the  rebellion  against  the 
United  States.' " 

The  Chief  Justice  says: 

41  We  have  recently  decided,  in  the  case  of  Armstrong  vs.  United  States, 
that  the  President's  proclamation  of  December  25,  1868,  granting  pardon 
and  amnesty  unconditionally  and  without  reservation  to  all  who  participated 
directly  or  indirectly  in  the  late  rebellion,  relieves  claimants  of  captured 
and  abandoned  property  from  proof  of  adhesion  to  the  United  States  dur 
ing  the  late  civil  war.  It  was  unnecessary,  therefore,  to  prove  such  adhe 
sion  or  personal  pardon  for  taking  part  in  the  rebellion  against  the  United 
States." 


APPENDIX.  74 1 

And  they  reversed  the  judgment  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  which  had  required 
proof  of  loyalty  after  pardon. 

The  case  of  Armstrong's  Foundry,  decided  in  6  Wallace,  766,  is  to  the 
same  purport,  so  far  as  the  effect  of  the  pardon  is  concerned.  That  case 
arose  under  the  confiscation  act  of  6th  August,  1861.  That  act  makes  prop 
erty  used  in  aid  of  rebellion  with  the  consent  of  the  owner,  subject  to  seizure, 
confiscation  and  condemnation.  The  property  was  seized  under  this  act,  and 
the  Supreme  Court  held  that  the  President's  pardon  relieves  such  owner 
from  the  forfeiture  of  the  property  seized,  so  far  as  the  right  accrues  to  the 
United  States. 

Let  me  recapitulate  some  of  the  points  involved. 

There  are  about  $10,000,000  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  which 
arose  out  of  the  sale  of  captured  and  abandoned  property,  as  it  was  called, 
of  Confederates  who  are  now  citizens  of  the  Southern  States.  Part  of  it 
belonged  originally  to  loyal  citizens  of  the  South  during  the  war.  These 
citizens  were  permitted  by  the  act  of  March,  1863,  to  file  their  claims  at  any 
time  within  two  years  after  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  and,  on  proof 
of  loyalty  and  of  ownership,  to  recover  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  prop 
erty. 

In  December,  1868,  the  President  of  the  United  States  proclaimed  univer 
sal  pardon  and  amnesty  to  all  persons  engaged  in  the  rebellion.  This  re 
lieved  such  owners  of  this  fund  as  had  participated  in  the  rebellion  from  all 
legal  guilt  and  placed  them  on  precisely  the  same  legal  footing  as  those  who 
had  not  participated  in  the  rebellion  ;  but  the  period  of  the  statute  of  limita 
tions,  as  I  have  already  shown,  was  two  years  from  20th  August,  1866,  to 
20th  August,  1868,  so  that  the  bar  of  the  statute  had  completely  attached 
before  the  President's  pardon  restoring  those  who  participated  in  the 
rebellion  to  all  their  legal  rights.  They  therefore  never  had  an  opportunity 
to  file  their  claims  in  the  Court  of  Claims  to  the  part  of  the  fund  belonging 
to  them.  Many  of  those  who  were  loyal  knew  nothing  of  their  legal  rights 
or  of  the  terms  of  the  act  of  1863,  passed  during  the  war,  for  the  reasons  I 
have  already  given,  until  after  the  bar  of  the  statute  had  completely  at 
tached.  The  authorities,  including  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
did  not  know  when  the  statute  commenced  to  run  or  when  the  bar  of  the 
statute  became  complete  until  many  months  after  all  right  of  action  was 
barred  by  the  statute. 

The  Supreme  Court  have  held  repeatedly  that  the  Government  does  not 
own  this  fund,  but  holds  it  as  a  trustee  for  the  true  owners.  They  have  also 
held  that  the  pardon  of  the  claimant  who  participated  in  the  rebellion  placed 
him  on  the  f^ame  legal  footing  of  loyalty  as  the  man  who  did  not  participate 
in  the  rebellion,  and  gives  him  the  same  right  to  recover.  Instead  of  prov 
ing  his  loyalty,  he  proves  his  pardon,  and  that  the  Supreme  Court  says  shall 
be  received  in  place  of  the  proof  of  his  loyalty. 

There  can  be  no  possible  dispute  about  the  facts.  The  fund  is  in  the 
Treasury.  It  is  not  pretended  that  it  belongs  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  admitted  that  the  Government  holds  it  as  trustee  for 
the  owners,  and  it  is  admitted  that  the  owners,  whether  they  participated  in 
the  rebellion  or  not,  would,  under  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  be  en 
titled  to  recover  the  fund,  if  the  bar  of  the  statute  of  limitations  were 
removed.  That  bar  attached,  under  the  peculiar  circumstances  above  men 
tioned,  during  a  period  closely  verging  on  anarchy  in  the  Southern  States, 
when  there  was  great  uncertainty  and  confusion  among  our  people.  In  a 
word,  it  was  in  the  stormier  periods  of  reconstruction.  Under  this  state  of 
the  case  the  owners  of  this  fund  knock  at  the  door  of  Congress,  and  ask  that 
the  bar  of  the  statute  be  removed,  and  that  they  be  permitted  to  commence 


742  APPENDIX. 

proceedings  in  one  of  the  courts  of  the  Union  for  the  recovery  of  money  ad 
mitted  to  be  justly  and  legally  their  due. 

Can  Northern  senators  afford  to  vote  against  a  bill  that  does  this  simple 
act  of  justice  to  a  large  class  of  worthy,  honest,  and  conscientious  citizens  of 
part  of  the  States  of  this  Union?  It  seems  to  me  it  is  impossible. 

Now  one  word  more  on  this  point.  I  will  neither  be  misunderstood  nor 
misrepresented  on  this  question.  My  amendment  asks  for  no  reopening  of 
the  issues  of  the  war.  It  does  not  ask  for  any  enactment  that  would  make 
the  Government  liable  to  Southern  war  claims,  or  that  would  make  it  neces 
sary  to  appropriate  one  dollar  out  of  the  public  Treasury  to  meet  any  claim 
of  that  character.  Whatever  may  be  the  effect  of  the  Constitution,  the 
statutes,  the  proclamations  of  the  President,  and  the  rulings  of  the  Supreme 
Court  upon  the  legal  status  of  such  claims,  I  do  not  ask  to  disturb  in  the 
least  particular  their  present  status.  I  ask  for  nothing  but  the  passage  of  an 
act  that  secures  to  the  legal  owners  of  the  fund,  now  in  the  Treasury,  riot 
claimed  by  the  Government,  which  arose  out  of  the  sale  of  the  property  be 
longing  to  those  legal  owners,  the  right  to  establish  their  claims  in  court,  and 
to  be  treated  as  other  American  citizens  are  treated  when  they  have  estab 
lished  them  by  proof  that  cannot  be  controverted.  By  the  fifth  section  of  the 
act  of  May  18,  1872,  all  cotton  se'zed  after  the  30th  June,  1865,  by  agents  of 
the  Government,  unlawfully,  and  in  violation  of  their  instructions,  of  which 
the  proceeds  were  paid  into  the  Treasury  was  to  be  paid  for  by  the  Govern 
ment  without  regard  to  the  loyalty  of  the  owner.  But  the  claim  must  be 
filed  in  the  Treasury  within  six  months  after  the  passage  of  the  act.  And 
the  act  does  not  apply  to  any  claim  then  pending  in  the  Court  of  Claims. 
But  this  act  only  applies  when  the  agent  of  the  Government  acted  illegally, 
and  in  violation  of  instructions. 

The  President  pro  tempore.     The  hour  of  2  o'clock  has  arrived. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  have  said  substantially  what  I  desire  to  say.  There  is  a 
brief  in  connection  with  the  subject,  prepared  with  some  care,  which,  if  there 
is  no  objection,  I  will  put  in  the  Record  in  connection  with  my  remarks,  and 
as  the  hour  of  2  has  arrived  I  yield  the  floor  to  the  regular  order. 


SPEECH  OF  HONORABLE  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA,  IN  THE  SENATE 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  TUESDAY,  JANUARY  23,  18&3.     HK  GIVES  HIS 

VIEWS  ON  THE  TARIFF  AND  THE  INTERNAL-REVENUE  SYSTEM  ;    ON  BES 
SEMER  STEEL,  RICE,  &c. 

The  bill  (H.  R.  5538)  to  reduce  internal  revenue  being  under  consideration,  and  the 
pending  question  being  on  the  amendment  of  Mr.  Miller  of  New  York,  to  increase  from 
50  cents  to  $1  per  ton  the  duty  on  iron  ore — 

Mr.  Brown  said: 

Mr.  President :  I  have  said  nothing  on  this  very  important  question,  and 
I  do  not  know  that  I  should  utter  a  word  now  were  it  not  that  when  I 
asked  a  question  this  morning  when  the  senator  from  Texas  [Mr.  Maxey] 
was  making  some  remarks  in  reference  to  the  importation  of  sU-el  rails  the 
senator  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Beck]  thought  proper,  in  a  manner  a  little  ex 
cited,  to  assign  me  a  position  on  this  question  that  I  do  not  occupy.  I  do 
not  believe  my  friend  intended  to  do  injustice.  I  have  usually  found  him, 
in  fact,  I  may  say  I  have  always  found  him  fair,  just,  and  reasonable.  He 
made  the  statement  that  I  would  vote  for  100  or  150  per  cent,  and  for  pro 
tection  for  protection's  sake.  Now,  I  say  most  distinctly  that  1  occupy  no 
such  position. 


APPENDIX.  743 

Mr.  Beck.  The  senator  will  allow  me.  I  think  he  will  not  find  when  the 
reporter  makes  out  the  Record  that  I  made  such  an  assertion. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  so  understood  it.  I  do  not  know  how  it  may  appear  in  the 
Record. 

Mr.  Beck.     I  never  intended  to  make  such  an  assertion,  if  I  did. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  did  not  think  the  senator  did,  but  I  so  understood  him, 
and  I  think  that  was  the  language  or  very  nearly  the  exact  language  he  used. 
And  I  wish  now  to  say  with  emphasis  that  I  occupy  no  such  position  on  this 
question.  On  a  former  occasion,  at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  when  I  ad 
dressed  the  senate  on  this  question,  my  honorable  friend  from  Kentucky  did 
me  the  honor  to  hear  me  most  of  the  time.  In  those  remarks  I  was  very 
careful  to  negative  any  such  idea. 

I  arn  utterly  opposed  to  levying  one  dollar  of  tax  on  the  people  of  the 
United  States  for  protection  alone.  I  am  in  favor  as  soon  as  it  can  possibly 
be  done  of  raising  all  the  tax  necessary  to  support  the  Federal  Government 
upon  imported  articles,  as  I  have  avowed  again  and  again  upon  this  floor.  I 
am  utterly  opposed  to  the  present  internal-revenue  system.  It  was  a  war 
measure,  adopted  as  such,  never  intended  at  the  time  to  be  fastened  perma 
nently  on  the  people  of  this  country,  and  it  never  ought  to  be.  That  system 
entails  upon  us,  in  addition  to  the  expense  we  heretofore  had  to  bear  of  col 
lecting  the  revenues,  the  cost  of  another  army  of  collectors — inland  collectors 
— who  are  increased  by  a  process  of  indefinite  expansion  when  a  political 
campaign  comes  on ;  and  many  of  them  are  used  as  very  efficient  political 
agents  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  party  in  power.  That  is  not  all. 
Nothing  has  done  so  much  to  annoy  the  citizens  of  this  country,  to  vex  and 
harass  them — I  mean  nothing  in  the  shape  of  legislation  for  the  'collection  of 
revenue — as  has  the  working  of  this  internal-revenue  system. 

Under  the  law  governing  the  system,  or  at  lea*t  under  the  practice,  and 
they  claim  that  it  is  justified  by  law,  and  I  believe  it  is,  by  what  purports  to 
be  law  on  the  statute-book,  the  collector  of  internal  revenue  sends  his  deputy 
out  upon  a  raid  whenever  he  thinks  proper  to  do  so.  He  issues  his  summons 
to  his  henchmen,  and  gathers  around  him  whatever  force  he  desires.  He 
goes  into  the  country  in  search  of  illicit  stills,  as  the  excuse  is.  What  power 
does  he  go  armed  with?  If  he  finds  a  still  running  where  there  is  not  a  li 
cense,  he  resorts  to  no  judicial  proceeding;  he  seizes  it,  destroys  the  still  or 
takes  it  from  its  place  and  carries  it  away,  destroys  the  boer  or  any  other  ar 
ticles  that  he  may  find  in  the  distillery  that  he  thinks  proper  to  destroy,  and 
seizes  the  property  of  the  distiller  and  carries  it  off,  and  many  times  he  takes 
property  in  no  way  connected  with  the  running  of  the  distillery.  This  is 
done  by  an  agent  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  which  Government 
has  in  its  Constitution  the  distinct  provision  that  private  property  shall  not 
be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation;  and  provides  distinctly 
that  no  one  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process 
of  law. 

This  system  is  even  carried  so  far  that  if  in  these  raids  the  revenue  col 
lectors  find  a  man  at  a  distillery,  though  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  distilling, 
if  he  becomes  alarmed  and  runs  at  their  approach,  yet  if  they  raise  their  fire 
arms  and  shoot  him  down,  the  courts  of  the  State  are  not  permitted  to  try 
his  murderers  as  criminals.  In  such  case  the  demand  comes  for  a  transfer 
of  the  case  to  the  Federal  courts,  arid  it  is  so  ordered,  because  this  raider, 
with  his  posse,  who  goes  around  through  the  mountains  or  the  valleys  hunt 
ing  stills,  is  claimed  to  have  been  an  agent  of  the  Government,  and  acting 
under  its  authority  while  he  was  out  destroying  the  property  of  the  citizen 
without  warrant  6r  authority  or  the  judgment  of  any  court  for  doing  so,  and 
if  any  one  offers  resistance,  nay  more,  if  anyone  flees  even  and  does  uot  stop 


744  APPENDIX. 

when  commanded  and  is  shot  down,  the  State  courts  are  held  to  have  no  ju 
risdiction,  and  this  agent  of  the  Government  is  put  on  trial  in  the  United 
States  court  and  the  United  States  district  attorney  is  ordered  to  defend  him. 
A  mockery  of  justice! 

Thus  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  this  country,  I  mean  the  Constitution 
and  all  laws  passed  in  conformity  to  it,  are  trampled  under  foot  recklessly 
and  tyrannically  in  the  execution  of  this  system.  And  yet  some  of  the  sena 
tors  in  this  Chamber,  who  are  very  denunciatory  of  almost  any  kind  of  tariff, 
are  sticklers  for  the  continuance  of  the  internal-revenue  system.  I  would 
abolish  it  absolutely.  I  would  do  away  with  this  army  of  collectors  and 
these  illegal  raiders.  I  would  destroy  the  power  and  monopoly  of  the  great 
whiskey  ring,  and  I  would  collect  the  revenue  at  the  ports  of  this  country,  as 
our  fathers  collected  it,  and  as  it  was  always  done  except  when  the  exigencies 
of  war  required  extreme  measure-*. 

On  what  principle  should  we  collect  it?  Which  is  better,  the  tariff  system 
always  practiced  as  most  satisfactory  to  the  people,  or  the  internal-revenue 
or  direct-tax  system  ?  It  mu<t  be  done  by  one  system  or  the  other.  We 
must  have  money  to  support  the  Government. 

It  is  very  easy  to  appeal  to  the  prejudices  of  the  populace  on  this  ques 
tion.  Xo  matter  what  sort  of  tariff  is  proposed,  what  the  per  cent,  is  upon 
any  article;  no  matter  what  the  duty  is  on  clothing  or  food  or  trace-chains 
or  looking-glasses  or  anything  else  that  has  been  mentioned  and  discussed 
here,  how  easy  it  is  to  say  were  it  not  for  the  tariff  our  people  would  buy  it 
for  20  per  cent,  30  per  cent.,  40  per  cent,,  or  50  per  cent,  less  than  they  now 
pay.  That  is  true,  and  it  applies  to  every  article  that  is  protected 
by  a  tariff;  and  every  article  produced  by  us  upon  which  a  tariff 
is  laid  is  protected  to  that  extent.  But  how  are  you  going  to 
get  rid  of  it?  What  is  your  remedy  for  the  protection  of  the  people  in 
that  case  V  They  can  be  protected  against  all  thes^e  exactions  of  tariff  and  all 
tariff  protection  in  one  way,  and  that  is  to  collect  all  the  revenue  this  Gov 
ernment  needs  by  internal  taxation  and  collect  none  of  it  at  the  port?. 
Then  we  should  have  the  pure,  genuine,  unadulterated  free-trade  principle 
carried  out.  Are  senators  ready  to  adopt  that  plan  of  collecting  the  reve 
nue?  If  they  are,  those  who  take  that  position  draw  the  line  sharply  and 
distinctly  between  them  and  other  senators  who  believe  that  the  revenue 
should  be  collected  by  a  tariff.  We  must  have  a  certain  amount  of  revenue 
each  year  to  support  this  Government;  how  much  I  do  not  know.  Our  last 
appropriation  bills,  with  all  the  other  demands  of  the  Treasury,  I  believe 
were  stated  on  the  last  night  of  the  last  session  to  amount  to  about 
$100.000,000. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  West  Virginia.     Four  hundred  and  three  million  dollars. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  honorable  senator  from  West  Virginia  says  $4  03,000, 000 
last  year.  J  thank  him.  How  much  less  is  it  to  be  this  year?  The  senator 
from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Beck]  is  on  the  committee  on  appropriations. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  West  Virginia.  I  will  say  to  my  friend  from  Georgia  that 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury  estimates  $415,000,000  for  the  next  year. 

Mr.  Brown.  The  senator  from  West  Virginia,  a  member  of  the  committee 
on  appropriations,  now  says  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  estimates 
$415,000,000  for  this  year,  and  $34i»,OoO,000  of  that  I  understand  'is  for  neces 
sary  expenses.  It  may  be  that  the  senator  from  Kentucky  and  his  colleague 
upon  the  committee  on  appropriations  will  find  some  way  of  cutting  down 
the  appropriations  immensely.  If  they  do  so,  and  it  is  practicable  and  just, 
I  will  vote  with  them  most  cordially,  for  I  desire  to  say  here  that  the  affairs 
of  this  Government  should  be  administered  economically.  ^11  extravagance 
should  be  cut  off  and  not  a  dollar  should  be  raised  that  is  not  necessary  for 


APPENDIX.  745 

the  economical  administration  of  the  Government.  If,  however,  it  takes 
$115.000,000  a  year  to  run  it,  or  suppose  we  drop  the  $15,000,000  on  account 
of  the  economy  that  the  committee  on  appropriations  is  going  to  exercise  in 
recommending  appropriations,  then  it  is  $100,000,000  a  year  that  we  have 
to  raise. 

How  is  it  proposed  to  do  it?  We  must  meet  the  question  like  sensible 
men  and  like  statesmen.  We  must  support  this  Government,  and  we  must 
raise  all  the  funds  absolutely  necessary  for  that  purpose.  Assuming  that  it  will 
be  not  less  than  $100,000,000  next  year,  how  do  you  propose  to  raise  it?  By  a 
tax  on  customs,  that  is  upon  imported  goods,  or  by  an  internal  tax  upon  the 
people  of  this  country  levied  directly?  How  is  it  to  be  raised?  I  repeat. 
If  l»y  tariff,  we  need  not  be  so  very  exact  about  just  how  much  we  put  on  each 
article.  We  shall  get  some  too  high  and  some  too  low,  perhaps,  for  it  is  very 
hard  to  adjust  it  right,  but  we  need  not  stickle  about  small  per  cents,  in  it, 
because  it  will  take  a  large  tariff  to  raise  that  amount.  Even  with  your 
internal-revenue  svstem,  which  is  clung  to  with  so  much  tenacity  by  some 
senators,  you  will  be  obliged  to  raise  about  $250,000,000  by  tariff  taxation, 
if  I  mav  use  that  expression. 

Mr.  Beck.  Before  the  senator  proceeds  further,  will  he  allow  me  to  sug 
gest  one  thing  that  has  occurred  to  me  several  times? 

Mr.  Brown.     I  do  not  wish  to  give  way  for  a  speech. 

Mr.  Beck.  I  do  not  wish  to  ni;ike  a  speech;  I  desire  only  to  suggest  to 
the  senator  from  Georgia  that  all  the  revenue  raised  from  whiskey  and 
tobacco  goes  into  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  and  therefore  prevents 
the  necessity  of  raising  anything  more  than  the  revenue  actually  paid,  where 
as  Mr.  Oliver  says  $28  a  ton  on  Bessemer  steel,  out  of  which  millions  have 
heretofore  been  raised,  is  now  prohibitory,  and  that  tax  so  kept  up  will  make 
the  people  of  the  country  pay  $28  a  ton  more  than  the  steel  rail  is  worth,  and 
yet  not  pay  a  dollar  into  the  Treasury  and  not  enable  us  to  decrease  taxation 
anywhere  else. 

Mr.  Brown.  At  a  later  period  in  my  speech  I  will  come  to  that  Bessemer- 
steel  question.  I  have  heard  my  friend  from  Kentucky,  I  think,  something 
less  than  three  hundred  times  on  that  question  in  the  senate. 

Mr.  Beck.     And  you  have  been  greatly  annoyed,  no  doubt,  every  time. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  have  always  been  ready  to  vote  for  a  reduction  of  the  tar 
iff  on  steel  rail.  There  is  another  side  to  that  picture.  It  is  true  the  diffi 
culty  the  senator  mentions  has  been  one  in  the  way,  but  I  even  prefer 
that  to  the  system  which  he  advocates,  the  practical  working  of  which  is  for 
a  raiding  band  of  its  agents  to  go  out  and  shoot  down  citizens  with  impunity. 

Mr.  Beck.  One  word  more,  and  I  will  not  trouble  the  senator  again.  He 
even  prefers  that  Bessemer  steel  shall  be  taxed  $28  a  ton,  absolutely  prohibit 
ory  and  yielding  no  revenue,  rather  than  to  have  a  revenue  raised  by 
means  whereby  all  that  is  paid  goes  into  the  Treasury. 

Mr.  Brown.  Xo,  that  is  not  what  I  said.  The  senator  shall  not  misrep 
resent  me  in  that  way.  I  mean  now,  as  between  the  two  systems,  that  I 
prefer  the  tariff  system  even  with  some  evils  connected  with  it,  rather  than 
his  system,  or  the  one  he  advocates,  under  the  practical  workings  of  which  the 
property  of  the  citizen  is  destroyed  without  warrant  or  authority,  and  the 
citizen  is  shot  down  with  impunity. 

Mr.  Beck.     That  same  thing  is  done  under  the  customs  laws  quite  as  bad. 

Mr.  Brown.  I  have  not,  known  instances  of  it.  I  do  not  think  the  sena 
tor  can  point  to  them.  If  he  will  go  to  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Tennessee  he  can  find  plenty  of  instances  such  as  I 
have  mentioned  under  the  internal-revenue  system.  I  have  not  heard  of 
them  under  the  customs  laws,  and  1  do  not  believe  they  exist  there.  I  have 


746  APPENDIX. 

heard  of  no  case  where  a  citizen  was  shot  down  there  for  running  when  he 
was  told  to  stand  by  an  agent  of  the  United  States  and  then  the  criminal 
carried  into  a  United  States  court  for  a  mock  trial  and  there  acquitted,  the 
United  States  district  attorney  defending  him.  I  know  no  such  case.  I  ven 
ture  to  say  the  senator  from  Kentucky  cannot  furnish  the  instance.  Will  he 
name  the  case?  It  does  not  exist. 

But  now  a  word — 

Mr.  Harris.     The  senator  from  Georgia  certainly  does  not  mean — 

Mr.  Brown.  I  cannot  be  interrupted  by  all  the  senators,  because  I  want 
to  go  on  and  make  my  argument.  They  will  have  ample  time  to  reply  to 
me  after  I  have  done.  I  certainly  do  not  intend  to  be  discourteous  to  "any 
senator. 

Mr.  Harris.  I  simply  desired  to  inquire  of  the  senator  if  he  meant  to  say 
that  there  was  anything  in  the  internal-revenue  law  authorizing  the  acts  to 
which  he  refers ;  if  he  does  not  refer  to  acts  of  crime  in  violation  of  that  and 
all  other  laws  ? 

Mr.  Brown.  I  meant  to  say  that  under  the  law  and  practice  of  that  sys 
tem  men  are  shot  down  under  the  circumstances  I  have  mentioned  and  the 
murderers  tried  under  the  circumstances  mentioned,  and  acquitted.  Not 
long  since  there  was  an  instance  in  the  State  represented  by  the  senator  from 
Tennessee  of  that  very  character.  Davis,  I  believe,  was  the  man  who  did 
the  shooting.  He  was  a  rather  noted  revenue  agent.  That  is  the  practice 
under  that  system.  It  occurred  in  Tennessee,  it  occurred  in  Georgia,  it  oc 
curred  in  Alabama,  it  occurred  in  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina,  and  I 
do  not  know  but  also  in  Kentucky.  I  do  not  know-  whether  citizens  have 
been  shot  down  by  the  revenue  officers  there  or  not. 

But  a  word  more  in  reference  to  the  Tennessee  case.  Davis,  the  revenue 
collector,  was  a  favorite  with  the  authorities  and  a  noted  raider  upon  the 
people.  And  I  here  make  a  short  extract  from  the  very  able  speech  of  Colo 
nel  A.  S.  Colyar,  who  was  counsel  for  the  State  in  the  prosecution  of  Davis 
for  killing  Haynes.  Davis  was  on  a  raid  in  Grundy  county.  He  approached 
a  distillery  and  Haynes  was  at  the  distillery,  but  in  no  way  connected  with 
the  business  of  distilling.  Seeing  the  revenue  officers  and  not  knowing  but 
he  might  be  arrested,  h£  started  to  run.  They  hailed  him,  but  he  did  not 
stop  and  Davis  shot  him  down.  Davis  was  indicted  in  Grundy  county  for 
murder,  and  the  case  took  the  usual  course.  An  order  was  sent  down  from 
the  United  States  court  to  the  State  court  to  transfer  the  case  to  the  former 
court.  The  transfer  was  made  and  the  usual  result,  I  believe,  followed.  Davis 
was  not  punished.  But  to  the  extract.  Colonel  Colyar  says  : 

"  Here  is  an  extract  from  a  report  made  of  the  result  of  one  raid  in  which 
the  defendant  took  part,  as  follows : 

"'They  seized  sixteen  distilleries,  five  of  which  were  in  Tennessee,  nine  in 
Kentucky,  and  two  in  Virginia.  They  also  captured  15,200  gallons  of  mash 
and  beer,  165^  gallons  of  singlings,  87  of  whiskey,  45  bushels  of  meal,  16 
bushels  of  malt,  10  copper  stills  and  caps,  11  worms',  and  264  mash-tubs. 
Value  of  property  destroyed,  $3,300.' 

"  A  few  days  before  the  above  was  published,  the  same  paper  had  reported 
the  horses,  cattle,  and  hogs  brought  into  the  city  on  a  steamboat  as  the  result 
of  a  single  raid  by  Davis  and  his'squad,  this  property  being  seized  as  property 
belonging  to  illicit  distillers." 

This,  then,  is  the  manner  in  which  the  business  of  collecting  internal  reve 
nue  is  carried  on  in  the  State  of  Tennessee.  And  it  is  carried  on  in  like  man 
ner,  as  already  stated,  in  a  number  of  other  States.  The  property  of  the  citi 
zen  is  seized  or  destroyed  at  the  caprice  of  the  Government  agent.  He  sits 
in  the  case  as  judge,  jury,  and  executioner.  He  determines  whether  the 


APPENDIX.  747 

party  is  guilty  of  illegal  distillation.  He  destroys  the  still  and  seizes  the 
property  of  the  party;  and  if  the  distiller  or  any  one  present  attempts  to 
get  away  he  shoots  him  down  ;  and  when  indicted  in  the  State  court  he  claims 
a  transfer  to  the  United  States  court,  where  he  goes  through  the  form  of  a 
mock  trial,  defended  by  the  United  States  district  attorney,  and  is  acquitted. 
And  this  is  the  system  that  is  to  be  settled  upon  us  and  under  which  our 
people  are  to  suffer  oppression  until  they  have  arisen  in  their  might  and 
required  of  their  representatives  its  unconditional  abrogation. 

What  would  be  said  in  Great  Britain  of  any  such  conduct  as  this?  Ref 
erence  is  made  by  Colonel  Colyar,  in  the  able  argument  to  which  I  have  re 
ferred,  to  the  celebrated  Knox  cases  in  England.  When  it  was  the  custom 
of  the  chief  of  cabinet  to  issue  warrants  for  the  seizure  of  property,  without 
describing  the  property,  and  in  some  instances  for  the  seizure  of  persons, 
without  the  names  or  description  of  such  persons,  suits  were  brought  by 
those  thus  illegally  arrested  and  by  those  whose  property  was  thus  illegally 
seized;  arid  after  a  long  litigation,  in  which  the  Government  defending  the 
suits  expended  nearly  £100,000,  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  held  that  the 
warrants  were  illegal,  that  the  defendant  in  every  such  case  was  entitled  to 
recover  damage  of  the  agent  of  the  Government.  The  English  law  and  con 
stitution  protect  the  person  and  property  of  the  subjects  of  that  Government 
from  illegal  seizure. 

Lord  Chatham  is  reported  to  have  said :  "  The  poorest  man  may  in  his 
cottage  bid  defiance  to  all  the  forces  of  the  Crown.  It  may  be  frail ;  its 
roof  may  shake;  the  wind  may  blow  through  it;  the  storm  may  enter,  but 
the  King  of  England  may  not  enter.  All  his  forces  dare  not  cross  the  threshold 
of  the  ruined  tenement." 

This  is  the  regard  which  the  laws  of  England  pay  to  the  rights  of  person 
and  property.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  says  that  no  citizen 
shall  be  deprived  of  "  life,  liberty,  or  property  "  without  due  process  of  law ; 
and  yet  in  the  teeth  of  the  English  common  law  and  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  an  internal  revenue  system  is  maintained  which  practically 
sets  aside  all  these  safeguards  and  leaves  life,  liberty  and  property  subject  to 
the  whims  and  assaults  of  irresponsible  revenue  agents. 

Now,  a  word  on  the  Bessemer-steel  question  as  it  has  been  put  to  us  so 
often.  I  have  never  seen  the  day  when  I  would  not  have  voted  to  reduce  the 
tariff  on  steel  rails.  The  Southern  Railway  and  Steamship  Association  a 
few  years  ago,  at  my  instance,  passed  resolutions  memorializing  Congress  for 
a  reduction  of  that  tariff,  because  we  thought  it  was  unreasonable  and  unjust. 
I  say  now  it  is,  and  I  am  ready  to  vote  with  the  senator  from  Kentucky  to 
reduce  it,  and  I  have  never  seen  the  day  when  I  would  not  have  done  it ; 
therefore  I  am  not  to  be  misrepresented  on  that  question. 

But  let  us  look  now  a  moment  at  the  working  of  it.  While  I  utterly  repu 
diate  the  doctrine  of  a  high  tariff  making  low  goods,  as  that  clap-trap  phrase 
is  usually  pronounced  in  the  country,  still  it  is  a  fact  which  we  cannot  get 
away  from  that  where  an  article  is  protected  unjustly,  it  may  be  as  it  was  in 
this  case  even  to  the  point  of  prohibition,  it  builds  up  the  industries  of  this 
country  until  they  reach  the  point  where  competition  between  themselves 
puts  down  the  price  immensely  below  what  it  was  when  those  interests  were 
first  protected  by  a  high  tariff. 

Take  this  very  article  of  Bessemer  steel.  I  have  some  knowledge  of  the 
working  of  that  business.  It  was  my  duty  some  years  since  to  make  a  pur 
chase  of  that  article  for  a  railroad  interest  which  I  represent.  For  the  first 
I  ever  purchased  I  paid  $130  per  ton  in  cash.  A  few  days  since  my  agent 
purchased  in  Pennsylvania  2,OuO  tons  of  as  good  steel  as  that  was  for  $38.50 
per  ton.  The  first  was  $130  per  ton ;  the  last  purchased  was  $38.50  per  ton. 


748  APPENDIX. 

The  tariff  was  the  same  in  both  cases.  It  was  $28  per  ton  when  I  purchased 
the  first,  and  it  is  $28  per  ton  now. 

What  reduced  it?  Why  is  it  not  $130  a  ton  now;  or  if  not  that  much, 
why  is  it  lower  than  it  was?  How  did  it  get  down  to  $38.50?  It  was  in 
this  way:  A  tariff  was  put  on  that  was  almost  prohibitory;  the  article  was 
in  demand;  large  amounts  of  capital  were  invested;  able  capitalists  here 
purchased  the  patent-right  for  this  country,  and  then  put  millions  of  money 
into  mills  to  manufacture  it;  and  they  have  built  up  a  competition  among 
themselves ;  and  that  has  reduced  it  from  $130  to  $38.50,  while  there  has 
been  no  change  in  the  rate  of  the  tariff. 

Therefore  there  is  a  great  deal  of  fallacy  in  all  these  statements  about  the 
exorbitant  tariff  on  Bessemer  steel  ruining  this  country.  The  railroads  had 
to  pay  (and  the  people  have  to  pay  for  it,  of  course,  in  the  end)  unreasonable 
rates  for  the  article  at  the  start.  Why  was  it  that  we  had  to  pay  at  that 
day  $130  a  ton?  If  we  had  not  put  up  mills  to  make  it  in  this  country,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  we  should  not  be  paying  $130  a  ton  or  some  other  very 
high  rate  to  day  for  it,  for  the  foreign  manufacturer  having  the  monopoly 
would  have  put  his  own  price  upon  it,  and  therefore  we  should  probably 
have  to  pay  double  or  three  times  to-day  what  we  do  pay  to  our  own  mills. 
By  this  system  those  mills  are  now  located  here  ;  the  capital  is  in  them  ;  the 
plant  is  there;  and  they  cannot  be  removed  :  and  we  have  this  competition 
for  all  time  to  come.  I  am  willing  to  vote  to  reduce  the  tariff  on  steel  to  a 
reasonable  rate,  as  I  have  always  been,  and  give  the  benefit  of  it  to  the 
people. 

Take  another  illustration — 

Mr.  Beck.  The  senator  is  aware,  I  suppose,  that  he  can  buy  Bessemer- 
steel  rails  for  $24  or  $25  a  ton,  free  on  board,  in  Liverpool. 

Mr.  Brown.  But  I  suppose  Bessemer  steel,  as  well  as  everything  else, 
ought  to  pay  some  of  the  $250,000,000  we  need  to  carry  on  the  Government. 
I  think  it  ought  not  to  pay  as  high  a  rate  as  it  now  pays.  But  if  we  adopt 
the  system  of  collecting  all  the  revenue  by  internal  taxation,  then  the  senator 
from  Kentucky  is  right,  and  we  can  get  it  at  $25  in  Liverpool.  And  then 
we  will  have  to  pay  a  direct  tax  about  seven  times  as  much  as  our  present 
State  tax  on  our  lands,  our  horses,  mules,  cattle,  hogs,  and  sheep.  The 
people  prefer  that  the  railroads  pay  it  on  Bessemer  steel  rather  than  have 
direct  tax. 

The  very  fact  that  we  have  had  this  competition  here  has  compelled  them 
to  come  down  with  the  price  abroad,  and  if  we  had  not  the  competition  here 
we  could  not  get  it  at  any  such  price.  If  we  had  built  no  Bessemer  mills  in 
this  country  we  should  have  had  no  steel  delivered  here  at  $24  a  ton.  The 
difference  is  now  between  $24,  if  the  senator's  figures  are  right,  and  I  sup 
pose  they  are,  and  $38.50.  Well,  I  would  take  off  part  of  the  duty  on  that 
article,  and  I  would  still  make  the  railroads  that  use  Bessemer  steel  pay  part 
of  the  tariff,  pay  part  of  the  $250,000,000  that  somebody  has  to  pay. 

But  when  the  senator  asked  me  the  last  question  or  made  the  last  state 
ment,  I  was  going  to  refer  to  another  article  in  which  my  own  State  is  in 
terested.  Prior  to  the  war,  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  had  almost  a  monopoly 
of  the  rice  market.  Rice  at  that  day  did  not  sell  for  more  than  $2  per  hun 
dred  pounds.  There  was  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem  duty  upon  it.  We  had 
slave  labor,  and  we  made  it  almost  as  cheaply  as  the  Chinaman  and  the 
people  in  the  East  do,  and  we  had  a  monopoly  of  the  market.  Not  a  pound 
carne  in  at  20  per  cent.  Foreign  rice  at  that  time  could  not  compete. 

But  war  clouds  overshadowed  the  country,  and  the  contending  armies  met, 
and  the  blockade  closed  our  ports,  and  Southern  rice  was  not  permitted  to 
go  to  Northern  markets.  What  did  rice  go  up  to  in  the  United  States? 


APPENDIX.  749 

While  there  was  plenty  of  it  in  the  East,  in  China  and  other  countries,  with 
the  ports  thrown  open  to  it  at  $2  a  hundred,  it  could  not  come  because  the 
rice  raised  by  slave  labor  was  lower  than  that.  But  as  soon  as  the  Southern 
rice  was  cut  off,  and  no  longer  went  into  the  market  of  the  United  States, 
that  part  of  it  occupied  by  the  Union  government  and  armies,  it  rose  to  from 
$12  10  $14  per  hundred.  Why  did  not  the  foreigners  bring  it  in  and  kindly 
&ell  it  to  us  at  $4  a  hundred?  Because  war  had  crushed  the  production  in 
this  country,  and  they  at  once  took  advantage  of  our  necessity  to  run  the 
price  up  three  or  four  times  as  high  as  it  had  been  before. 

Since  the  war,  nothing  could  have  been  done  re-establishing  the  old  rice 
plantations  had  it  not  been  for  the  tariff,  because  now  under  the  present 
system  of  culture  the  foreign  rice-maker  gets  labor  at  a  cost  of  less  than  half 
what  we  can  get  it  for.  Drop  protection  and  that  industry  drops,  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  one  hundred  sixty  thousand  people  supported  by  the 
rice  culture  are  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  valuable  plantations  are 
thrown  back  into  the  forest.  What  has  been  the  result?  It  was  said  that 
the  tariff  on  rice  was  too  high.  The  result  has  riot  been  at  the  present  price 
to  prevent  it  from  coming  in.  But  nearly  half  of  all  the  rice  the  people  of 
the  United  States  now  use  is  imported,  and  it  came  down  in  1880  and  1881 
to  $±  '25  a  hundred. 

When  you  put  a  tariff  on  home  rice  and  protected  it  FO  that  the  business 
could  go  forward,  the  foreigner  dropped  the  price  of  his  rice  from  $14  a  hun 
dred,  which  he  could  no  longer  get,  and  he  now  makes  it  and  brings  it  here 
and  sells  it  to  us  at  $4.50  in  competition  with  the  home  rice. 

Therefore  it  is  idle  to  say,  if  we  want  to  talk  like  candid  men  on  these 
questions,  that  a  tariff  protecting  largely  any  industry  does  not  cause  capital 
to  be  invested  in  that  industry  and  build  it  up  so  that  it  can  after  a  while 
do  with  less  protection.  That  is  the  working  of  it  in  every  instance  almost 
where  you  trace  the  course  of  it  all  along  through  our  tariff  history.  Bes- 
senn>r  steel  is  one  instance,  and  rice  is  another  notable  instance. 

When  our  home  factories  did  not  make  the  Bessemer  steel  to  anything 
like  the  supply,  the  foreign  manufacturers  brought  it  here  and  sold  it  at  a 
price  laid  down  in  the  interior  of  Georgia  at  $130  a  ton.  We  protected  un 
reasonably,  as  it  seemed  at  the  time,  the  home  manufacturer  of  this  article, 
and  the  result  has  been  that  now  the  price  is  down  by  competition  among 
ourselves  to  $38.50  a  ton. 

Mr.  President,  I  hcmi  in  my  hand  the  statistics  of  the  imported  merchan 
dise  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1882,  and  1  see  that  the  whole  amount  of 
goods  imported  for  consumption  was  $716,000,000  worth.  Of  that  amount 
$210,000,000  came  in  on  the  free  list, — I  give  only  the  round  numbers ; 
$505,000,000  on  the  dutiable  list  paid  taxes;  $505,000,000  is  the  whole 
amount  of  dutiable  goods  imported  at  the  ports  of  the  United  States  for  the 
fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1882.  With  a  duty  of  40  per  cent,  ad  valorem 
that  would  produce  only  $202,000,000  revenue.  That  will  not  do.  You  are 
obliged  therefore  —  and  there  is  no  escape  from  the  statistics  —  if  next  year 
is  as  this  year,  to  put  an  average  tax  of  more  than  40  per  cent,  ad  valorem 
on  every  dollar's  worth  of  goods  imported  on  the  dutiable  list  to  raise 
$202,000,000.  You  must  have  at  least  $250,000,000  from  customs,  and  your 
internal  revenue  in  the  bargain. 

You  must  raise,  say,  $250,000,000  by  customs,  and  then  you  must  have  on 
all  dutiable  goods  imported  during  the  year,  if  there  be  the  same  quantity 
this  year,  a  tax  of  about  50  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  That  is  terrible  upon 
trace-chains  and  looking-glasses  and  shovels  and  picks  and  hoes  and  clothes 
and  hats  and  shoes  and  boots  and  other  articles.  The  people  could  abso 
lutely  get  them  for  50  per  cent,  less  than  they  do  if  there  was  no  tax.  If  we 


750  APPENDIX. 

did  not  have  to  support  this  Government  we  should  be  relieved  of  an  im 
mense  amount  of  taxation.  One  senator  spoke  of  the  very  high  taxation  ; 
that  it  is  50  per  cent,  or  40  per  cent.,  and  no  doubt  preferred  20  per  cent,  ad 
valorem.  Some  people  forget  that  we  have  to  support  the  Government,  and 
put  about  50  per  cent,  upon  every  dollar's  worth  that  is  imported,  that  is 
dutiable,  to  raise  the  amount  necessary,  which  we  are  obliged  to  have. 

How  are  you  going  to  raise  it?  Lower  all  these  duties  to  20  per  cent,  and 
see  whether  you  can  do  it.  I  know  that  the  advocates  of  extreme  free  trade 
will  not  raise  all  the  revenue  by  internal  taxation,  but  they  say  if  you  lower 
the  duties  the  effect  will  be  to  increase  the  quantity  imported.  Well,  I  sup 
pose  we  shall  not  import  much  more  or  much  less  than  we  need.  I  presume 
that  all  the  goods  needed  this  year  came  in ;  all  we  were  in  a  condition  to 
pay  for  came  in. 

It  is  true  that  by  lowering  the  tariff  to  a  point  where  you  cannot  get  the 
necessary  revenue  out  of  it.  you  can  destroy  home  industry.  If  you  reduce 
the  tariff  enough  to  greatl}7  stimulate  the  importation  so  as  to  destroy  our 
home  industries,  I  do  not  know  that  you  will  get  enough  from  it  to  make 
$250,000,000  a  year,  or  to  make,  as  I  think  it  ought  to  be,  with  the  internal- 
revenue  system  abolished,  the  entire  amount  of  $400,000,000  that  is  needed 
to  support  this  Government. 

I  sympathize  very  cordially  with  the  senators  on  this  floor  or  gentlemen 
anywhere  else  who  desire  to  see  to  it  that  full,  equal,  and  exact  justice  is 
done  to  the  people  and  that  no  unnecessary  burdens  are  saddled  upon  them. 
Hut  if  I  wrere  to  tell  the  country  that  all  the  taxes  upon  the  goods  bought  by 
the  poor  man  and  the  rich  man  and  everybody  who  consumes  are  an  unnec 
essary  burden,  I  should  feel  as  if  I  was  demagoging  a  little,  for  I  should  be 
keeping  back  from  them  another  important  statement  that  must  in  honesty 
and  fair  play  accompany  that,  that  if  you  did  not  pay  it  in  that  way  you 
would  have  to  pay  it  upon  your  property,  and  it  would  be  as  long  as  it  is 
broad  usually  and  as  broad  as  it  is  long  in  the  end.  There  would  be  a  differ 
ence  in  the  class  who  pay  it,  and  that  difference  under  the  system  of  collect 
ing  it  internally  would  be  against  the  farmer,  in  favor  of  the  gambler,  in  fa 
vor  of  the  rich  who  pay  most  of  the  tariff.  The  present  system  saddles  more 
of  it  on  the  rich  man  and  the  gambler. 

Take  an  illustration.  I  know  a  farmer  in  Georgia  who  is  worth  $20,000 
clear  of  indebtedness.  He  is  a  man  of  sense;  he  economizes  closely  ;  he  has 
good  land  and  a  good  deal  of  it ;  he  has  horses  and  m^les  and  cows  and  sheep 
and  hogs  and  all  property  which  a  man  in  that  condition  usually  draws  around 
him.  He  and  his  family  dress  very  plainly;  he  makes  almost  everything 
upon  the  plantation  that  he  needs;  buys  a  little  iron,  a  little  salt,  a  little 
sugar  and  coffee — what  we  call  strictly  the  necessaries  of  life;  and  he  pays  a 
very  small  proportion  of  the  taxes  to  support  this  Government  compared  with 
the  amount  of  property  he  owns.  I  know  a  gambler  in  Atlanta  who  is  not 
worth  $500  of  any  visible  property  but  is  one  of  the  finest  dressed  men  in 
town  every  time  you  see  him.  He  wears  gold  rings  upon  his  fingers  and  dia 
monds  upon  his  breast,  fine  boots,  hats — and  everything  he  wears  is  fine. 
That  man  under  the  tariff  pays  a  great  deal  more  of  the  taxes  that  now  sup 
port  this  Government  than  the  old  farmer  1  have  spoken  of  who  is  worth 
$20,000  in  property.  If  you  change  it  and  collect  it  by  the  internal-revenue 
system  or  direct  taxation  you  lift  the  burden  off  the  shoulder  of  the  gambler 
and  put  it  upon  the  shoulder  of  the  old  planter.  That  will  be  the  working 
of  it.  There  is  no  getting  away  from  facts,  and  those  are  the  facts  in  just 
such  instances  as  I  mention. 

I  would  vote  here,  as  a  rule,  to  exempt  from  the  tariff  almost  everything 
raised  abroad  that  we  do  not  produce  or  manufacture  in  this  country.  Take 


APPENDIX.  751 

as  an  illustration  tea  and  coffee.  Neither  is  raised  in  this  country,  and  we 
compete  with  nobody  on  these  articles,  and  a  tariff  upon  them  protects  no 
body.  I  would  keep  them  perpetually  on  the  free-list.  I  would  tax  sugar, 
although  it  is  used  as  generally  as  tea  and  coffee,  because  it  is  produced  in 
this  country,  and  I  would  give  the  laborers  who  produce  sugar  a  part  of  the 
benefit  of  the  protection  that  the  $250,000,000  or  $300,000,OuO  which  we  have 
to  raise  is  obliged  to  give  somebody. 

The  great  problem  to  my  mind  is  how  to  properly  adjust  this  burden  and 
how  properly  to  divide  this  protection.  I  would  make  some  exceptions  to 
the  rule  1  have  just  laid  down.  There  are  certain  articles  of  luxury,  u*ed  by 
the  rich  alone,  made  abroad  that  we  do  not  compete  with  that  I  would  make 
pay  a  high  tariff  and  bear  that  much  of  the  burdens  of  the  Government; 
but  unless  there  was  something  of  that  character  while  you  relieve  the  com 
mon  people  and  the  poor  people  entirely,  I  would  in  every  instance  put  the 
tariff  on  that  which  would  protect  some  American  industry  or  American  re 
source.  In  other  words,  I  would  give  the  preference  to  the  labor  of  my  own 
country  rather  than  the  labor  of  a  foreign  country.  I  would  relieve  as  far 
as  possible  all  the  laboring  mas&es  of  this  country  by  placing  the  tariff  on  the 
goods  they  produce  by  their  labor  in  preference  to  that  which  is  not  produced 
by  American  labor.  And  in  taking  that  position  1  do  not  depart  from  the 
traditions  of  the  fathers ;  I  stand  squarely  on  the  old  Democratic  platform 
prior  to  the  war,  and  I  will  not  be  driven  from  it  no  matter  how  many  new 
lights  there  may  be  who  have  concluded  that  they  may  do  better  than  that 
by  protecting  foreign  labor  against  home  labor. 

The  position  of  tiie  Democratic  party  then  was  a  tariff  for  revenue  with 
incidental  protection  to  American  labor,  raising  no  more  money  than  was  ab 
solutely  necessary  to  an  economical  administration  of  this  Government. 
There  is  precisely  where  I  stood  then.  The  first  vote  I  ever  cast  for  a  Pres 
idential  candidate  was  for  Mr.  Polk  on  that  very  platform.  There  1  have 
stood  ever  since,  and  there  I  intend  to  stand  with  my  feet  firmly  fixed  upon 
that  platform.  We  triumphed  on  that  platform  before  the  war,  and  I  tell 
my  Democratic  friends  here  that  when  we  again  triumph  it  will  have  to  be 
upon  that  platform.  It  is  the  old  Democratic  platform,  and  I  invite  my 
Democratic  friends  who  have  wandered  from  it  to  return  to  it  again.  You 
cauuot  succeed  in  a  Presidential  campaign  if  the  people  of  this  country  are 
satisfied  that  you  are  antagonistic  in  your  feelings'and  your  action  to  Ameri 
can  production  and  American  labor,  and  that  you  are  willing  to  put  foreign 
productions  aud  foreign  labor  in  a  condition  of  preference  to  home  produc 
tions  and  home  labor.  There  ate  too  many  laborers  interested  in  this  ques 
tion  for  any  party  to  succeed  upon  such  a  platform. 

I  have  noticed  the  capital  ma'le  by  our  Republican  friends  on  the  other 
side  of  this  Chamber  out  of  this  question  ;  and  while  they  go  as  I  think  to  the 
extreme,  and  I  do  not  agree  with  them,  especially  with  that  portion  of  them 
who  say  that  they  are  for  protection  tor  protection's  sake,  yet  I  saw  enough 
in  the  last  Presidential  campaign,  when  we  went  before  the  people  of  these 
United  States  upon  the  platform  of  a  tariff  for  revenue  only,  saying  nothing 
about  incidental  protection,  throwing  aside  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  fathers 
of  the  Democracy  of  former  days — I  say  I  saw  enough  of  the  effect  then 
in  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey  and  Indiana  and  probably  in  other  States 
to  convince  me  that  you  will  never  carry  them  again  on  any  such  platform, 
and  you  will  never  succeed  without  them  or  part  of  them. 

We  may  say  what  we  will  about  it,  we  may  appeal  to  the  prejudices  of  the 
people  as  much  as  we  will  and  say,  You  are  paying  2*',  30,  40,  50,  60,  or  70 
per  cent,  upon  goods,  and  you  would  get  them  a  great  deal  cheaper  if  we 
had  no  tariff,  but  you  cannot  mislead  the  people  of  this  country  on  this 


752  APPENDIX. 

question.  They  underst*  od  it,  the  capital  of  the  country  understands  it,  the 
manufacturers  understand  it.  i he  bankers  and  capitalists  of  every  class  un 
derstand  it,  the  laborers  understand  it.  They  know  there  has  to  be  a  fund 
raised  by  taxation  to  support  this  Government,  and  they  are  intelligent 
enough  to  understand  that  it  has  to  he  done  either  by  tariff  on  imports  or  by 
internal  taxation,  where  it  comes  right  home  to  everybody. 

Under  the  tariff  system  it  is  an  indirect  tax,  the  larger  portion  of  it  paid 
by  the  wealthier  class,  and  those  who  consume  most  of  the  fine  goods.  And 
being  indirect,  no  one  seems  to  IVel  it  as  they  would  a  direct  levy  of  the 
amount  upon  that  property  at  home.  Unless  the  appropriations  can  he 
greatly  reduced,  we  are  obliged  to  raise  about  $400,000,000  this  year;  $2.~>0,- 
000,000  of  that  by  tariff  as  heretofore,  and  the  rest  by  the  internal-revenue 
system  unless  we  repeal  it.  If  we  repudiate  this  principle,  and  levy  the 
whole  by  a  direct  tax,  then  we  have  to  raise  $100.000,000  by  internal  taxation 
alone.  As  matters  now  stand  Georgia's  share  of  this  would  be  about  $10,- 
000,000  annually,  which  the  tax-gatherers  would  collect  from  our  people. 
Senators  here  have  talked  about  taxes  upon  the  plow,  and  the  hoe,  and  the 
trace-chain,  and  other  articles  purchased  by  the  farmer.  If  we  adopt  the  in 
ternal-revenue  system  for  raising  the  whole  amount  which  each  State  will 
have  to  pay,  each  citizen  will  have  to  pay  seven  or  eight  times  as  much  tax 
in  gold  each  year  to  support  the  Federal  Government  as  he  now  pays  to  sup 
port  the  State  Government.  Then  a  heavy  tax  would  be  assessed  upon  the 
land,  the  horses,  the  mules,  the  cows,  the  hogs,  the  sheep  and  the  goats,  and 
the  plows  and  the  hoes,  and  the  spades  and  the  trace-chains,  and  the  picks 
and  the  shovels,  and  even  the  skillets  of  our  people.  The  senator  or  repre 
sentative  who  by  his  vote  adopts  this  principle,  if  it  should  ever  become  a 
law,  will  meet  among  his  constituents  a  storm  of  indignation  such  as  he  lias 
never  before  witnes.-ed. 

Instead  of  raising  this  immense  amount  by  direct  taxation  upon  all  the 
property  of  the  people,  let  it  be  raised  as  our  fathers  raised  it,  by  a  tariff. 
And  in  laying  the  tariff  let  it  be  so  adjusted  as  to  raise  the  necessary  revenue 
upon  imports,  and  at  the  same  time  afford  incidental  protection  to  American 
industry.  You  cannot  raise  $250.000,000  on  imported  articles  consumed  in 
the  United  States  without  giving  $250,000  000  of  protection  to  somebody.  I 
would  so  distribute  the  protection  as  to  give  part  of  it  to  manufactured  arti 
cles  of  cotton  and  wool  and  silk,  of  iron  and  ^teel  and  the  ores  that  support 
them,  and  part  among  other  manufactures.  And  I  would  distribute  part  of 
it  among  the  wool-growers,  the  hemp-growers,  the  flax-growers,  the  tobacco- 
growers,  the  fruit-growers,  the  sugar-growers,  the  rice -growers,  the  shep 
herds,  and  the  herdsmen.  In  a  word,  I  would  so  distribute  it  as  to  protect 
as  far  as  possible  against  foreign  productions  and  foreign  labor  all  the  pro- 
el  ictions  and  all  the  labor  of  all  the  producing  and  laboring  classes  of  the 
United  States.  I  would  put  upon  the  free-list  generally,  as  already  stated, 
such  foreign  productions  as  we  do  not  raise  and  such  foreign  manufactures 
as  we  cannot  compete  with,  and  raise  the  amount  of  money  we  need  upon 
such  articles  as  we  do  raise  and  such  manufactures  as  we  make. 

\Ve  have  to  raise  the  amount  of  money  necessary  to  support  the  Govern 
ment,  and  what  we  raise  upon  one  class  of  articles  we  do  not  have  to  put  up 
on  another.  Therefore  I  prefer  the  first  plan,  that  is  to  raise  the  revenue 
by  tariff.  And  I  will  go  further  and  say  that  I  entertain  no  doubt  that 
nine-tenths  of  the  voters  of  this  country  prefer  that  plan,  and  no  party  can 
succeed  at  a  general  election  that  does  not  support  the  lirst  plan. 

Mr.  President,  I  want  to  discuss  this  question  fairly.  I  shall  resort  to  no 
anecdote,  nothing  to  amuse  you.  If  my  premises  are  unsound  or  my  argu 
ment  is  unsound,  of  course  the  senate  will  ste  it  at  once  and  it  will  be  met 


APPENDIX.  753 

with  a  successful  reply.  If  my  position  is  impregnable  there  will  be  no  reply. 
But  I  desire  to  discuss  the  question  on  principle.  We  have  to  meet  it  on 
principle  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion,  and  we  had  better  take  a  proper  posi 
tion  upon  it. 

Now,  as  to  the  details  of  this  bill  there  are  many  of  them  that  I  do  not  like. 
Some  I  will  vote  for  ;  some  I  will  not  vote  for.  I  do  not  know  yet  whether 
I  shall  vote  for  the  bill  or  whether  I  shall  vote  against  it.  I  have  no  idea 
it  will  be  anything  like  a  perfect  bill.  We  have  seen  enough  to  know  that 
we  have  stricken  down  the  tariff  on  certain  articles  very  low.  For  instance, 
on  the  motion  of  my  friend  the  senator  from  Texas  [Mr.  Coke],  the  other 
day,  when  he  proposed  to  reduce  glue,  I  believe  it  was,  to  10  per  cent,  ad 
valorem.  I  voted  for  it  because  his  State  produces  more  horns  and  hoofs  out 
of  which  it  is  made  than  any  other  State  in  the  Union,  and  if  he  and  his 
colleague  were  satisfied  with  that  I  would  vote  for  it,  though  now  glue  is 
40  per  cent,  below  the  average  ad  valorem  that  it  takes  to  support  this  Gov 
ernment. 

While  glue  is  at  10  per  cent,  ad  valorem  other  articles  must  pay  40,  50,  80, 
or  100  per  cent.  It  is  an  exceedingly  delicate  affair  to  take  up  this  bill,  or 
any  other  bill,  and  so  adjust  all  the  details  as  to  give  just  such  a  tariff  as 
ought  to  be  given  in  the  case  of  each  particular  article.  No  committee  can 
do  it,  and  I  presume  no  legislative  assembly  can  do  it.  Something  will  be 
wrong.  There  will  be  some  inequality.  Therefore,  the  very  best  we  can  do 
is  an  approximation  to  what  is  right.  We  may  make  some  mistakes  in  these 
details  in  voting  on  particular  articles.  I  may  have  voted  for  too  high  a  tariff 
on  certain  articles  and  for  too  low  on  others  in  the  opinion  of  other  senators. 
Doubtless  I  have.  All  of  it  does  not  suit  me ;  but  I  intend  to  do  the  .best  I 
can,  voting  on  each  question  as  it  comes  up  after  it  has  been  discussed,  to 
perfect  the  bill  as  nearly  as  possible. 

When  it  is  done  we  shall  have  much  to  find  fault  with;  but  it  is  one  step 
in  the  right  direction.  The  present  tariff  is  unequal,  unjust,  and  in  some 
respects  iniquitous ;  it  wants  modification  and  change ;  the  revenues  of  the 
Government  are  such  that  they  will  bear  reduction,  and  reduction  ought  to 
be  made ;  and  if  it  will  not  meet  the  expenses,  then  we  must  reduce  the  ex 
penditures  until  it  will  meet  them.  But  still  the  question  comes  back  on 
the  details,  how  low  are  you  going  to  arrange  it?  If  vou  put  50  per  cent, 
ad  valorem  on  everything,  which  is  about  the  amount  it  would  take  on  all 
the  goods  imported  for  consumption  which  were  dutiable  last  year,  you  do 
not  do  justice. 

Some  of  the  New  England  spinners,  who  have  had  protection  for  forty  or 
fifty  years,  do  not  need  50  per  cent.  now.  They  have  been  rocked  in  this 
cradle  long  enough.  They  are  no  longer  little  children.  They  have  gone 
through  the  period  of  youth  ;  they  are  approximating  the  period  of  vigorous 
manhood ;  they  have  machinery  now,  many  of  them,  that  is  equal  probably 
to  the  best  anywhere ;  they  have  skilled  labor  that  is  almost  as  good,  as  you 
can  find  in  Europe,  and  probably  much  of  it  is  as  good ;  it  costs  a  little 
higher,  and  that  is  the  greatest  difficulty.  But  some  of  them  neither  ask  nor 
expect  50  per  cent.,  nor  are  they  entitled  to  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  take  a  struggling  interest  in  the  South — any  of  those 
we  are  trying  to  build  up ;  if  you  put  50  per  cent,  on  that  and  50  per  cent, 
on  New  England,  the  one  in  its  infancy  and  the  other  in  its  manhood,  you 
do  not  do  justice  between  them.  We  have  reached  the  point  now  where 
the  South  sees  some  prospect.  New  England  has  had  protection  for  half  a 
century.  She  has  risen  to  that  point  where  she  will  soon  be  able  to  take 
care  of  herself.  I  would  take  off  part  of  that  tariff  and  I  would  put  it 
on  where  it  is  more  needed. 
48 


754  APPENDIX. 

These  are  my  views  generally  on  this  question.  There  are  many  detafls 
that  I  should  like  to  go  into  that  neither  the  time  of  the  senate  nor  my 
strength  will  permit  me  to  do.  This  is  the  general  outline  of  my  position  on 
the  tariff.  Acting  on  the  principles  I  have  laid  down,  I  shall  vote  in  the  case 
of  each  particular  item  here  as  I  think  most  just  under  all  the  circumstances; 
so  distribute  the  protection  as  to  build  up  the  weak  that  need  fostering,  and 
withdraw  protection  as  much  as  may  be  from  the  strong  that  do  not  need  it. 
Taking  this  view,  I  desire  to  say  but  little  on  the  iron  question.  Ifc  is  a 
question  in  which  I  have  some  interest  myself,  and  therefore  it  is  not  proper 
that  I  should  say  much,  but,  as  one  of  the  senators  from  Georgia,  it  is  my 
duty  to  speak  for  her. 

Therefore,  unpleasant  or  perhaps  improper  as  it  may  be  for  me  to  discuss 
that  question,  as  I  am  interested  in  it,  I  desire  to  say  that  Georgia  and  Ala 
bama  and  Tennessee  and  South  Carolina  and  North  Carolina  and  Virginia 
are  immensely  interested  in  that  question.  Some  of  the  greatest  deposits  of 
iron  on  the  face  of  the  earth  are  found  in  those  States.  All  we  need  is  devel 
opment,  and  some  of  the  fruits  that  protection  has  given  in  the  case  of  Besse 
mer  steel  in  reducing  prices  down  two-thirds  will  be  felt  probably  in  a  similar 
degree  there.  I  do  not  mean  that  there  will  be  two-thirds  reduction  upon 
present  prices,  however,  because  that  would  be  clear  below  the  point  of  pro 
duction. 

But  what  I  do  mean  is  that  we  can  build  up  by  a  judicious  system  an  immense 
interest  there  with  immense  power  for  the  future  and  immense  wealth  to 
that  section.  What  made  England  wealthy  and  powerful  as  she  is  to-day  ? 
Many  causes,  you  may  say,  but  what  was  probably  the  leading  one?  What 
probably  did  more  to  develop  her  power  and  her  immense  strength  than 
any  other  thing?  Her  iron  interest  and  her  coal  interest  fully  developed ; 
immense  amounts  of  capital  have  been  put  into  it ;  the  development  has 
been  carried  to  the  highest  point,  and  it  has  given  her  a  power  and  a  prestige 
that  is  beyond  comparison ;  and  while  she  was  formerly  one  of  the  strongest 
protection  powers  in  the  world — she  even  required  her  dead  to  be  buried  in 
woolens,  to  protect  the  woolen  interest — she  has  built  up  her  great  interests 
by  protection  till,  like  the  Bessemer  steel  men,  now  she  can  go  before  the 
world,  throw  her  ports  open,  and  undersell  everybody.  The  South  cannot 
for  a  long  time  reach  the  position  England  has  reached,  but  we  have  a  great 
deal  more  coal,  a  great  deal  more  iron,  in  the  three  States  of  Tennessee, 
Georgia,  and  Alabama  than  there  is  all  told  in  the  islands  of  Great  Britain. 

I  recollect  three  or  four  years  ago  when  Mr.  Bell,  president  of  the  Iron 
and  Steel  Association  of  Great  Britain,  visited  that  section  and  inspected 
our  iron  and  coal  resources.  While  riding  with  him  on  the  railroad  train  I 
said  to  him,  "  Mr.  Bell,  I  have  never  had  the  pleasure  to  visit  your  country : 
I  know  the  great  power  that  you  derive  from  the  great  coal  and  iron  interests 
and  deposits  of  Great  Britain  ;  how  do  yours  compare  in  quantity  with  what 
you  have  seen  in  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Tennessee  ?  "  His  reply,  in  a  quick 
nervous  manner,  was,  "  Ours  is  a  speck,  sir,  a  mere  speck  compared  with 
yours."  We  have  six  times,  probably  ten  times  as  much  mineral  wealth  in 
the  section  that  I  now  refer  to  as  Great  Britain  had  before  a  pick  was  ever 
used  on  her  deposit. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  wise  to  adopt  a  policy  in  our  tariff  laws  or  any  other 
legislation  that  crushes  out  that  interest  and  invites  the  products  of  this  im 
mense  English  capital  and  English  labor  to  come  in  here  and  occupy  this  field 
with  their  productions  and  take  charge  of  it.  If  you  will  put  a  rate  of  tariff  on 
iron  low  enough  to  stop  the  furnaces  of  the  United  States,  how  long  do  you 
suppose  it  will  be  before  iron  brought  from  England  to  this  country,  like  rice 
brought  from  Asia  here  in  1862,  will  go  up  one,  two,  or  three  fold?  It  is  the 


APPENDIX.  755 

fact  that  you  produce  it  here  in  immense  quantities  and  stimulate  direct  com 
petition  among  yourselves  and  meet  them  with  competition  that  keeps  down 
the  price  to  the  consumer.  Blot  out  the  furnaces  and  rolling-mills  of  this 
country,  and  then  look  out  for  your  trace-chains  and  all  your  other  iron  arti 
cles  that  have  been  mentioned,  and  you  will  soon  feel  the  weight  of  English 
power  upon  your  prosperity.  You  had  better  not  do  it,  in  my  opinion. 

Now,  a  word  in  reference  to  the  pending  question,  and  I  have  done.  This  is  a 
proposition  to  put  a  tariff  on  iron  ore,  as  I  understand  it.  The  present  rate  on 
iron  ore  is  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  which  amounts  to  56  cents  and  a  fraction 
per  ton.  This  bill  proposes  to  lower  that  rate,  as  it  is  reported  by  the  commit 
tee,  6  and  a  fraction  cents  per  ton.  I  think  it  would  be  unwise  to  do  ifc. 
As  I  see  by  a  statement  made  by  the  chairman  of  the  national  executive  com 
mittee  of  the  iron-ore  producers,  there  are  in  three  or  four  mines  on  Lake 
Superior  16,000  persons  engaged  in  this  business,  supporting  about  50,000 
people.  I  speak  of  that  particular  locality ;  I  have  not  the  statistics  at  hand 
about  any  other.  They  have  invested  in  the  Marquette  district,  as  the  sta 
tistics  here  state,  133,000,000,  and  in  the  Menomonee  district  $18,000,000 ; 
making  $51,000,000  invested  there  in  mining  alone.  Then  they  have  built, 
as  is  stated,  three  railroads  there  simply  for  the  purpose  of  hauling  this  ore 
to  the  iron  furnaces  at  different  places",  mostly  toward  Pennsylvania  and  in 
the  West.  Those  railroads,  that  are  used  for  scarcely  anything  else  except 
the  transportation  of  iron  ore,  have  cost,  one  $19,000,000  in  round  numbers, 
making  a  total  investment  for  working  th«  ore  in  those  two  districts  alone 
$»  1,000,000.  There  are  other  portions  of  the  country  where  there  are  very 
large  operations  of  this  character  going  on.  I  suppose  I  might  say  on  a  sort 
of  guess,  for  I  have  not  the  data  before  me,  that  there  are  $200,000,000  now 
invested  in  the  United  States  in  the  iron-ore  business,  and  it  maintains  over 
100,000  people.  I  do  not  want  to  strike  down  that  interest.  While  it  may 
be  true  that  it  is  not  in  the  interior,  but  on  the  lakes,  I  want  to  take  in  the 
whole  country  in  a  broad  view  of  this  subject.  Therefore  I  vote  for  the 
amount  that  was  fixed  by  the  pig-iron  convention  at 

Mr.  Sherman.  I  happen  to  know,  as  the  senator  is  looking  for  the  recom 
mendation  of  the  convention  of  all  the  iron  manufacturers,  that  they  agreed 
after  a  full  conference,  all  the  parties  interested 

Mr.  Brown.     On  85  cents  a  ton. 

Mr.  Sherman.     They  agreed  finally  on  85  cents  unanimously. 

Mr.  Brown.     I  was  looking  for  the  place  where  that  convention  was  held. 

Mr.  Sherman.     Eighty-five  cents  a  ton  for  the  ore. 

Mr.  Brown.  There  were  but  two  concerns  in  the  United  States  that  ob 
jected  to  that,  as  it  is  stated  here,  and  one  of  them 

Mr.  Sherman.  It  was  the  Bessemer  Steel  Works  that  objected  to  it,  and 
some  other  company.  They  will  be  found  in  the  testimony  taken  before  the 
tariff  commission,  if  it  is  desired. 

Mr.  Brown.  It  was  two  of  the  Pennsylvania  steel  works,  as  I  remember — 
I  do  not  recollect  the  names  and  I  cannot  turn  to  them  at  this  minute — but  of 
all  the  pig-iron  manufacturers  of  the  United  States  in  convention,  after  fully 
discussing  this  question,  there  were  none  who  objected  to  85  cents ;  there  were 
but  the  two  concerns  of  any  character,  and  those  were  two  large  steel  mills, 
that  objected  to  it.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  manufacturers  of  pig-iron  ought 
to  be  pretty  fair  judges,  when  they  meet  in  convention  and  when  they  have 
to  buy  the  ore,  of  what  the  laborer  ought  to  have  for  the  ore  delivered  at  the 
furnaces.  And  as  they  have  all  settled  upon  85  cents  per  ton  tariff  and  no 
manufacturer  of  pig-iron  objects  to  it,  I  am  willing  to  vote  to  give  to  these 
laborers  the  85  cents  per  ton,  which  is  a  rise  on  the  present  rate  of  from  56 
and  a  fraction  to  85  cents.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  reasonable  and  little 


756  APPENDIX. 

enough,  and  therefore  I  shall  vote,  when  we  reach  that  proposition,  for  the 
amount  of  tariff  that  was  agreed  upon  by  that  convention  as  proper  for  the 
protection  of  those  engaged  in  furnishing  iron  ore. 


ARGUMENT  OF  Ex-Gov.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  IN  1866,  ON  THE  UNCON- 
ST1TUTIONALITY  OF  THE  TEST  OATH  AS  APPLIED  TO  ATTORNKYS- 
AT-LAW  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  DISTRICT  COURT  AT  SAVANNAH,  ON 
THE  MOTION  OF  HON.  WlLLIAM  LAW,  WHO  APPLIED  TO  BE  PERMITTED 
TO  RESUME  HIS  PRACTICE  IN  THE  COURT  WITHOUT  TAKING  THE  OATH. 
HON.  JOHN  ERSKINE  PRESIDING  IN  SAID  COURT. 

This  argument  was  one  of  the  first  rnade  in  the  South  upon  the  unconstitutionally 
of  the  test  oath.  As  will  be  seen  by  its  perusal,  it  takes  almost  the  identical  positions 
assumed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  at  a  later  period  when  they 
adjudged  the  test  oath  unconstitutional.  In  the  case  of  Judge  Law,  Judge  Erskine  in 
an  able  opinion  held  the  act  to  be  unconstitutional,  and  admitted  Judge  Law  and  the 
other  attorneys  to  practice  in  his  court.  The  decision  afterwards  made  by  the 
Supreme  Court  was  almost  identical  with  that  made  by  Judge  Erskine  at  that  early 
period. 

In  the  United  States  District  Court,  Judge  Erskine,  according  to  appointment,  heard 
the  arguments  of  Judge  Law  and  Ex-Gov.  Joseph  E.  Brown  upon  the  unconstitution 
ally  of  the  Test  Oath  as  applicable  to  lawyers,  the  question  having  arisen  from  the 
motion  of  the  Hon.  William  Law,  to  be  permitted  to  continue  his  practice  in  the 
court  in  which  he  had  practiced  for  forty-nine  years,  without  taking  the  oath. 

Gov.  Brown  said  : 
May  it  please  Your  Honor: 

I  am  well  aware  of  the  great  importance  of  the  question  now  under  con 
sideration.  He  who  denies  the  validity  of  a  solemn  act  of  Congress  on 
account  of  its  unconstitutionality,  should  do  so  with  deference  and  respect 
for  the  department  of  the  government  by  which  it  is  enacted,  as  well  as  for 
the  judicial  tribunal  which  is  asked  to  declare  it  null  and  void.  I  trust  I 
approach  this  question  in  a  proper  spirit,  and  with  proper  motives.  In  what 
I  have  to  say  I  state  in  advance  that  it  is  not  my  intention  to  reflect  in  the 
slightest  degree  upon  the  conduct  or  to  question  the  motives  of  any  officer  of 
the  government.  After  the  scenes  of  anarchy  and  confusion  through  which 
we  have  passed,  I  feel  much  gratified  to  see  military  rule  once  more  give  place 
to  civil,  and  to  see  the  courts  once  more  thrown  open  for  the  redress  of  griev 
ances  and  the  general  administration  of  justice.  I  trust  they  may  never 
again  be  compelled  to  give  place  to  military  tribunals  or  military  rule.  Of 
the  peace  and  quiet  which  is  being  restored  to  the  country,  I  would  say  as 
the  great  English  commentator  says  of  his  government,  Esto  perpetua  !  In 
the  discussion  of  this  question  I  am  satisfied  that  reason  and  authority  are 
more  in  demand  than  declamation  or  even  eloquence.  If  I  possessed  the  lat 
ter,  which  I  do  not  claim,  this  is  not  the  proper  occasion  for  its  display.  As 
I  have  copied  most  of  the  authorities  which  I  cite  literally,  and  as  they  are 
numerous  and  I  have  not  access  at  present  to  some  of  the  books  from  which 
they  are  taken,!  shall  read  them,  with  the  exception  of  some  three  or  four, 
from  the  manuscript  copy  which  I  have  before  me. 

It  is  solemnly  declared  in  the  great  charter  of  English  liberty  that :  "No 
freeman  shall  be  taken,  imprisoned,  or  disseized  of  his  freehold  or  liberties, 
or  free  customs,  or  be  outlawed  or  exiled,  or  otherwise  destroyed  or  con 
demned,  but  by  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land." 

Judge  Blackstone  says  of  this  provision  in  the  great  charter,  that  it  pro 
tected  every  individual  of  the  nation  in  the  free  enjoyment  of  his  life,  his 
liberty,  and  his  property,  unless  declared  to  be  forfeited  by  the  judgment  of  his 


APPENDIX.  757 

peers,  or  the  law  of  the  land.  [Com  vol.  4,  page  424.]  Again,  in  vol.  1,  page 
139,  he  says :  "  And  by  a  variety  of  ancient  statutes  it  is  enacted  that  no 
man's  lands  or  goods  shall  be  seized  into  the  king's  hands  against  the  great 
charter  and  the  law  of  the  laud  ;  and  that  no  man  shall  be  disinherited,  nor 
put  out  of  franchises  or  freehold,  unless  he  be  duty  brought  to  ansiver,  and  be 
forejudged  by  course  of  law ;  and  if  anything  be  done  to  the  contrary  it  shall 
be  redressed  and  holden  for  none." 

Mr.  Vattel,  in  his  standard  work  upon  the  law  of  nations,  page  33,  while 
tre  iting  of  the  principal  objects  of  good  governmanf,  says :  "  The  society  is 
established  with  a  view  of  procuring  to  those  who  are  its  members,  the  neces 
saries,  conveniences,  and  even  pleasures  of  life,  and  in  general  everything 
liecessary  to  their  happiness — of  enabling  each  individual  peaceably  to  enjoy 
his  own  property,  and  to  obtain  justice  with  safety  and  certainty."  " 

Again,  he  says :  "  The  State  ought  to  encourage  labor,  to  animate  industry, 
to  excite  abilities,  to  propose  honors,  rewards,  privileges,  and  so  to  order  mat 
ters  that  every  one  may  live  by  his  industry." 

It  is  laid  down  in  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  as  a  self-evi 
dent  truth,  that  all  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalien 
able  rights  ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness; 
that  to  secure  these  rights  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

By  the  above  quotations  and  others  that  might  be  added,  which  are  doubt 
less  familiar  to  your  Honor,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  celebrated  charter  of 
English  liberty,  the  language  of  the  great  European  author,  and  the  Ameri 
can  Declaration  of  Independence,  all  concur  in  laying  down  as  fundamental 
principles,  which  underlie  the  structure  of  good  government  in  every  free 
state,  which  no  legislative  body  has  a  right  to  ignore,  disregard  or  violate ; 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  government  not  only  to  encourage  labor  and  stimu 
late  industry,  but  to  so  order  matters  that  every  man  may  live  by  his  indus 
try.  The  pursuit  of  happiness  in  every  innocent  manner  agreeable  to  his 
inclinations  ;  the  exercise  of  honest  industry  in  any  trade  or  profession 
which  he  may  select  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  a  livelihood  ;  the  acquisi 
tion  of  property  by  his  labor,  and  the  protection  by  government  of  his  life, 
liberty,  person  and  property  against  every  illegal  or  unjust  violation  or  inva 
sion,  are  inherent  inalienable  rights  of  the  citizen  or  subject,  which  no  gov 
ernment  can  disregard  or  violate  without  incurring  the  just  censure  of 
enlightened  reason  for  the  exercise  of  tyranny  and  oppression.  But  if  the 
legislative  department  of  the  government,  no  matter  by  what  motive  it  may 
be  actuated,  should  so  far  transcend  the  proper  boundaries  which  have  been 
prescribed  to  its  authority,  as  to  invade  these  sacred  rights,  protected  as  they 
are  by  a  law  higher  than  its  enactments,  it  is  the  pride  of  our  system,  that  an 
independent  judiciary,  whose  duty  it  is  to  hold  the  scales  of  justice  in  equi 
poise,  as  well  between  the  citizen  and  the  government  as  between  citizen  and 
citizen,  will  vindicate  the  majesty  of  the  law,  and  maintain  the  good  faith  and 
justice  of  the  government,  by  declaring  all  such  enactments  as  violate  the 
fundamental  law,  inoperative,  null  and  void. 

Let  us  apply  these  great  principles  to  the  case  now  before  your  Honor. 
An  attorney  of  this  court,  whose  name  has  appeared  upon  the  rolls  as  an  offi 
cer  of  court  for  nearly  fifty  years,  whose  private  and  professional  character 
are  of  the  most  elevated  rank ;  who  has  filled  with  distinction  the  position  of 
a  judge ;  who  was  a  Union  man  as  long  as  there  was  a  possibility  of  prevent 
ing  the  rupture;  who  never  bore  arms  against  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  or  held  office  under  the  Confederate  States ;  who  has  violated  no  rule 
of  the  common  law ;  committed  no  contempt,  of  court ;  collected  no  money 
which  he  has  refused  to  pay  over ;  acted  in  bad  faith  to  no  client ;  nor  has 


758  APPENDIX. 

he  been  charged,  indicted,  or  convicted  under  any  penal  law  of  this  State,  or 
of  the  United  States ;  and  who  has  received  a  full  pardon  from  the  President 
of  the  United  States  for  any  and  every  act  which  might,  even  by  implication, 
be  construed  as  a  violation  of  the  law,  because  he  cannot  take  a  test  oath  that 
he  never  "aided,  counselled,  countenanced,  or  encouraged"  any  one  who  bore 
arms  against  the  United  States,  is  to  be  driven  from  the  bar  unless  your 
Honor  can  protect  his  rights  by  the  decision  which  you  may  feel  it  your  duty 
to  pronounce  in  this  case. 

While  he  refuses  to  take  the  test  oath,  who  says  he  has  been  guilty  of 
rebellion,  or  treason,  or  other  crime  or  misdemeanor,  prohibited  by  any  law 
of  the  United  States  ?  What  officer  of  the  government  stands  here  as  his 
accuser,  and  upon  what  charge  and  specifications  ?  What  provision  of  the* 
penal  code  has  he  violated,  and  when  and  where  did  he  do  it,  and  who  are 
the  witnesses  against  him  ?  What  grand  jury  has  indicted  him,  and  upon 
what  charge?  What  petit  jury  has  found  him  guilty  ?  What  judge  has  pro 
nounced  sentence  upon  him,  and  when  was  it  done,  and  where  is  the  record  ? 

One  of  the  fundamental  maxims  of  the  common  law  which  has  been 
approved  by  the  ablest  jurists  and  sanctioned  by  the  wisdom  of  ages  is,  that 
every  man  shall  be  presumed  to  be  innocent  till  the  contrary  is  proven.  The 
attorney  is  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  this  salutary  rule.  He  stands  before 
you  to-day  as  did  the  woman,  over  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  before  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth,  with  no  accuser,  and  I  trust  the  judgment  of  your 
Honor  will  be :  neither  do  I  accuse  thee.  He  stands  with  the  presumption 
of  innocence  in  his  favor,  and  as  no  proof  is  offered  to  the  contrary  that  pre 
sumption  becomes  conclusive.  How  then  is  this  court  to  punish  him  by  the 
forfeiture  of  his  property  in  his  profession,  and  by  taking  from  him  his 
means  of  livelihood,  for  the  commission  of  an  offence  of  which  the  presump 
tion  of  innocence,  by  a  rule  of  law  which  you  cannot  disregard,  is  conclusive 
in  his  favor  ?  Such  a  proceeding  would  not  only  violate  the  great  principles 
of  Magna  Charta,  but  would  be  subversive  of  the  very  foundations  upon  which 
our  system  of  government  rests.  In  place  of  the  salutary  rule  above  men 
tioned,  which  has  been  consecrated  by  the  wisdom  of  ages,  it  would  establish 
the  contrary  one  that  every  man  is  presumed  to  be  guilty  of  a  criminal  viola 
tion  of  the  law  till  he  proves  his  own  innocence.  If  he  has  been  guilty  of  no 
crime,  all  must  agree  that  he  should  suffer  no  penalty  or  forfeiture.  The 
very  fact  that  it  is  proposed  to  forfeit  his  right  to  practice  his  profession  for 
his  support — presupposes,  contrary  to  the  truth,  that  his  guilt  has  been  estab 
lished  before  a  court  of  competent  jurisdiction.  Otherwise  the  forfeiture  is 
an  unwarrantable  and  defenceless  violation  of  the  great  principles  of  organic 
law,  laid  down  by  the  high  authorities  which  I  have  quoted,  and  recognized 
by  every  enlightened  jurist  who  has  lived  under  free  institutions,  in  every 
age. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  large  numbers  of  persons,  and  among  them  many 
lawyers,  have  been  guilty  of  treason,  or  of  encouraging  rebellion  against  the 
Government  of  the  United  States;  and  that  Congress  has  adopted  this  mode 
of  compelling  each  to  discover  under  oath  whether  he  is  one  of  the  number ; 
and  if  he  refuses  to  make  the  discovery,  that  he  shall  be  presumed  to  be 
guilty,  and  the  confiscation  of  his  property  in  his  profession  shall  be  the  pen 
alty.  Truly,  this  is  what  Congress  has  attempted  to  do,  but  upon  what  princi 
ple  and  by  what  right  V  If  he  has  been  guilty  of  a  crime  it  is  the  right  of  the 
government  to  have  him  prosecuted,  convicted  and  punished  by  the  judgment 
of  his  peers  or  the  law  of  the  land  ;  but  without  such  conviction  the  infliction 
of  corporal  punishment  upon  him,  or  the  confiscation  of  his  estate,  or  any  part 
thereof,  is  unauthorized  tyranny ;  nor  has  the  government  any  right  to  com 
pel  him  to  appear  and  give  testimony  against  himself,  to  aid  it  in  procuring 


APPENDIX.  759 

such  conviction.  Nemo  tenebatur  prodere  se  ipsum  is  the  well  established  rule 
of  the  common  law,  and  is  thus  expounded  by  a  very  able  and  accurate 
American  author:  "That  when  the  answer  will  have  a  tendency  to  expose  the 
witness  to  a  penal  liability,  or  to  any  kind  of  punishment,  or  to  a  criminal 
charge,  or  to  a  forfeiture  of  his  estate,  the  witness  is  not  bound  to  answer. 
And  if  the  fact  to  which  he  is  interrogated  forms  but  one  link  in  the  chain 
of  testimony  which  is  to  convict  him,  he  is  protected.  And  if  the  witness 
declines  answering,  no  inference  of  the  truth  of  the  fact  is  permitted  to  be 
drawn  from  that  circumstance."  [1  Greenl.  Ev.,  sec.  451-453.] 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  originally  formed,  contained  no 
provision  guarantying  to  the  citizen  protection  against  the  violation  by  Con 
gress  of  this  great  first  principle.  But  this  protection  is  carefully  provided 
in  the  fifth  article  of  the  amendments,  proposed  at  the  first  session  of  the 
first  Congress  which  was  adopted  in  these  words  : 

"No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital  or  otherwise  infamous 
crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury,  except  cases 
arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the  militia  when  in  actual  service  in 
time  of  war  or  public  danger  ;  nor  shall  any  person  be  subject  for  the  same 
offence  to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy  of  life  or  limb  ;  nor  shall  he  be  compelled 
in  any  criminal  case  to  be  a  witness  against  himself,  nor  be  deprived  of  life,  lib 
erty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law  ;  nor  shall  private  property  be 
taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation." 

This  is  the  fundamental  law  of  this  land,  and  any  act  of  Congress  in  vio 
lation  of  it  is  inoperative,  null  and  void,  and  it  is  the  solemn  duty  of  the 
courts  so  to  declare  it.  And  I  beg  your  Honor  to  bear  in  mind  that  this  arti 
cle  of  the  Constitution  not  only  denies  to  Congress  the  power  to  compel  any 
one  to  be  a  witness  to  criminate  himself,  but  it  declares  plainly  and  posi 
tively,  that  no  one  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process 
of  law,  giving  property  precisely  the  same  protection  which  it  gives  to  life  or 
liberty. 

Has  an  attorney-at-law  a  property  in  his  profession  ?  If  so  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  Magna  Charta,  declares  that  he  shall  not 
be  deprived  of  it  without  due  process  of  law. 

An  attorney-at-law  is  an  officer  belonging  to  the  courts  of  justice.  [1 
Bacon's  Abr.,  474.]  An  officer  is  one  who  is  lawfully  invested  with  an  office. 
[7  Bacon's  Abr.,  279.]  Offices  which  are  a  right  to  exercise  a  public  or  pri 
vate  employment,  and  to  take  the  fees  and  emoluments  thereto  belonging, 
are  also  incorporeal  hereditaments,  whether  public,  as  those  of  magistrates,  or 
private,  as  of  bailiffs,  receivers,  and  the  like.  For  a  man  may  have  an  estate 
in  them,  either  to  himself  and  his  heirs,  or  for  life,  or  for  a  term  of  years,  or 
for  during  pleasure  only.  [Blackstone's  Com.,  36.] 

By  these  quotations  it  appears  that  a  man  may  have  an  estate  in  an  office. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  estate  ?  In  its  most  extensive  sense  it  is 
applied  to  signify  everything  in  which  riches  or  fortune  may  consist,  and 
includes  personal  and  real  property.  [Bouvier's  Law  Diet.,  516.]  According 
to  Judge  Blackstone,  hereditaments  are  a  species  of  estate,  and  he  declares 
an  office  to  be  an  incorporeal  hereditament. 

An  attorney-at-law  is  then,  according  to  the  authorities,  an  officer  of  the 
courts,  legally  invested  with  an  office.  That  office  is  an  estate,  which  may  be 
for  life,  or  for  a  term  of  years,  or  during  pleasure.  That  estate  is  property. 
And  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  says  no  one  shall  be  deprived  of 
property  without  due  process  of  law. 

It  matters  not  whether  it  is  attempted  to  be  done  by  means  of  a  test  oath, 
compelling  a  party  to  criminate  himself,  or  in  what  imaginable  form,  other 
than  by  due  process  of  law,  it  is  alike  void,  whatever  may  be  the  means 


760  APPENDIX. 

resorted  to  for  its  accomplishment.  What  power  then  has  Congress  to 
deprive  an  attorney  of  his  property  in  his  profession,  simply  because  he  re 
fuses  to  swear  whether  he  has  or  has  not  violated  the  criminal  law  of  the 
land,  when  he  has  neither  been  charged  with,  indicted  or  convicted  of,  any 
such  violation?  I  deny  that  it  has  any  such  right.  This  attempt  is  in  viola 
tion  of  the  fundamental  law  as  expounded  by  the  highest  authorities,  and  is 
absurd  within  itself ;  and  I  know  of  no  rule  governing  courts  which  could 
justify  your  Honor  in  the  enforcement  of  any  such  enactment.  The  statute 
is  a  nullity  and  must,  in  my  opinion,  be  so  held  whenever  and  wherever  it  is 
brought  in  question  before  any  intelligent  court. 

I  further  invite  your  Honor's  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  office  of  attor 
ney  and  counsellor  is  recognized  as  well  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
United  States  as  by  the  common  law. 

In  the  6th  article  of  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution  it  is  declared  that 
in  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  a  speedy  and 
public  trial  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the  State  or  district  wherein  the  crime 
shall  have  been  committed  ;  to  be  informed  of  the  nature  and  cause  of  the 
accusation  ;  to  be  confronted  with  the  witnesses  against  him ;  to  have  com 
pulsory  process  for  obtaining  witnesses  in  his  favor,  and  to  have  the  assistance 
of  counsel  for  his  defence. 

The  judicial  act  of  1789  provides  that  in  all  the  courts  of  the  United  States 
the  parties  may  plead  and  manage  their  own  causes  personally ;  or  by  the 
assistance  of  such  counsel  or  attorney-at-law,  as  by  the  rules  of  said  courts 
respectively,  shall  be  permitted  to  manage  or  conduct  causes  therein. 

The  Court  will  observe  that  the  Congress  of  1789  did  not  attempt  to  pre 
scribe  the  qualifications  of  the  attorney,  or  to  say  who  shall  or  shall  not 
practice  in  the  courts,  or  for  what  cause  an  attorney  shall  be  stricken  from 
the  rolls.  This  is  left,  as  it  should  be,  to  the  courts  or  principal  officer,  to 
which  the  office  of  attorney  is  incident,  to  be  determined  by  rule  of  courts. 

The  office  of  attorney-at-law  is  clearly  incident  to  that  of  a  court,  or  of 
the  judge  or  judges  of  the  court  :  and  the  incidekit  officer  is  only  amenable  to 
the  principal  officer,  and  may  be  removed  by  him — Congress  has  no  such 
powers.  In  7  Bacon's  Abr.,  ^84,  and  the  cases  there  cited,  the  law  upon  this 
subject  is  laid  down  in  the  following  words : 

"  Wherever  an  office  is  incident  to  another,  such  incident  office  is  regularly 
grantable  by  him  who  hath  the  principal  office.  On  this  foundation  it  hath 
been  held  that  the  King's  grant  of  the  office  of  county  clerk  was  void ;  it 
being  inseparably  incident  to  the  office  of  sheriff,  and  could  not  by  any  law 
or  contrio'ince  be  taken  away  from  him." 

If  the  King's  grant  of  such  incident  office  was  void,  and  so  held  by  his  own 
courts,  and  it  could  not  be  taken  away  from  the  principal  office  by  any  law 
or  contrivance^  it  follows  that  the  King  and  Parliament  together  could  not 
rightfully  do  it.  Where  then  does  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  re 
strained  by  a  written  Constitution,  get  power  to  do  that  which  the  King  and 
Parliament  together  in  Great  Britain,  without  such  restraint,  have  no  power 
to  do?  The  office  of  county  clerk  in  England,  which  from  time  immemorial 
has  been  an  incident  of  the  office  of  sheriff,  is  certainly  no  more  inseparably 
connected  with  the  sheriff's  office  than  is  the  office  of  attorney  in  this  coun 
try  with  that  of  the  courts;  and  yet  the  transcendent  power  of  the  King  and 
Parliament  cannot,  without  utter  disregard  of  all  principle  and  precedent, 
deprive  the  principal  office  of  the  control  of  the  incident. 

I  do  not  deny  that  Congress  may  lav  down  general  rules  regulating  the 
proceedings  of  the  courts  and  the  conduct  of  attorneys.  But  I  do  deny  that 
it  can,  without  usurpation,  destroy  the  constituted  courts  or  deprive  them  of 
their  legitimate  control  over  the  attorney ;  or  that  it  can  deprive  the  attor- 


APPENDIX.  761 

ney  of  his  office  when  he  has  not  been  convicted  of  violating  either  the  law 
of  the  land  or  the  rules  of  the  court. 

But  I  may  be  asked  if  there  exists  no  power  in  the  government  to  deprive 
an  attorney  of  his  right  to  practice.  I  reply  unhesitatingly  that  there  does 
not,  unless  he  has  forfeited  it  by  his  own  misconduct,  in  the  violation  of  the 
law  oi'the  land  or  the  rules  of  the  court,  of  which  he  must  have  been  con 
victed  by  due  course  of  law,  when  the  court  of  which  he  is  an  officer,  and  to 
which  alone  he  is  amenable,  may  strike  his  name  from  the  rolls.  As  he  is 
admitted  by  the  court  as  an  officer  of  court,  without  limitation  as  to  time,  or 
during  good  behavior,  he  may  hold  the  office  for  life  unless  he  forfeits  it  by 
misbehavior,  of  which  he  can  never  be  convicted  without  trial.  In  Bacon's 
Abr.,  vol.  7,  page  308,  the  law  on  this  subject  is  laid  down  in  the  following 
clear  and  strong  language : 

"  If  an  office  be  granted  to  a  man  to  have  and  enjoy  so  long  as  he  shall 
behave  himself  well  in  it,  the  grantee  hath  an  estate  of  freehold  in  the  office ; 
for  since  nothing  but  his  misbehaviors  can  determine  his  interest,  no  man  can 
fix  a  shorter  term  than  his  life  ;  since  it  must  be  his  own  act  (which  the  law 
does  not  presume  to  foresee,)  which  only  can  make  his  estate  of  shorter  con 
tinuance  than  his  life." 

This  is  the  tenure  by  which  the  lawyer  holds  his  office.  And  it  is  precisely 
the  same  by  which  the  English  judges  and  judges  of  the  Courts  of  the  United 
States  hold  their  offices.  Who  ever  heard  of  a  judge  of  the  United  States 
Courts  having  been  dismissed  from  office  without  previous  trial  and  convic 
tion  of  misbehavior  ? 

I  will  now  proceed  to  show  (while  the  mode  of  trial  is  not  the  same,)  that 
this  is  the  rule  applied  by  courts  to  attorneys  :  "  An  attorney  may  be  struck 
from  the  rolls  for  any  ill  practice,  attended  with  fraud  and  corruption,  and 
committed  against  the  obvious  rules  of  justice  and  common  honesty."  [1 
Bacon's  Abr.,  586.] 

This  is  the  general  rule  of  law  upon  the  subject ;  but,  as  the  following 
quotations  will  show,  he  will  be  heard  when  the  charge  has  been  preferred, 
and  must  be  convicted  before  he  will  be  deprived  of  his  office. 

"  When  an  attorney  has  been  fraudulently  admitted,  or  convicted  after  ad 
mission  of  felony  or  other  offence  which  renders  him  unfit  to  be  continued  as 
an  attorney,  he  may  be  struck  off  the  rolls." 

"  And  if  an  attorney  practices  after  he  has  been  convicted  of  forgery,  per 
jury,  subornation  of  perjury,  or  common  barratry,  he  is  liable  to  be  trans 
ported."  [Same  authority,  page  508.] 

"  An  attorney  will  be  struck  from  the  rolls  when  he  has  been  convicted  of 
subornation  of  perjury."  [1  McCord's  S.  C.  Reps.,  379.] 

"But  the  court  will  not  proceed  against  such  attorney  before  conviction" 
[2  Halsted,  162.] 

"  An  attorney  convicted  of  felony  and  punished  for  it  was  struck  off  the 
rolls."  [Ex-parte  Brownall,  Cowper's  Reps.,  829.] 

"  On  a  mere  allegation  that  an  attorney  has  been  guilty  of  larceny  his  name 
will  not  be  stricken  off  the  rolls  ;  his  conviction  must  precede."  [Bacon's  Abr., 
506.] 

These  are  the  rules  which  govern  in  cases  when  it  is  proposed  to  strike  an 
attorney  from  the  rolls  for  a  violation  of  public  law,  which  will  only  be  done 
upon  his  conviction  of  such  violation.  As  he  is  an  officer  of  the  court  and 
amenable  to  the  court,  he  may  be  struck  for  a  wilful  violation  of  a  rule  of 
court,  when  his  act  involves  criminality,  or  for  a  wilful  contempt  of  court, 
but  never  without  a  hearing  nor  until  his  guilt  is  established. 

But  I  may  be  told  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  time  of  war, 
may  seize  and  confiscate  the  property,  whether  in  an  office  or  any  other  kind, 


762  APPENDIX. 

of  a  citizen  suspected  of  disloyalty  or  of  having  aided  in  rebellion,  and  de 
prive  him  of  liberty  or  property  till  he  has  proved,  or  at  least  sworn  to,  his 
innocence.  I  deny  it.  Congress  has  no  right  to  violate  the  Constitution 
either  in  peace  or  war. 

The  rule  laid  down  in  the  Constitution  in  plain  language  is  this :  No  per 
son  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital  or  otherwise  infamous  crime  unless 
on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury.  The  exception  to  the  rule 
is  that  persons  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  and  persons  in  the  militia  when 
in  actual  service  in  time  of  war  or  public  danger  may  be  held  to  answer  with 
out  such  indictment  or  presentment  of  a  grand  jury.  Nor  can  Congress  de 
prive  any  person  (not  within  the  exception)  of  life,  liberty  or  property, 
without  due  process  of  law.  Congress  may  by  law,  provide  for  the  forfeiture 
of  the  estate  of  a  person  attainted  of  treason,  but  then  only  during  his  life 
time.  There  can  be  no  forfeiture  even  for  treason  till  there  is  a  conviction, 
and  the  moment  the  person  convicted  is  executed  the  forfeiture  is  at  an  end. 
And  as  there  can  be  no  corruption  of  blood,  the  estate,  if  inheritable,  imme 
diately  descends  to  his  legal  heirs  or  devisees.  In  no  other  instance  that 
occurs  to  me  now  does  the  Constitution  give  Congress  the  power  to  forfeit 
the  estate  or  property  of  any  one,  for  any  offence  whatever,  except  in  the  case 
of  judges  and  other  officers  on  conviction  on  impeachment,  which  works  a 
forfeiture  of  their  estates  in  their  offices,  but  of  no  other  property  or  estate, 
and  never  before  conviction. 

Congress  has,  therefore,  no  right  to  deprive  any  lawyer  of  his  estate  in  his 
office,  or  of  any  other  property  (not  needed  for  public  use  upon  just  compen 
sation)  until  he  has  been  convicted.  Nor  has  Congress  any  right  to  make 
him  a  witness  to  prove  his  own  guilt,  or  to  draw  any  inference  of  his  guilt 
from  his  refusal  to  answer.  [7  Porter's  Reports,  381.] 

But  suppose  I  were  to  admit  that  Congress  does  possess  this  power  in  time 
of  war,  and  that  the  act  was  valid  during  the  war,  how  does  that  deprive  the 
lawyer  of  his  office  now  ?  The  war  is  at  an  end  ;  and  so  proclaimed  by  our 
noble,  patriotic  President.  The  war  is  not  only  at  an  end,  but  the  whole 
South  has  acquiesced  in  good  faith  in  the  results ;  and  her  sons,  whose  honor 
is  as  stainless  as  their  gallantry  upon  the  battle-field  was  conspicuous,  have 
pledged  that  honor,  under  the  solemnity  of  an  oath,  for  their  future  loyalty. 
That  pledge  will  never  be  violated.  I  think  your  Honor  will  not  accuse  me 
of  vain-boasting  when  I  say  I  know  something  of  the  feelings  and  sentiments 
of  the  people  of  Georgia,  and  I  tell  you  to-day  that,  whatever  may  have  been 
their  opinions  as  to  the  original  abstract  question  of  the  right  of  secession, 
they  have  abandoned  it  forever.  Since  the  days  of  Jefferson  and  Hamilton 
it  has  been,  so  to  speak,  a  litigated  question,  and  there  was  but  one  court 
which  had  jurisdiction  to  pronounce  an  authoritative  decision  in  the  case — 
that  was  the  high  Court  of  Appeals,  recognized  by  all  nations  as  of  universal 
jurisdiction,  where  grave  litigated  questions  between  states  or  communities, 
that  no  other  court  has  power  to  adjudicate,  are  in  the  last  resort  decided  by 
wager  of  battle.  This  case  has  been  carried  before  that  court.  Both  parties 
were  ably  represented.  The  case  is  decided ;  the  judgment  is  against  us. 
We  have  already  paid  an  enormous  bill  of  cost.  But  we  acquiesce  in  the 
result,  and  swear  before  Heaven  that  we  will  abide  by  it  in  good  faith. 

Admit  then,  for  the  purpose  of  the  argument,  that  the  law  was  valid  dur 
ing  the  war,  and  where  is  its  binding  force  now  that  the  war  is  at. an  end? 
In  that  view  of  it,  we  have  the  very  case  laid  down  in  the  books  where  the 
reason  of  the  law  having  ceased,  the  law  itself  ceases. 

I  have  already  shown,  I  trust,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  court,  that  the  office 
of  a  lawyer  or  his  right  to  practice  his  profession  is  property,  and  as  such  that 
it  is  protected  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  that  he  cannot 


APPENDIX.  763 

be  deprived  of  it  without  due  process  of  law.  If  Congress  has  power  to 
deprive  him  of  this  property  on  his  refusal  to  take  a  test  oath,  the  tender  of 
which  it  will  not  be  pretended  is  due  process  of  law,  it  has  the  same  power  to 
deprive  him  of  his  library,  his  dwelling-house,  choses  en  action,  and  any  and 
all  other  property  he  may  possess,  till  he  takes  the  oath,  and  if  he  can  never 
take  it,  the  confiscation  of  his  whole  property  may  become  complete  and  per 
petual,  without  indictment,  trial  by  jury,  or  conviction  of  any  offence  what 
ever. 

Again,  if  Congress  has  power  to  deprive  a  lawyer  of  his  property  in  his 
office  till  he  takes  a  test  oath,  it  has  the  same  power  to  prohibit  any  citizen 
from  following  any  other  profession  or  avocation  till  he  has  done  the  same. 
If  it  had  power  to  enact  this  law,  it  has  the  same  power  to  vary,  alter,  or 
amend  it  at  pleasure.  If  it  may  constitutionally  do  what  it  has  done  ;  as  the 
freedom  of  religion  has  no  higher  guaranty  in  the  Constitution  than  the  pro 
tection  of  property ;  it  may  pass  a  law  that  no  one  shall  preach  the  Gospel 
till  he  has  sworn  that  he  believes  baptism  by  immersion  the  only  mode ;  or 
it  may  enact  that  no  one  shall  practice  medicine  till  he  has  taken  an  oath 
that  he  never  did,  and  never  will  use  opium  in  his  practice ;  or  that  no  one 
shall  plow  till  he  has  filed  his  affidavit  that  he  will  never  use  a  turning  plow, 
as  the  Creator  placed  the  soil  on  top  of  the  ground  where  it  should  remain  ; 
or  the  party  in  power  in  Congress,  no  matter  which  it  may  be,  may  prescribe 
a  test  oath  that  no  person  shall  ever  vote  again  who  does  not  make  oath 
that  he  never  voted  for  the  other  party  ;  and  may  justify  it  upon  the  ground, 
at  least  satisfactory  to  itself,  that  its  'principles  are  the  only  true  principles 
of  the  government,  and  that  the  public  good  imperatively  requires  that  they 
be  carried  out  in  practice,  which  might  not  be  done  without  the  aid  of  the 
oath. 

Let  the  judiciary  sustain  this  assumption  of  power  by  Congress,  and  it 
may  close  the  courts  in  the  South  indefinitely ;  shut  the  doors  of  the  churches; 
stop  every  spindle  of  the  manufacturer ;  quench  the  fires  of  every  furnace  in 
blast ;  lock  the  doors  of  the  merchant,  and  drive  the  plowman  from  his  hon 
est  labor — all  by  the  simple  appliance  of  a  test  oath. 

And  as  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  people  of  Georgia  could  not  probably 
take  it,  Congress  by  a  test  oath  declaring  that  no  one  shall  hold  property 
who  cannot  take  it,  may  confiscate  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  property  of 
Georgia,  and  indeed  of  the  South,  by  the  exercise  of  this  power;  for  if  it 
has  power  to  forfeit  the  property  a  lawyer  has  in  his  profession  by  this 
means,  it  has  as  much  power  to  confiscate  any  and  all  other  property  of  all 
who  refuse  to  take  any  test  oath  it  may  prescribe  to  any  or  all  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  Establish  the  principle  that  Congress  can  exclude  all 
men  from  office  or  the  practice  of  any  profession  or  avocation  who  do  not 
swear  that  they  never  bore  arms  against  the  government,  and  it  follows  that 
it  may  enact  a  law  that  no  man  shall  hold  office  who  fails  to  swear  that  he 
did  bear  arms  in  defence  of  the  government.  If  the  enactment  of  test  oaths 
becomes  the  settled  and  approved  policy  of  the  government,  the  people  of 
other  sections  of  the  Union  will  soon  find  that  the  Southern  people  are  not 
the  only  sufferers. 

I  may  be  told  that  the  British  Parliament  centuries  ago  enacted  test  oaths, 
and  that  no  man  was  allowed  to  hold  office  until  he  had  taken  the  sacra 
ments  of  the  Church  of  England  and  the  oaths  of  abjuration,  etc.  This  is 
true ;  and  it  is  also  true  that  the  enlightenment  of  the  age  and  the  triumph  of 
reason  have  long  since  swept  these  oaths  from  the  statute  book,  and  the  Jew 
and  the  dissenter  sit  to-day  by  the  side  of  the  churchman  in  the  Parliament 
of  the  realm. 

But  it  does  not  follow  from  this  historical  fact  that  Congress  now  has  or 


764  APPENDIX. 

ever  did  possess  any  such  powers.  The  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  has 
established  a  particular  church.  Has  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  any 
such  power?  Parliament  has  established  an  aristocracy,  and  provided  for 
the  grant,  by  the  King,  of  titles  of  nobility.  Can  Congress  do  the  same? 
Certainly  not.  Why  not?  Because  there  is  a  written  constitution  in  this 
country  which  expressly  forbids  it.  There  was  none  in  England.  Such  is 
the  omnipotence  of  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  that,  with  the  consent  of 
the  King,  it  may  change  what  they  call  the  constitution  at  pleasure.  The 
Congress  of  the  United  States  with  the  President  has  no  such  power.  The 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain  has  power  to  confiscate  the  property  of  the  sub 
ject  beyond  the  period  of  his  life,  and  either  with  or  without  the  use  of  test 
oaths,  if  it  should  so  will  to  deprive  a  subject  of  his  property  without  due 
process  of  law.  The  written  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  it  has 
no  power  to  change,  denies  to  Congress  the  power  to  do  either.  From  the 
difference  in  the  powers  possessed  by  Parliament  and  by  Congress,  the  Court 
will  readily  perceive  the  reason  why  the  British  test  oaths  can,  as  precedents, 
be  of  no  avail  to  the  advocates  of  similar  oaths  in  this  country. 

I  wish  also  to  invite  the  attention  of  your  Honor  to  this  view  of  this  ques 
tion.  I  have  already  shown  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has,  by 
statute,  authorized  parties  in  the  courts  to  manage  their  causes  by  the  assist 
ance  of  such  counsel  or  attorneys-at-law  as  by  the  rules  of  mid  Courts  re 
spectively  shall  be  permitted  to  manage  or  conduct  cases  therein,  and  that  the 
Constitution  guaranties  to  the  accused  the  assistance  of  counsel  for  his 
defence.  Now,  I  deny  that  Congress  has  the  power  after  a  party  has  employed 
an  attorney  under  this  act  and  confided  to  him  the  management  of  his  cause, 
to  deprive  him  of  his  assistance  when  the  attorney  has  been  convicted  of 
neither  malpractice,  crime  nor  misdemeanor. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  show  that  this  enactment  is  obnoxious  to  another 
grave  constitutional  objection.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  de 
clares  that  no  bill  of  attainder,  or  ex  post  facto  law  shall  be  passed. 

By  a  bill  of  attainder  I  understand  a  judicial  sentence  by  Parliament,  or  a 
legislative  usurpation  of  judicial  power.  As  when  the  Parliament  passed  a 
bill  to  attaint  A.  B.  of  high  treason,  and  directed  his  execution  and  the  con 
fiscation  of  his  estate.  This  act  of  Congress  is  in  the  nature  of  a  bill  of 
attainder.  It  does  not  attaint  a  lawyer  of  high  treason,  but  it  does  assume 
judicial  functions,  and  confiscates  his  property  without  judicial  trial  or  judg 
ment.  And  it  usurps  the  power  which  properly  belongs  to  the  Courts  alone, 
of  determining  who  shall  and  who  shall  not  fill  the  office,  which  is  insepara 
bly  incident  to  the  Court.  This  objection  embraces  the  case  of  the  applicant 
for  admission  to  the  bar  as  fully  as  that  of  the  member  of  the  bar.  The 
Court  prescribes  a  rule  upon  conformity  to  which  any  citizen  has  a  right  to 
be  admitted  to  the  bar.  It  belongs  to  the  Court  to  fill  this  incident  office, 
and  Congress  has  no  right  to  interfere,  while  he  who  complies  with  the  rule 
of  the  Court  has  an  unquestionable  right  to  be  admitted  to  practice.  The 
student  expends  his  money  and  time  in  preparation,  and  when  ready  to  com 
ply  with  the  rule  of  court  he  applies  for  admission  and  is  met  by  a  quasi  bill 
of  attainder  in  the  nature  of  a  judicial  sentence  passed  by  Congress,  that  he 
shall  not  be  admitted  on  complying  with  the  rule  of  court,  but  that  it  is  the 
judgment  of  Congress  that  he  must  also  take  a  certain  test  oath  not  required 
by  the  Courts,  before  he  can  be  admitted,  and  that  on  refusal  to  take  it  he 
stand  convicted  of  aiding  and  abetting  rebellion.  If  Congress  may  exclude 
all  applicants  for  admission  till  they  take  the  test  oath,  it  may  so  shape  the 
oath  that  no  man  ever  can  take  it,  and  it  may  thus  create  a  monopoly  in  the 
office  of  attorney  in  the  hands  of  the  few  now  at  the  bar  who  can  take  the 
oath,  and  at  their  death  destroy  the  office  altogether,  notwithstanding  the 


APPENDIX.  765 

constitutional   guaranty,   that  every  person    accused  of   a  criminal  offence 
shall  have  the  assistance  of  counsel  for  his  defence. 

This  law  is  not  only  in  the  nature  of  a  bill  of  attainder,  which  is  forbidden 
by  the  Constitution,  but  it  is  clearly  an  ex  post  facto  law  as  well,  when  ap 
plied  to  attorneys  of  the  Court,  or  to  applicants  for  admission  to  practice. 
An  ex  post  facto  law  is  thus  defined  by  Mr.  Justice  Chase,  delivering  the 
opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  case  of  Calder  and 
wife  vs.  Bull  and  wife,  3d  Dallas,  386. 

"1.  Every  law  that  makes  an  action,  done  before  the  passing  of  the  laws 
and  which  was  innocent  when  done,  criminal,  and  punishes  such  action. 

"  2.  Every  law  that  aggravates  a  crime  or  makes  it  greater  than  it  was  when 
committed. 

"3.  Every  law  that  changes  the  punishment,  and  inflicts  a  greater  punishment 
than  the  law  annexed  to  the  crime  when  committed. 

"4.  Every  law  that  alters  the  legal  rules  of  evidence  and  receives  less  or 
different  testimony  than  the  law  required  at  the  time  of  the  commission  of 
the  offence  in  order  to  convict  the  offenders."  See  also  1  Kent's  Com.,  408, 
Sergeant  on  Const.  Law,  356;  Smith's  Com.  on  Const.  Construction,  372. 

In  Fletcher  vs.  Peck  6,  Cranch  Reps.,  138,  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  deliver 
ing  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  says:  "An  ex 
post  facto  law  is  one  which  renders  an  act  punishable  in  a  manner  in  which  it 
was  not  punishable  when  it  was  committed.  Such  a  law  may  inflict  penal 
ties  on  the  person,  or  may  inflict  pecuniary  penalties  which  swell  the  public 
treasury.  The  Legislature  is  prohibited  from  passing  a  law  by  which  a 
man's  estate  or  any  part  of  it,  shall  be  seized  for  a  crime  which  was  not 
declared  by  some  previous  law  to  render  him  liable  to  that  punishment." 

In  the  case  of  Ross  (2  Pick.,  169)  it  was  held  that  if  a  statute  add  a  new 
punishment  or  increase  the  old  one,  for  an  offence  committed  before  its  pas 
sage,  such  an  act  would  be  ex  post  facto.  The  party  ought  to  know,  says  the 
court,  at  the  time  of  committing  the  offence  the  whole  extent  of  the  punish 
ment. 

Now  I  beg  the  court  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  act  applying  the  test  oath 
to  attorn eys-atrlaw  was  passed  on  the  24th  of  January,  1865 — very  near  the 
end  of  the  struggle.  It  fixes  no  period  of  time,  as  that  he  has  not  aided  the 
rebellion  since  the  date  of  the  act,  but  it  is  general.  The  language  is,  "  That 
I  have  never  voluntarily  borne  arms,"  etc.,  embracing  the  whole  period  of  his 
life.  Now  suppose  the  lawyer,  or  the  applicant  for  admission,  did  bear  arms 
against  the  government,  or  did  aid  or  countenance  those  who  did  in  1861, 
is  not  this  an  ex  post  facto  law  as  to  him  ?  Was  the  forfeiture  of  his  prop 
erty  in  his  office,  or  of  his  right  of  being  admitted  to  the  office  on  complying 
with  the  rules  prescribed  by  the  court,  any  part  of  the  penalty  enacted  by 
Congress  against  the  offence,  at  or  before  the  time  of  its  commission?  It 
certainly  was  not.  It  formed  no  part  of  the  penalty  till  the  24th  of  January, 
1865.  This,  then,  is  a  law  that  repeals  no  part  of  the  penalty  prescribed  by 
law  against  the  offence  in  1861 ;  it  only  adds  to  the  penalty  already  in  existence 
the  forfeiture  of  his  right  to  practice  law  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  or, 
in  the  language  of  Mr.  Justice  Chase,  it  inflicts  a  greater  punishment  than  the 
law  annexed  to  the  crime  when  committed.  In  addition  to  the  old  penalty,  it 
seizes  and  forfeits  his  estate  in  his  office,  which  could  not  be  done,  because 
no  previous  law,  in  the  language  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  "  rendered  him 
liable  to  that  punishment."  And  in  the  language  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  in  Ross'  case,  above  cited,  if  it  does  not  increase  the  old,  it 
"adds  a  new  punishment"  for  an  offence  committed  before  its  passage. 
How  could  the  attorney,  at  the  time  of  committing  the  offence  in  1861, 
know,  in  the  language  of  the  last  named  court,  the  whole  extent  of  the 


766  APPENDIX. 

punishment  which  was  not  prescribed  till  January,  1865  ?  It  is  also  ex  post 
facto  when  tested  by  the  fourth  rule  laid  down  by  Mr.  Justice  Chase,  It 
changes  the  legal  rule  of  evidence  and  receives  less  and  different  testimony 
than  the  law  required  at  the  time  of  the  commission  of  the  offence,  to  con 
vict  the  offender;  in  this  that  it  makes  his  bare  refusal  to  answer  on  oath, 
whether  he  has  or  has  not  committed  the  offence,  conclusive  evidence  of  his 
guilt,  and  is  in  effect  a  judgment  of  forfeiture. 

It  may  be  contended  here  as  it  has  been  elsewhere,  that  this  test  oath  is 
not  a  penalty,  nor  the  act  imposing  it  a  penal  statute,  but  that  it  is  an  addi 
tional  qualification  for  office  prescribed  by  Congress.  It  is  not  necessary  that 
I  discuss  here  the  power  of  Congress  to  prescribe  other  qualifications  than 
those  prescribed  in  the  Constitution  for  its  own  members,  or  any  other 
officer  of  the  United  States.  I  presume  there  are  few  advocates  of  the  position 
that  Congress  has  power  to  prescribe  the  qualifications  of  any  but  officers  of 
the  United  States.  What  power  has  Congress  to  prescribe  the  qualifications 
of  the  Governor  of  a  State,  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature,  or  a  Judge 
of  a  State  court?  It  certainly  has  none,  though  they  are  all  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  and  all  officers.  An  attorney-at-law  is  an  officer  of  court  but 
not  an  officer  of  the  United  States.  He  is  admitted  by  the  court,  under 
rules  prescribed  by  it,  to  practice  in  the  court,  and  is  answerable  alone  to  the 
court. 

This  is  the  construction  given  to  it  by  Congress  itself.  The  act  of  July, 
1862,  prescribed  the  test  oath  for  all  officers  of  the  United  States.  That  of 
January,  1865,  declares  that  attorneys-at-law  shall  take  the  same  oath 
before  they  are  permitted  to  practice  in  the  United  States  courts.  If  Con 
gress  had  considered  them  officers  of  the  United  States  they  were  fully  em 
braced  in  the  Act  of  July,  1862,  and  it  was  an  idle  waste  of  time  to  pass  the 
Act  of  January,  1865.  It  is  very  clear  then  that  the  test  oath  is  not  pre 
scribed  as  an  additional  qualification  for  an  officer.  The  oath  was  intended 
as  a  penalty,  and  the  statute  as  a  penal  one,  against  those  who  aided  in  the 
war  against  the  United  States.  It  was  not  intended  to  qualify  the  lawyers 
of  this  bar  for  the  practice.  It  was  intended  to  forfeit  their  right  to  practice. 

In  support  of  the  position  that  a  statute  prescribing  a  test  oath,  which 
deprives  a  citizen  of  his  right  to  hold  office  is  a  penal  one,  I  refer  your  Honor 
to  the  case  of  Leigh,  1  Munford's  Va.  Reps.;  and  the  case  of  Dorsey,  7  Por 
ter's  Ala.  Reps.  Each  of  these  States  had  passed  stringent  acts  against 
duelling,  and  had  prescribed  an  oath  to  be  taken  in  Virginia  by  all  officers  of 
the  State  Government ;  and  in  Alabama  by  all  State  officers  and  practicing 
attorneys,  that  each  had  not  before  engaged  in  a  duel  and  would  never  en 
gage  in  one,  while  he  remained  in  the  office.  In  each  case  the  applicant 
moved  to  be  admitted  to  the  Bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  without  taking  the 
oath ;  and  in  each  case  the  court  sustained  the  motion.  The  decisions  are 
lengthy,  but  as  they  are  very  able  I  shall  not  apologize  for  reading  portions 
of  each  to  your  Honor.  And  upon  the  point  to  which  I  last  referred :  I  in 
vite  the  attention  of  the  court  especially  to  the  following  language  of  the 
judges :  In  Leigh's  case,  page  482,  Judge  Roane  who  was  greatly  distin 
guished  for  his  ability,  says :  "  However  laudable  the  object  of  the  act  to 
suppress  duelling  may  be,  it  is  still  a  highly  penal  law  and  must  be  construed 
strictly.  It  is  unusually  penal  if  not  tyrannical,  in  compelling  a  person  to 
stipulate  upon  oath,  by  the  3d  section,  not  only  in  relation  to  his  past 
conduct  and  present  resolution,  but  also  for  the  future  state  of  his  mind.  Thus 
premising  that  this  act  is  highly  and  unusually  penal,  1  will,  under  the  influ 
ence  of  the  rules  for  construing  penal  statutes,  proceed  to  apply  it  to  the 
case  before  us." 

Judge  Fleming  in  the  same  case  says :     "  The   act  under  consideration 


APPENDIX.  767 

being  a  compulsory  law  (however  salutary  it  may  be),  imposing  011  the 
officers  of  the  Government  an  oath  unknown  to  the  former  law  of  the  State, 
or  of  the  United  States ;  though  there  be  no  pecuniary  penalty  inflicted  on 
those  who  refuse  to  take  the  oath  therein  prescribed  ;  I  cannot  but  consider 
it  as  a,  penal  statute,  and  as  such  must  give  it  a  strict  interpretation."  Again 
he  says  :  4<  Admitting  that  attorneys  are  comprehended  in  the  act,  it  has  or 
ought  to  have  a  prospective  and  not  retrospective  operation,  and  cannot  affect 
officers  of  any  description  appointed  to  office  prior  to  the  passage  of  the  act."  In 
Dorsey's  case,  7  Porter,  366,  Judge  Goldthwaite-  says :  "  I  have  omitted  any 
argument  to  show  that  disqualification  from  office  or  from  the  pursuit  of  a  laio- 
ful  avocation  is  a  punishment — that  it  is  so  is  too  evident  to  require  any  illus 
tration  ;  indeed  it  may  be  questioned  whether  any  ingenuity  could  devise 
any  penalty  which  would  operate  more  forcibly  on  society."  Again  he  says  : 
"  A.  citizen  is  informed  that  by  the  laws  of  the  State,  he  is  entitled  to  aspire 
to  any  office  or  pursue  any  other  avocation  which  any  other  citizen  can. — 
Yet  when  he  is  about  to  enter  in  the  office  or  avocation,  he  is  required  to 
swear  to  his  innocence  of  a  particular  crime;  it  then  becomes  evident  that 
if  he  cannot  truly  take  the  oath  required,  he  is  excluded.-  Can  it  be 
doubted  that  for  all  the  purposes  of  the  disqualification  the  guilt  of  the  individ 
ual  is  ascertained?  In  what  does  it  differ  from  the  general  enactment  that  a 
candidate  for  office  shall  be  required  to  prove  and  establish  his  innocence  of 
A  specified  crime  ?  Admitting  a  person  to  be  guilty,  he  is  neither  accused,  tried 
or  convicted  by  any  tribunal  known  to  the  laws,  yet  he  is  punished  with  unerr 
ing  certainty,  and  the  utmost  celerity;  his  conscience  is  made  his  sole  ac 
cuser  and  judge;  his  punishment  commences  with  the  commission  of 
the  crime,  and  terminates  only  when  he  ceases  to  exist ;  he  is  excluded  from 
the  sympathy  of  his  peers — no  legal  doubt  can  intervene  to  produce  his 
acquittal — an  error  of  his  judgment  involves  his  soul  in  the  awful  guilt  of 
perjury,  or  punishes  him  without  guilt.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  declaring 
that  this  act  provides  a  mode  of  ascertaining  arid  punishing  guilt  which  is 
not  only  unwarranted  by  the  Constitution,  but  is  also  in  direct  contravention 
of  several  of  the  most  important  provisions  of  the  declaration  of  rights,  by 
which  the  liberties  and  privileges  of  the  citizens  are  guarded.  *  * 
When  once  it  is  admitted  or  proved  that  a  citizen  has  a  right  to  aspire  to 
office  or  to  pursue  any  lawful  avocation,  it  seems  to  me  impossible  that  he 
•can  be  legally  deprived  of  that  right  by  a  punishment  for  an  offence  com 
mitted  without  a  trial  by  jury ;  and  I  can  perceive  no  sound  distinction 
between  a  law  which  deprives  one  of  his  right  without  a  trial,  and  that 
which  ascertains  and  punishes  his  guilt  by  an  illegal  mode  of  trial."  He  then 
refers  to  the  Governor's  right  to  grant  pardons,  and  says  :  "  We  cannot  pre 
sume  that  the  General  Assembly  intended  by  this  act  to  interfere  with  the 
constitutional  prerogative  of  mercy  vested  in  the  Executive,  yet  this  act,  if 
.constitutional,  imposes  a  penalty  which  cannot  be  remitted,  and  inflicts  a 
punishment  beyond  the  reach  of  Executive  clemency." 

In  the  same  case,  Judge  Osmond  says,  page  379 : 

"  This  is  a  highly  penal  law ;  it  excludes,  unless  its  terms  are  complied  with, 
all  persons  from  practicing  as  attorneys  and  counsellors  at  law  in  the  courts 
of  this  State.  It  must,  therefore,  receive  a  strict  construction,  in  accordance 
with  well  established  principles,  and  the  authority  to  pass  it  be  clearly  and 
fairly  discoverable  from  the  Constitution."  And  on  page  38  :  "  It  is  so  offensive 
to  the  first  principles  of  justice  to  require  a  man  to  give  evidence  against 
himself  in  a  penal  case,  that  independent  of  the  constitutional  interdict,  no 
one  in  this  enlightentd  age  will  be  found  to  advocate  the  principle."  But  it 
may  be  said  this  is  not  a  case  of  this  kind,  as  no  corporal  or  pecuniary  pun 
ishment  is  the  consequence  of  a  refusal  to  take  the  oath  against  duelling. 


768  APPENDIX. 

But  are  not  the  results  the  same,  whether  punishment  follows  from  the  ad 
mission,  or  is  imposed  as  a  consequence  of  silence  ?  Can  ingenuity  make  a 
distinction  between  a  punishment  inflicted  in  this  mode,  as  a  consequence 
of  a  refusal  to  take  the  oath,  by  closing  one  of  the  avenues  to  wealth  and 
fame,  and  a  positive  pecuniary  mulct?  If  there  is  a  difference,  I  think  it 
entirely  in  favor  of  the  latter,  so  far  as  the  amount  or  weight  of  the  penalty 
could  effect  the  decision  of  the  case.  On  page  381 :  "  With  great  deference 
to  the  opinion  of  others  who  may  differ  from  me,  I  think  that  the  requisition  by 
the  Legislature,  in  substance  and  effect,  requires  the  applicant  for  a  license 
to  give  evidence  against  himself,  and  that,  if  not  within  the  letter,  is  at  least 
within  .the  words  of  the  prohibition — the  very  foundation  of  which  is  that 
every  one  is  presumed  to  be  innocent  till  the  contrary  appears." 

He  then  refers  to  the  constitutional  provision  that  the  crime  or  offence 
must  be  ascertained  by  due  course  of  law,  and  says  :  The  term  "  due  course 
of  law  "  has  a  settled  and  ascertained  meaning,  and  was  intended  to  protect 
people  against  privations  of  their  lives,  liberty,  or  property,  in  any  other 
mode  than  through  the  intervention  of  the  judicial  tribunals  of  the  coun 
try.  But  the  law  seeks  to  ascertain  a  fact  exalted  into  a  crime  and 
punished  in  a  particular  manner — not  by  the  judgment  of  a  competent 
court,  but  by  the  admission  of  the  offender,  and  construing  his  silence  as 
evidence  of  guilt. 

In  a  case  of  Greene  vs.  Biggs,  1  Curtis,  Circuit  Court,  Reps.  325,  Judge 
Custis  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  presiding  in  the  Circuit 
Court,  defines  what  is  meant  by  the  law  of  the  land.  He  says  :  •'  Certainly  this 
does  not  mean  any  act  jyhich  the  Assembly  may  choose  to  pass.  If  it  did  the 
legislative  will  could  inflict  a  forfeiture  of  life,  liberty , or  property,  without  a  (rial. 
The  exposition  of  the  words  as  they  stand  in  Magna  Charta,  as  well  as  in  the 
American  Constitution,  has  been  that  they  require  '  due  process  of  law,'  and  in 
this  is  necessarily  implied  and  included  the  right  to  answer  to  and  contest 
the  charge ;  and  the  consequent  right  to  be  discharged  from  it,  unless  it  is 
proved."  Lord  Coke,  in  giving  an  interpretation  of  these  words  in  Magna 
Charta,  2  Inst.  50,  51,  says  they  mean,"  due  process  of  law,"  in  which  is  included 
presentment  or  indictment,  and  being  brought  in  to  answer  thereto.  And  the 
jurists  of  our  country  have  not  relaxed  this  interpretation.  "  It  follows,"  says 
he,  speaking  of  the  case  before  him,  "  that  a  law  which  would  preclude  the 
accused  from  answering  to  and  contesting  the  charge,  *  *  *  *  and 
which  should  condemn  him  tojine  and  forfeiture  unheard,  if  he  failed  to  com 
ply  with  the  requisition  (to  give  security)  would  deprive  him  of  his  liberty 
or  property — not  by  the  law  of  the  land,  but  by  an  arbitrary  and  uncon 
stitutional  exertion  of  legislative  power." 

Judge  Pitman,  in  the  same  case,  refers  to  the  fact  that  the  statute  under 
consideration  rendered  any  one  engaged  in  selling  spirituous  liquors  an  in 
competent  juror,  and  authorized  the  question  to  be  propounded  to  him,  and 
says : 

"  This  law  authorizes  the  court  to  inquire  of  the  juror  who  may  be  chal 
lenged  on  this  account ;  it  is  true,  the  law  says  *  he  may  decline  to  answer,' 
but  what  then?  Is  the  fact  to  be  proved  by  other  evidence?  No;  this 
silence  is  considered  as  sufficient  proof,  and  he  is  excluded  accordingly.  He 
is,  therefore,  compelled  to  answer,  if  he  does  not  wish  to  be  excluded  as 
unworthy  to  sit  as  a  juror,  or  does  not  wish  to  be  considered  as  concerned 
in  a  traffic  which  may  be  considered  as  infamous.  The  maxim  of  the  com 
mon  law  recognized  by  the  Constitution  is  that  every  man  is  presumed  to 
be  innocent  until  he  is  proved  to  be  guilty.  The  whole  spirit  of  this  law 
appears  to  me  to  be  at  variance  with  the  rights  of  property  as  well  as  person. 
The  Legislature  has  no  right  by  an  act  to  confiscate  the  property  of  the  citi- 


APPENDIX.  769. 

zen  ;  it  may  be  forfeited  for  a  violation  of  law,  but  this  must  be  done  with 
out  affecting  the  rights  of  the  owner  thereof  to  a  jury  .trial." 

I  beg  the  pardon  of  the  Court  for  having  taken  up  so  much  time  reading 
authorities,  but  as  they  are  in  point,  and  are  the  opinions  of  able  judges, 
and  as  the  question  is  an  important  one,  I  have  relied  upon  the  indul 
gence  of  the  Court.  These  authorities  establish  the  points  I  have  taken 
against  this  law,  to  rny  mind,  beyond  all  question  : 

1.  That  the  attorney  is  an  officer  of  Court ;  that  he  has  a  property  in  that 
office  ;  and  that  it  is  for  life  or  good  behavior. 

2.  That  this  act  of    Congress  violates  the   social  compact,  Maqna  Charta, 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  by  depriving  him  of  that  property 
without  due  process  of  law,  in  this,  that  he  is  in  effect  convicted,  and  his 
property  forfeited  without  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand   jury;  that 
he  is  denied  a  trial  by  jury;  that  he  is  denied  the  right  to  be  confronted  with 
the  witnesses  against  him;  that  he  is  denied  compulsory  process  for  obtain 
ing  witnesses  in  his  favor ;  that  he  is  denied  the  assistance  of  counsel  for  his 
defence  ;  and  that  he  is  compelled  to  be  a  witness  against  himself  in  a  crim 
inal  case,  or  that  his  silence  is  construed  as  conclusive  evidence  of  guilt. 

3.  That  the  act  is  in  the  nature  of  a  bill  of   attainder,  and  is  an  usurpa 
tion  by  the  legislative  department  of  the  Government  of  the  functions  as 
signed  by   the  Constitution  to  the  judicial  department,  being  a  sentence  of 
forfeiture,  pronounced  by  Congress,  which  being  a  judicial  and  not  a  legisla 
tive  act,  can  only  be  done  by  the  judiciary  after  trial  and  conviction. 

4.  That  the  law  is  riot  and   was  not   intended  to  be  a  law  prescribing 
qualifications  for  office,  but  a  penal  law  forfeiting  his  property  for  the  com 
mission  of  an  act,  which  at  the  time  of  its  commission  had  no  such  penalty 
annexed  by  law,  and  that  the  act  or  offence  is  punished  by  this   law  in  a 
manner  different  from  that  prescribed  by  law,  at  the  time  of  its  commission  ; 
and  that  the  law  is  for  this  reason  ex  post  facto  and  void. 

But  suppose  the  doctrine  to  have  been  fully  established  that  Congress  has 
power  to  forfeit  the  property  which  an  attorney  has  in  his  office,  for  having 
borne  arms  against  the  Government,  or  countenanced  those  who  did,  and 
that  it  may  use  test  oaths  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  who  is  and  who 
is  not  guilty,  compelling  each  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  guilt  if  he  refuses  to 
answer — in  other  words,  drawing  contrary  to  all  rule  in  such  case  a  conclu 
sive  inference  of  guilt  from  a  refusal  to  answer,  and  pronouncing  and  ex 
ecuting  judgment  accordingly.  How  does  the  case  then  stand?  The  office 
of  the  attorney  would  be  forfeited  so  soon  as  the  court  met  and  tendered  the 
oath  and  he  refused  to  take  it.  But  certainly  not  till  then.  Why  not?  Be 
cause  Congress  makes  the  refusal  to  take  the  oath  conclusive  evidence  of  guilt ; 
or  rather  it  forfeits  his  estate  because  he  is  guilty,  and  makes  the  refusal  to 
take  the  oath  stand  in  the  place  of  trial  by  jury,  and  a  judgment  of  guilty 
rendered  by  the  court.  Just  as  if  the  Legislature  of  Georgia  should  pass  an 
act  (no  matter  how  absurd)  that  when  a  man  is  found  dead  in  any  county, 
every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  county,  who  refuses  to  swear  that  he- 
or  she  was  not  a  party  to  his  death,  shall  be  taken  by  the  sheriff  and  hanged, 
and  all  his  or  her  property  shall  be  confiscated. 

But  now  suppose  before  the  oath  is  tendered  to  any,  or  any  one  is  executed, 
the  pardoning  power  should  grant  a  full  and  free  pardon  to  every  person  in  the 
county,  could  the  sheriff  after  the  pardon  with  knowledge  of  its  existence,  pro 
ceed  to  hang  any  one,  or  to  seize  the  property  of  any  one  as  forfeited?  All 
must  admit  that  he  could  not.  The  pardon  having  been  granted  before  judg 
ment  or  execution,  it  leaves  the  accused  in  precisely  the  same  condition  in 
which  they  stood  before  the  charge  was  made  against  them  ;  not  only  with  the 
right  to  life  and  liberty,  but  to  the  peaceable  enjoyment  of  all  their  property. 
49 


770  APPENDIX. 

Now  the  truth  is,  that  most  of  the  attorneys  of  this  court  have  received, 
either  under  the  General  Amnesty  Proclamation  of  the  President,  or  upon 
special  application,  full  pardon  from  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
before  any  court  has  been  held  in  the  State,  or  the  test  oath  has  been  ten 
dered  to,  or  refused  to  be  taken  by,  any  one.  Admit,  then,  that  the  refusal  to 
take  the  test  oath  stands  in  place  of  a  conviction  of  guilt,  and  it  can  have 
no  application  to  any  one  pardoned  before  trial  or  conviction.  It  certainly 
follows,  then,  that  the  property  of  an  attorney  in  his  office  which  was  not 
forfeited  prior  to  his  pardon,  cannot  now  be  forfeited  for  the  offence  for 
which  he  was  pardoned.  In  support  of  this  position  I  quote  the  following 
authorities : 

"  It  seems  agreed  that  a  pardon  of  treason  or  felony  even  after  an  attainder, 
so  far  clears  the  party  from  the  infamy  and  all  other  consequences  thereof, 
that  he  may  have  an  action  against  any  one  who  afterwards  calls  him  traitor 
or  felon ;  for  the  pardon  makes  him  as  it  were  a  new  man."  [7  Bacon's  Abr., 
416.] 

The  Court  will  please  note  the  language  that  the  pardon,  even  after  an 
attainder,  clears  the  party  from  the  infamy,  and  all  other  consequences  thereof. 
A  much  stronger  case  than  the  one  now  at  Bar,  unless  the  act  of  Congress 
imposing  this  test  oath  is  held  by  the  court  to  be  a  bill  of  attainder,  and  if  so 
it  is  unconstitutional  and  void.  But  if  the  act  is  not  a  bill  of  attainder  the 
pardon  granted  before  conviction  or  attainder  must  necessarily  leave  the 
party  in  the  precise  legal  status  which  he  occupied  prior  to  the  commission 
of  the  offence. 

It  was  formerly  doubted  whether  the  pardon  could  do  more  than  take  away 
the  punishment,  leaving  the  crime  and  its  disabling  consequences  unremoved. 
But  it  is  now  settled  that  a  pardon,  whether  by  the  King  or  by  act  of  Parlia 
ment,  removes  not  only  the  punishment,  but  all  the  legal  disabilities  consequent 
on  the  crime.  [7  Bacon's  Abr.,  415 ;  2  Russell  on  Crimes,  975  ;  Hob.,  681 ;  2 
Hal/s  P.  C.,  272 ;  2  Salk.,  690;  1  Lord  Raym.,  39 ;  4  State  Trials,  681;  Cas. 
Tenp.  Holt,  683;  5  State  Trials,  171;  Fitzg.,  167.] 

The  effect  of  such  pardon  by  the  King  is  to  make  the  offender  a  new  man, 
to  acquit  him  of  all  corporeal  penalties  and  forfeitures  annexed  to  that  offence 
for  which  he  obtains  his  pardon.  [4  Blackstone's  Com.,  402.] 

I  might  add  other  authorities,  but  deem  it  unnecessary.  Those  already 
quoted  establish  the  position  beyond  controversy,  that  the  effect  of  the  par 
don  is  to  acquit  the  offender  of  all  penalties  andforfeitures  annexed  to  the  offence. 
It  follows  conclusively  that  the  attorney  or  applicant  for  admission  to  the 
bar  who  has  received  a  pardon,  before  indictment  or  conviction,  stands 
before  this  court  in  precisely  the  condition  in  which  he  would  have  stood, 
and  with  all  the  rights  which  he  would  have  had,  if  he  had  never  committed 
the  offence.  To  hold  that  Congress  can  change  this,  is  to  hold  that  Con 
gress  has  power  to  destroy  the  pardoning  power  vested  by  the  Constitution 
in  the  President  of  the  United  States  alone. 

I  trust  I  might  safely  rest  this  case  here,  but  before  I  take  my  seat  I  de 
sire  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  law  of  nations  as  to  the  relative  rights 
and  duties  of  those  who  were  lately  at  war  with  each  other. 

Upon  this  subject  I  call  your  attention  to  the  language  of  Vattel  in  his 
Law  of  Nations  in  his  chapter  upon  Civil  War.  He  says : 

"And  if  there  existed  no  reason  to  justify  the  insurrection  (a  circum 
stance  which  perhaps  never  happens),  even  in  such  case  it  becomes  necessary, 
as  we  have  above  observed,  to  grant  an  amnesty,  when  the  offenders  are 
numerous.  When  the  amnesty  is  once  published  and  accepted,  all  the  past 
must  be  buried  in  oblivion;  nor  must  any  one  be  called  to  account  for  what 
has  been  done  during  the  disturbance.  And  in  general,  the  sovereign  whose 


APPENDIX.  771 


word  ought  ever  to  be  sacred,  is  bound  to  the  faithful  observance  of  every 
promise  he  has  made,  even  to  rebels."     [Vattel's  Law  of  Nations,  pp.  423  and 

The  terms  of  capitulation  have  not  only  been  agreed  upon  in  this  case, 
but  the  Civil  War  is  at  an  end.  The  vanquished  have  in  good  faith  com 
plied  with  those  terms  on  their  part.  The  Northern  construction  of  the  Consti 
tution  is  established,  and  slavery  is  forever  abolished.  The  amnesty  has 
been  published  and  accepted.  Then,  in  the  language  of  this  distinguished 
author,  the  "  past  should  be  buried  in  oblivion,"  and  neither  Judge  Law  nor 
any  one  else  should  be  called  to  account  here  or  elsewhere,  by  test  oath  or 
otherwise,  for  what  was  done  by  him  in  accordance  with  the  usages  of  civil 
ized  warfare,  "during  the  disturbance." 

This  view  of  this  question  has  also  the  sanction  and  authority  of  Divine 
Inspiration.  In  the  Bible  the  distinction  between  the  blood  of  war  and  the 
blood  shed  in  peace,  is  clearly  drawn — the  binding  obligation  to  carry  out 
in  good  faith  an  amnesty  once  tendered  and  accepted  is  enforced — and  the 
infliction  of  punishment  upon  the  party  who  has  received  the  pardon  or 
amnesty  for  acts  done  during  the  war,  is  condemned. 

After  the  death  of  Saul,  King  of  Israel,  war  existed  between  his  son  as  his 
heir,  and  David,  the  anointed  of  God,  about  the  succession  to  the  throne. 
Abner  commanded  the  forces  of  the  son  of  Saul,  and  Joab  those  of  David. 
A  battle  was  fought,  in  which  Joab  was  victorious.  While  Abner  was  re 
treating,  he  was  followed  by  Asahel,  the  brother  of  Joab,  who,  after  having 
been  warned  to  desist  from  the  pursuit  which  he  refused  to  do,  was  slain  by 
Abner.  After  this  Abner  sought  an  interview  with  King  David,  receivecl 
amnesty,  and  was  sent  away  in  peace. 

On  learning  this  Joab  was  greatly  displeased,  and  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  King  sent  and  brought  him  back  and  slew  him  because  he  had  slain 
his  brother  in  battle.  In  other  words,  Joab  slew  Abner  after  he  had  made 
peace  with  the  King,  because  of  an  act  done  during  the  war. 

At  a  later  period  in  King  David's  life,  his  son  Absalom  rebelled  against 
him,  and  drove  him  from  his  throne,  and  without  just  cause  plunged  Israel 
into  civil  war.  Absalom  made  Amasa  the  leader  of  his  forces,  and  the  forces 
of  King  David  were  led  by  Joab.  Before  the  battle  commenced,  King 
David  gave  strict  orders  to  Joab,  that  neither  he  nor  any  of  his  men  should 
harm  the  person  of  Absalom.  During  the  battle  Absalom  became  entangled 
by  his  hair  in  the  boughs  of  a  tree,  where  Joab  found  him  and  slew  him,  in 
violation  of  the  King's  orders,  though  peace  had  neither  been  made,  nor  had 
Absalom  been  pardoned,  nor  did  the  act  violate  any  of  the  then  usages  of 
war.  King  David  wept  bitterly  over  the  death  of  his  rebellious  son.  After 
wards  Amasa  who  commanded  the  armies  of  Absalom  during  the  war  was 
pardoned  by  the  King,  and  placed  in  command  of  his  forces  in  an  expedition 
against  Sheba,  who  had  raised  an  insurrection.  Joab  met  Amasa  on  the 
march,  and  smote  and  slew  him. 

King  David  was  a  man  inspired  of  God,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  man 
after  God's  own  heart.  He  was  a  warrior  most  of  his  life  ;  and  understood 
both  the  rules  of  war,  and  the  Divine  will  upon  the  subject.  Finally  he  lay 
upon  his  death-bed  on  the  brink  of  the  grave  and  the  verge  of  eternity.  In 
this  solemn  hour  with  full  knowledge  of  his  condition,  filled  with  the  spirit 
of  inspiration,  he  gave  his  memorable  charge  to  Solomon,  his  son,  who  was 
to  succeed  him  upon  his  throne.  In  that  charge  among  other  things  he 
commanded  him  to  slay  Joab,  or  in  other  words  not  to  let  his  hoary  head  go 
down  to  the  grave  in  peace.  Xot  because  he  slew  Absalom,  the  King's  son, 
in  violation  to  the  King's  order.  The  blood  of  Absalom  was  shed  in  battle ; 


772  APPENDIX. 

it  was  therefore  the  blood  of  war  ;  and  much  as  it  grieved  the  King's  heart,. 
he  remembered  it  not  upon  his  death-bed,  against  Joab  as  a  crime.  But  Joab 
had  slain  Abner  and  Amasa  after  the  war,  in  each  case,  was  at  an  end  and 
they  had  made  peace  with  the  King.  For  their  slaughter  David  ordered  Sol 
omon,  his  son,  to  take  the  life  of  Joab.  Why?  In  David's  own  language, 
because  he  shed  "the  blood  of  war  in  peace."  This  showed  the  obligation 
which  in  the  estimation  of  this  inspired  man  rested  upon  the  victor,  after 
he  had  made  peace  and  extended  amnesty,  to  protect  the  rights  of  the  van 
quished  and  to  maintain  the  utmost  good  faith  in  carrying  out  the  terms 
of  the  capitulation.  The  fact  that  Abner  had  slain  Joab's  brother  in  battle 
was  held  to  be  no  justification  for  the  slaughter  of  Abner  by  Joab  after  the  war 
was  at  an  end.  The  slaughter  of  Asahel  was  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of 
war.  The  slaughter  of  Abner  was  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of  war  in  peace. 
The  first' was  justifiable  homicide,  the  second  was  murder. 

In  conclusion,  I  have  only  to  add  that  I  have  satisfied  my  own  mind,  and 
I  trust  the  mind  of  the  Court,  that  the  statute  requiring  the  test  oath  is  in 
violation  of  the*  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  is  for  that  reason 
void.  And  that  the  Divine  law  and  the  laws  of  nations  agree,  that  when 
war  is  at  an  end,  and  peace  is  proclaimed  or  amnesty  and  pardon  granted  to- 
the  vanquished,  as  to  the  applicant  in  this  case,  all  the  past  musl  be  buried  in 
oblivion,  and  no  one  should  be  called  to  account  for  what  was  done  "  during 
its  continuance."  And  that  he  who  forfeits  the  property  of  those  who  have 
made  peace,  for  acts  done  during  hostilities,  violates  the  law  of  nations; 
while  he  who  sheds  the  blood  of  those  who  have  conformed  to  the  terms  of 
the  capitulation  after  hostilities  have  ended,  "  sheds  the  blood  of  war  in 
peace,"  and  violates  not  only  the  law  of  nations,  but  the  law  revealed  by 
the  living  God. 


Atlanta  Constitution,  Wednesday,  July  7,  1880. 

OUR  COUNTRY. — SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  E.  BROWN,  DELIVERED  ON  THE 
THIRD  OF  JULY,  1880,  AT  THK  CITY  HALL  IN  ATLANTA,  GA.,  ON  CON 
STITUTIONAL  RIGHTS,  NATIONAL  ISSUES  AND  THE  DUTIES  OF  THE 
HOUR. 

The  citizens  of  Atlanta,  celebrating  the  4th  of  July  on  Saturday,  the  3d, 
assembled  in  large  numbers  at  the  city  hall.  And  at  3  o'clock  Capt.  John 
Milledge  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  After  which  Senator 
Brown,  being  present  by  invitation,  spoke  as  follows  : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  have  been  invited  here  by  the  committee  of 
arrangements  to  discuss,  as  the  invitation  says,  "  the  national  issues  of  the 
present  presidential  campaign."  Of  course  on  an  occasion  of  this  character 
it  is  not  expected  that  I  will  discuss  those  issues  in  a  partisan  manner,  or 
that  there  will  be  any  vituperation  or  abuse  of  any  one  in  my  address.  The 
object  of  the  committee  doubtless  was  that  I  should  refer  to  the  great  princi 
ples  of  our  grand  constitutional  system,  and  should  point  out  such  course  as 
in  my  opinion  will  best  promote  the  future  happiness  and  welfare  of  the 
American  people.  »_ 

I  shall  not  go,  as  is  usual  in  a  Fourth  of  July  speech,  into  a  history  of  the 
colonies,  or  the  causes  that  produced  the  rupture  which  separated  us  from 
Great  Britain.  That  the  colonies  had  sufficient  cause  to  justify  their  course 
no  American  now  doubts,  and  I  believe  no  Englishman  will  deny.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  however,  that  this  grand  declaration  which  my  friend  has  just  read 


APPENDIX.  773 

in  your  presence  was  a  masterly  presentation  of  the  great  principles  upon 
which  the  war  was  begun,  which  lasted  for  seven  years  and  ended  in  the 
•complete  overthrow  of  British  dominion  in  this  country  and  the  establish 
ment  of  a  free  and  independent  government  of  free  and  independent  States. 

After  a  short  period  the  bond  of  union  between  these  States,  called  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  was  found  to  be  insufficient  to  meet  the  emergencies 
of  the  times  and  foster  the  great  interests  of  the  country,  because  they  did 
not  give  to  the  central  government  power  to  carry  out  the  objects  necessary 
in  our  complex  system. 

A  convention  was  called,  therefore,  for  the  purpose  of  amending  those 
articles.  After  mature  deliberation,  they  concluded  to  recommend  to  the 
•States  of  the  Union  a  new  constitution — the  present  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  without  the  amendments.  That  Constitution  was  submitted 
for  ratification  to  the  respective  States,  and,  after  certain  delays  and  reserva 
tions  that  I  need  not  now  recite,  it  was  ratified  by  all  the  thirteen  original 
States.  That  Constitution  became,  therefore,  the  sheet-anchor  and  founda 
tion  of  a  great  system  of  constitutional  government  like  no  other  known  to 
the  world.  It  was  an  experiment  hazardous  at  the  time ;  and  the  general 
prediction  of  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe  was  that  we  could  not  live  under 
such  a  system,  and  that  it  would  soon  topple  to  the  ground. 

The  object  of  our  fathers  was  to  have  a  confederation,  or  a  union  of  the 
thirteen  original  States,  and  of  all  other  States  that  might  afterwards  be  ad 
mitted  into  that  union,  with  power  to  do  all  that  was  necessary  by  a  general 
fovernment  for  the  defence  and  general  welfare,  and  to  preserve  to  each 
tate  individually  all  the  necessary  powers  to  conduct  local  self-government, 
•and  to  look  after  and  protect  all  the  great  interests  of  the  people  of  each 
State.  That  design  was  very  happily  carried  out  in  the  Constitution  brought 
forth  as  the  result  of  the  labors  of  that  convention. 

That  Constitution  confers  certain  great  powers  upon  Congress  that  were 
necessary  for  the  general  government  which  had  to  take  charge  of  the  exter 
nal  affairs  of  a  great  people,  as  well  as  such  internal  affairs  as  could  not  be 
managed  by  each  State  individually.  I  will  call  attention  to  a  few  of  those 
powers.  Power  is  given  by  the  Constitution  to  Congress  to  regulate  com 
merce  with  foreign  nations  among  the  several  States  and  with  the  Indian 
tribes. 

To  establish  an  uniform  rule  of  naturalization  and  uniform  laws  on  the 
subject  of  bankruptcies,  etc. 

To  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof,  and  of  foreign  coins,  and  to  fix 
the  standard  of  weights  and  measures. 

To  establish  post-offices  and  post  roads. 

To  define  and  punish  piracies  and  felonies  committed  on  the  high  seas, 
and  offences  against  the  laws  of  nations. 

To  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  etc. 

To  raise  and  support  armies. 

To  provide  and  maintain  a  navy. 

To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union, 
to  suppress  insurrections  and  repel  invasions. 

These  were  great  fundamental  powers  delegated  by  the  States  under  the 
Constitution  to  the  general  government.  And  when  you  come  to  look  at  them 
you  see  they  are  founded  in  wisdom.  In  each  case  it  is  a  power  that  can 
only  be  exercised  by  the  general  government,  and  could  not  on  account  of 
conflicting  interests  be  exercised  by  the  individual  States.  Therefore  these 
great  powers  were  delegated  by  the  States  to  the  general  government ;  and  it 
was  authorized  to  execute  them. 

Then,  in  order  to  be  guarded,  for  our  ancestors  who  framed  this  instru- 


774  APPENDIX. 

ment  were  great  and  wise  men,  they  imposed  certain  restrictions  upon  Con 
gress.  Two  or  three  of  the  principal  ones  were,  that :  The  privileges  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  should  not  be  suspended,  unless  when  in  case  of  rebel 
lion  or  invasion  the  public  safety  may  require  it.  All  Englishmen  and  all 
Americans  have  for  centuries  put  the  highest  estimate  upon  this  great  right 
for  the  protection  of  individual  liberty.  And  the  right  is  denied  to  Congress 
to  suspend  it,  unless  when  in  cases  of  insurrection  or  invasion  the  public 
safety  requires  its  suspension. 

Then,  again,  it  is  provided  that  no  bill  of  attainder  or  ex  post  facto  law 
shall  be  passed.  And  no  title  of  nobility  shall  be  granted  by  the  United 
States.  There  are  also  other  restraints  put  upon  the  powers  of  the  general 
government.  I  do  not  speak  now  of  the  rights  or  powers  reserved  by  the 
States.  But  the  convention  in  forming  the  Constitution  conferred  or  dele 
gated  certain  great  powers  to  the  general  government.  Then  there  are  in 
hibitions  to  restrain  its  action. 

Then  come  certain  restraints  upon  the  powers  of  the  States.  In  other 
words,  in  delegating  certain  powers  to  the  general  government  for  the  gen 
eral  good  and  restraining  the  action  of  Congress  in  reference  to  certain  other 
matters,  it  was  found  necessary  to  negative  the  powers  of  the  States  to  do 
certain  acts  in  conflict  with  the  delegated  powers.  What  consummate 
wisdom  there  was  in  providing  these  checks  and  balances  for  the  govern 
ment! 

The  Constitution  provides  that  no  State  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  alli 
ance,  or  confederation,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  coin  money, 
emit  bills  of  credit,  make  anything  but  gold  or  silver  coin  a  tender  in  pay 
ment  of  debts,  pass  any  bill  of  attainder,  ex  post  facto  law,  or  law  impairing 
the  obligation  of  contracts,  or  grant  any  title  of  nobility.  These  powers  are 
expressly  denied  to  the  States.  Again,  no  State  shall  without  the  consent  of 
Congress  levy  any  duty  of  tonnage,  keep  troops  or  ships  of  war,  in  time  of 
peace ;  enter  into  any  agreement  or  contract  with  any  other  State,  or  with  a 
foreign  power ;  or  engage  in  war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such  immi 
nent  danger  as  will  not  admit  of  delay.  These  are  express  inhibitions  upon 
the  power  of  the  States.  And  if  you  look  to  them,  you  will  see  that  while 
the  convention  forming  the  Constitution  was  delegating  certain  powers  to  the 
Federal  Government  necessary  to  its  existence,  it  carefully  denied  the  exercise 
of  those  powers  to  the  States.  The  object  was  to  have  the  line  between  the 
powers  of  the  two  so  well  defined  that  there  might  be  no  just  cause  of  con 
flict. 

In  summing  up  the  general  powers  delegated  to  Congress  this  provision 
occurs  :  ''  That  Congress  shall  have  power  to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be 
necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers  and 
all  other  powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  or  in  any  department  or  officer  thereof."  Therefore  the  Fed 
eral  Government  is  limited  in  its  sphere  of  action  to  the  exercise  of  dele 
gated  powers  and  the  passage  of  such  laws  as  are  necessary  to  carry  into  effect 
the  delegated  powers.  There  it  is.  There  is  the  whole  extent  of  power 
delegated  by  the  States  to  the  general  government.  As  long  as  it  moves 
within  that  sphere  and  the  States  move  within  the  sphere  reserved  by  them, 
there  is  no  room  for  conflict,  and  the  system  works  harmoniously  and  beauti 
fully. 

But  some  of  the  States  were  not  pleased  with  the  Constitution  as  it  came 
from  the  hands  of  the  convention  ;  and  they  adopted  it  only  with  the  under 
standing  that  at  an  early  period  there  were  to  be  certain  amendments  defin 
ing  the  powers  of  Congress  more  unmistakably,  and  making  clearer  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  States. 


APPENDIX.  775 

The  ninth  and  tenth  amendments  to  the  Constitution  which  followed  as 
the  result  of  that  understanding,  are  as  follows  :  The  ninth  amendment 
declares  that  the  enumeration  in  the  Constitution  of  certain  rights  shall  not 
be  construed  to  deny  or  disparage  others  retained  by  the  people. 

Amendment  ten  says :  '•  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States 
by  the  Constitution  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States  are  reserved  to  the 
States  respectively  or  to  the  people." 

Take  the  Constitution  then  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of  the  fathers  and 
as  amended  at  an  early  period,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  room  for  future 
trouble  or  conflict  between  the  two  governments.  Each  was  to  move  within 
its  sphere  and,  when  doing  so,  the  system  was  a  grand,  a  glorious  and  a 
beautiful  one. 

Thus  established  upon  principles  of  equity  and  justice,  and  founded  in  the 
greatest  wisdom,  the  system  moved  off  harmoniously  for  many  years.  But 
the  principal  disturbing  element  was  found  to  be  slavery.  On  that  point 
our  lathers  had  difficulty  in  framing  the  Constitution.  And  in  order  to  do 
justice  to  all,  they  were  careful  to  incorporate  into  it  this  provision  : 

"  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof, 
escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein, 
be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim 
of  the  party  to  whom  such  labor  or  service  may  be  due." 

Without  that  provision  in  the  Constitution  it  is  well  known  it  would  never 
have  been  agreed  to  by  the  slave-holding  States.  For  a  long  time  we  had  no 
difficulty,  but  finally  the  anti-slavery  feeling  in  the  North  grew  to  a  point 
where  certain  of  the  Northern  States  positively  refused  to  carry  out  that 
essential  fundamental  provision  of  the  compact  of  union.  We  of  the  South 
felt  that  this  was  a  great  grievance,  and  we  remonstrated  and  did  all  in  our 
power  to  have  that  provision  faithfully  met  and  carried  out.  While  this 
question  was  progressing  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  manner,  the  difficulties 
about  slavery  in  the  Territories  reached  a  point  where  there  was  great  excite 
ment  all  over  the  Union,  and  we  were  almost  in  the  throes  of  a  revolution. 
At  that  time  a  sectional  party  was  organized,  and  that  party,  with  great 
strength  in  all  the  Northern  States,  placed  a  candidate  in  the  field  opposed 
to  the  extension  of  slavery  in  the  Territories,  which  the  South  thought  of  the 
utmost  importance.  When  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  accomplished 
fact,  the  people  of  the  South  naturally  looked  about  for  new  safeguards. 
We  felt  that  the  right  of  secession  was  an  inherent  right.  That  was  our 
honest  opinion.  We  determined  after  consultation  among  the  different  South 
ern  States  that  it  was  the  only  remedy  left  for  the  protection  of  slavery.  It 
may  have  been  unwise  to  exercise  it.  On  that  subject  there  were  honest 
differences  of  opinion.  As  it  turned  out,  it  proved  unfortunate,  although  if 
we  had  not  met  the  issue  then,  we  would  have  had  to  do  it  at  a  little  later 
period,  or  our  children  would.  Probably  it  was  as  well  to  meet  it  then  if  it 
had  to  come.  We  undertook  to  exercise  that  right.  The  Federal  Govern 
ment  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Northern  States  made  war  upon  us  to  compel 
us  to  return  to  the  Union.  That  war  was  long  and  bloody.  On  both  sides 
deeds  of  gallantry  of  the  highest  order  were  performed.  No  people  ever 
fought  more  gallantly.  It  was  American  meeting  American  on  the  bloody 
field  of  battle.  [Applause.]  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  on  account  of  a  vast  su 
periority  of  numbers  possessed  by  the  people  of  the  North,  and  on  account 
of  the  blockade  thrown  around  us,  after  a  grand  and  gallant  struggle,  we 
were  forced  to  surrender. 

Then  carne  one  of  the  difficult  periods  in  the  history  of  the  government ; 
the  reconstruction  period.  After  we  surrendered  the  great  trouble  was  to 
determine  what  was  onr  status — whether  we  were  in  the  Union  or  out  of  the 


776  APPENDIX. 

Union.  We  had  been  told  all  the  time  of  the  contest  that  our  ordinances  of 
secession  were  nullities ;  that  we  were  still  in  the  Union.  At  the  end  of  the 
struggle,  when  we  sent  ba^k  our  senators  and  representatives  to  take  seats 
within  the  halls  of  Congress,  we  found  we  were  still  out  of  the  Union.  It  is 
not  for  us  to  explain  the  inconsistencies  of  the  government  on  that  point. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  those  having  the  power  then,  as  our  conquerors,  dictated 
terms  we  of  the  South  thought  and  still  think  exceedingly  hard.  We 
differed  among  ourselves  about  the  best  means  of  meeting  the  emergency. 
Some  of  us  thought  we  saw  no  chance  but  to  acquiesce  in  the  dictation  of 
the  conqueror.  If  we  could  not  succeed  when  we  had  500,000  of  the  gallant 
sons  of  the  South  in  the  field,  armed  and  ready  for  battle,  how  were  we  to 
resist  further,  when  we  had  surrendered  our  armies  and  they  stood  with 
1,2*>0,000  bayonets  over  us?  Others  thought  at  the  time  we  might  get  rid  of 
these  measures  by  means  of  the  Democratic  party.  We  differed  and  differed, 
I  may  say,  in  an  angry  spirit  sometimes,  but  honestly  on  both  sides.  We 
went  through  a  hard  period.  I  will  not  now  attempt  to  enumerate  ail  the 
hardships  of  the  reconstruction  measures.  Neither  my  strength  nor  your 
patience  would  permit  it.  I  need  only  say  that  we  were  finally  obliged  to 
come  to  the  point  of  acquiescing  in  all  the  reconstruction  acts 'of  Congress 
and  of  adopting  the  three  constitutional  amendments,  the  13th,  14th  and 
15th,  as  dictated  by  our  conquerors.  To-day,  whatever  may  have  been  our 
differences  of  opinion  in  the  past,  we  are  a  unit  on  that  point ;  we  have  all 
acquiesced.  We  have  adopted  the  three  amendments  to  the  Constitution  as 
part  of  the  reconstruction  measures,  and  all  of  us  who  have  held  office  since 
that  time  have  sworn  to  support  them. 

We  have  even  gone  so  lar,  in  our  national  Democratic  platform  at  St. 
Louis  in  1876,  as  to  declare  that  we  renew  our  devotion  to  the  Constitution 
with  the  amendments.  I  confess,  fellow-citizens,  I  had  never  felt  devoted  to 
them ;  but  I  took  them  as  part  of  the  reconstruction  acts.  I  agreed  in  good 
faith  to  adopt  them,  and  I  intend  in  all  good  faith  to  carry  them  out  [Ap 
plause.]  as  earnestly  and  honestly  as  if  they  had  met  my  cordial  approval. 
[Applause.]  The  reconstruction  acts  have  been  enforced.  We  are  now 
acknowledged  to  be  back  in  the  Union. 

Now  the  question  naturally  comes  up,  as  to  our  future,  what  is  best  for  us 
to  do.  Leaving  behind  us  all  these  hardships,  and  they  were  great  hard 
ships,  burying  in  a  common  grave  all  our  past  differences,  let  us  come 
together,  attribute  to  each  other  none  but  proper  motives,  and  move  forward 
in  a  common  cause  to  a  common  destiny  ;  not  only  us  of  the  South,  but  let 
us  extend  a  hand  to  our  brethren  of  the  North,  and  remember  that  while  we 
were  enemies  in  war,  we  are  brethren  in  peace.  Let  us  clasp  hands  with 
them  across  the  bloody  chasm  and  bury  the  bloody  shirt  beyond  the  reach  of 
resurrection.  [Applause.] 

It  can  do  us  no  good  to  enter  into  any  contentions  about  the  past.  Who  was 
right  and  who  was  wrong  is  not  the  question.  None  of  us,  I  apprehend,  now 
desire  any  sort  of  triumph  over  any  other  patriot  on  account  of  any  differ 
ences,  or  on  account  of  any  results.  What  can  we  best  do  in  future  to  make 
the  South  prosperous  and  happy?  And  what  can  we  best  do,  not  only  for 
the  South,  but  tor  the  whole  Union  ? 

One  of  the  results  of  this  great  struggle  that  I  have  referred  to  was  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  Yes,  it  is  abolished — forever  abolished.  It  must  for 
ever  remain  so.  Another  result  was  to  settle  forever  the  question  of  the  right 
of  secession.  We  formerly  had  that  right.  I  have  no  doubt  of  it.  [Ap 
plause.]  It  was  an  inherent  right.  But  when  we  undertook  to  exercise  it,  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  denied  the  right  and  made  War  upon  us, 
and  we  were  obliged  to  go  into  that  struggle  and  accept  the  issue,  with  the 


APPENDIX.  777 

knowledge  that  if  we  failed  and  our  armies  were  conquered  the  right  was 
forever  lost.  [Applause.]  That  was  the  necessary  result,  and  it  is  lost,  and 
we  all  accept  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  Let  us  proclaim  it  North  and 
South,  in  future,  that  we  will  never  again  attempt  to  exercise  the  right  of 
secession.  [Applause.]  Every  State  formerly  had  the  right ;  no  one  has  it 
now.  War  always  settles  something,  and  it  has  settled  that  question,  and 
settled  it  forever. 

But,  while  that  is  true,  it  has  not  settled  that  we  have  lost  all  our  states 
rights,  or  all  our  constitutional  rights.  And  my  reference  to  certain  provisions 
of  the  Constitution  was  with  a  view  to  this  connection.  What  have  we  lost 
by  the  war?  We  have  lost  property  and  lives;  but  I  am  speaking  now  of 
the  principles  of  government.  We  have  lost  slavery  with  the  right  of  seces 
sion.  And  we  lost  out  of  the  system  whatever  rights  were  surrendered  in 
the  13th,  14th  and  loth  amendments.  [Applause.]  As  far  as  they  have 
modified  the  original  Constitution,  we  are  bound  to  conform  to  them  and  we 
must,  as  good  citizens,  in  good  faith,  carry  them  out,  whether  we  were 
devoted  to  them  or  not.  Patriotism  and  honor  require  that.  Every  princi 
ple  of  good  faith  requires  it,  and  we  cannot  afford  to  do  otherwise.  But 
neither  the  States  of  the  South,  nor  the  States  of  the  North  have  lost  any 
more  of  their  rights.  All  the  rights  of  the  States  that  were  reserved  under 
the  Constitution,  except  those  enumerated,  are  still  reserved,  and  we  still 
possess  them,  in  all  their  original  vigor,  just  as  we  did  when  the  Constitution 
came  from  the  hands  of  our  fathers.  [Applause.] 

And  allow  me  to  tell  you  that  we  are  not  singular  in  claiming  this.  The 
people  of  Xew  England  are  as  little  inclined  to  give  up  these  rights  as  we 
are.  The  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  to-day  is  probably  as  good  a  states 
rights  Constitution  as  any  in  this  Union.  Clay,  Webster  and  Jackson  held 
one  construction  of  the  Constitution.  Calhoun,  that  great  luminary  of  the 
South,  and  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  held 
another.  Each  school  had  its  adherents.  As  the  result  of  the  war,  the 
Jeffersonian  and  Calhoun  platform  has  been  modified,  and  we  have  lost  the 
right  of  secession  and  the  rights  yielded  under  the  three  amendments.  We 
have  lost  no  more.  We  stand,  therefore,  with  all  the  rights  in  the  Union  that 
were  claimed  by  Clay,  Jackson  and  Webster ;  and  if  we  are  true  to  ourselves, 
we  will  not  yield  them,  and  no  section  will  require  us  to  yield  them.  This 
is  not  a  sectional  question  now.  Bear  you  in  mind  that  New  England  stood 
as  firmly  by  them  under  Webster's  interpretation  as  the  South  did.  With 
the  modifications  mentioned,  therefore,  the  States  stand  to-day  with  all  their 
reserved  rights.  Now  that  the  slavery  question  is  out  of  the  way,  and  their 
rights  are  understood,  I  see  no  reason  why  we  may  not  move  forward  in  a 
grand  and  glorious  progress  to  wealth,  to  power  and  to  greatness.  That  is 
certainly  the  earnest  wish  of  the  people  of  all  sections  of  the  Union.  Let  us 
then  bury  sectional  strife.  Why  should  the  people  of  Georgia  longer  be  the 
enemies  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  ?  or  why  are  the  people  of  South 
Carolina  the  enemies  of  the  people  of  Illinois  ?  There  is  no  reason  for  it. 
It  must  not  be  so.  If  it  is,  we  cannot  prosper.  We  can  only  prosper  when 
we  all  stand  by  our  constitutional  rights  and  practice  them  in  future. 

And  now  a  few  words  in  reference  to  the  presidential  contest.  I  was  re 
quested  to  say  something  about  the  issues  involved  there.  It  is  a  matter  of 
the  greatest  possible  importance  to  all  of  us  that  we  preserve  constitutional 
government  with  all  the  rights  that  we  now  have.  For  the  last  twenty  years 
the  government  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the  Republican  party.  And  I  do  not 
say  that  they  are  more  corrupt  than  any  other  party  that  has  had  power  that 
long.  But  no  party  should  be  trusted  with  power  for  a  longer  period  than 
that  in  a  free  government,  without  change.  Corruption  and  abuses  will  creep 


778  APPENDIX. 

in  when  there  is  a  long  reign  of  power  and  no  other  party  comes  in  to  over 
haul  what  has  been  done  or  to  put  checks  upon  it. 

It  was  natural,  my  fellow-citizens,  at  the  end  of  the  war,  as  the  Republi 
can  party  had  been  the  great  war  party,  and  had  been  triumphantly  the  suc 
cessful  party,  that  they  should  hold  the  reins  of  government  for  a  number 
of  years  to  come.  I  would  have  read  history  in  vain  had  I  not  learned  that 
that  was  to  be  the  result.  I  foresaw  it  at  the  time  of  the  surrender.  We 
could  but  expect  them  to  control  the  government  for  a  long  time.  They  have 
held  uninterrupted  power  till  extravagances  and  corruptions  have  crept  in, 
as  they  might  have  done  had  the  democracy  been  twenty  years  in  power. 
And  I  think  it  is  the  interest  of  the  whole  people  of  the  United  States  to- 
have  a  change.  We  should  have  an  overhauling  once  in  a  while.  And  now 
I  think  is  the  time  for  it.  [Applause.] 

I  have  already  said  that  a  new  element  has  been  introduced  into  the  body 
politic.  The  slaves  were  not  only  set  free  and  slavery  forever  abolished,  but 
as  part  of  the  reconstruction  measures,  those  who  were  formerly  slaves  were 
made  our  fellow-citizens  and  placed  by  our  sides  with  the  ballot  in  their 
hands.  It  was  a  fearful  experiment.  I  so  regarded  it  at  that  time.  But 
the  conquering  power  dictated  it,  and  there  was  no  other  alternative.  It  has 
in  practice  worked  better,  I  confess,  than  I  anticipated,  and  probably  worse 
as  a  party  measure,  than  the  party  in  power  anticipated. 

I  am  on  record  in  speeches  I  made  in  1868,  as  saying  that  in  ten  or  fifteen 
years  the  Republicans  of  New  England  would  regret  that  they  gave  the  col 
ored  man  the  ballot.  The  fourteenth  amendment  provides  that  if  there  is 
any  race  or  class  of  people  (I  do  not  quote  the  exact  language)  denied  the 
elective  franchise,  they  shall  not  be  counted  among  our  representative  popu 
lation.  Therefore  if  we  do  not  give  the  colored  race  the  vote,  none  of  them 
would  be  counted  in  making  up  the  representative  population  of  the  South. 
The  colored  race  counted  gives  thirty  odd  votes  in  Congress  and  a  like  num 
ber  in  the  electoral  college. 

In  1876  I  was  invited  by  the  Democratic  executive  committee  of  the  Union 
to  aid  in  looking  after  a  fair  count  in  Florida.  While  there  I  twitted  some 
of  the  gentlemen  on  the  Republican  side,  saying  it  would  not  have  been 
necessary  for  them  to  be  there  trying  to  get  the  vote  of  the  State  by  unfair 
means,  if  they  had  not  given  the  colored  man  the  ballot.  "  Without  it  in  the 
count,"  said  1,  "you  would  have  had  thirty  majority  and  your  candidate 
would  have  been  overwhelmingly  elected."  One  of  them,  using  an  expletive 
that  I  will  not  repeat,  said,  "Yes,  the  negro  is  a  failure,  and  we  are  sorry 
that  we  did  it."  still  using  expletives.  [Laughter  and  applause.] 

It  is,  therefore,  a  source  of  power  to  us.  They  have  acted  well  as  an 
uneducated  race,  given  the  ballot  under  such  circumstances.  They  have  done 
probably  better  than  any  other  race  would  have  done.  They  are  orderly 
now ;  and  go  to  the  polls  and  vote  by  our  sides,  and  many  of  them  for  our 
candidates.  By  counting  them  we  have  this  great  additional  strength  that 
we  would  not  otherwise  have  possessed.  And  whenever  any  constitutional 
amendment  is  proposed  by  the  people  of  the  North  to  take  back  the  ballot 
from  the  colored  man  you  will  find  the  democracy  of  the  whole  South  rally 
ing  to  the  colored  man.  He  gives  us  power  and  he  shall  ever  exercise  the 
elective  franchise  !  [Great  applause.]  He  shall  no  more  be  a  slave  ;  and  he 
shall  evermore  be  a  voter.  [Applause.]  We  were  apprehensive  of  danger 
when  they  were  misleading  the  colored  people,  but  it  has  worked  out  to  their 
advantage  and  to  ours.  It  is  the  interest  of  the  colored  man  to  stand  by  us ; 
and  it  is  our  interest  to  stand  by  him.  We  were  raised  together.  We 
played  together  in  boyhood.  We  got  along  finely  together ;  why  should 
either  race  then  abandon  the  other?  Why  should  he  run  off  after  strangers? 


APPENDIX.  779 

It  is  better  for  us  to  act  together,  deal  justly,  and  all  be  fellow-citizens  together, 
and  do  everything  in  our  power  to  build  up  this  great  section  of  ours,  to 
develop  its  resources,  and  to  make  it  rich  and  powerful. 

In  this  connection  allow  me  to  say  that  there  is  a  national  obligation  which 
arises  here.  By  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  enfranchisement  of  the  col 
ored  man,  the  whole  race  were  made  citizens.  Now  that  they  are  citizens  it 
is  our  interest  and  duty  to  make  them  the  best  citizens  in  our  power.  We 
ought  to  do  all  we  can  to  make  them  good  citizens.  And  to  do  that  we  must 
educate  their  children,  or  help  to  do  it.  We  have  most  of  the  property.  The 
taxation  falls  mostly  upon  us.  'fhe  whole  country  is  poor  ;  I  am  willing  at 
all  times  to  submit  to  my  part  of  the  burden,  to  raise  whatever  sum  is  nec 
essary  to  educate  the  children  of  the  whole  State.  [Applause.]  But  I  say 
this  burden  ought  not  to  be  put  upon  the  property  and  the  people  of  the 
South  alone.  The  Northern  States  required  abolition.  The  interest  of  the 
Union  they  said  required  it.  Then  if  it  was  the  interest  of  the  Union  to  turn 
loose  these  four  millions  of  people  and  absolve  them  from  slavery  and  make 
them  citizens,  it  is  the  interest  of  the  whole  Union  now  to  help  them  to  be 
good  citizens — not  only  is  it  the  interest  but  the  solemn  duty  and  obligation 
of  the  Union.  Therefore,  I  say  their  children  ought  to  be  educated,  not  out 
of  our  tax  or  our  property  alone,  but  out  of  the  property  of  the  Union.  And 
in  this  connection  allow  me  to  say,  as  I  see  my  friend,  Dr.  Orr,  the  State 
school  commissioner,  present,  that  he  was  in  a  convention  of  school  commis 
sioners  in  which  most  of  the  Northern  States  were  represented,  and  they 
agreed  to  recommend  a  measure  to  Cougress,  and  that  measure  is  now  pend 
ing  there,  to  appropriate  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  in  future  to  the 
education  of  the  mass  of  the  people.  [Applause.]  What  better  use  could 
ever  be  made  of  it  ?  None,  none  !  Take  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands, 
then,  divide  them  among  the  States  in  proportion  to  the  number  who  are 
illiterate,  and  let  us  have  it  as  an  educational  fund,  and  we  will  soon  make 
an  intelligent  people.  We  will  soon  educate  not  only  our  white  children  who 
have  had  no  such  advantage,  but  we  will  educate  the  colored  people,  and  We 
will  advance  the  cause  of  prosperity  and  progress,  not  only  in  the  South,  but 
all  over  the  North  !  What  could  be  better  ? 

You  tell  me  that  it  costs  money  to  educate  the  people.  I  know  it.  But  I 
tell  you  that  you  will  never  find  an  enlightened,  educated  people  who  do  not 
make  money.  If  you  want  to  get  rich  and  powerful,  educate  the  whole  mass 
of  your  people. 

Take  Prussia  as  an  instance.  Napoleon  the  First  swept  over  that  country 
like  a  tornado,  and  scattered  everything  to  ruin.  After  his  fall,  Prussia  met 
to  look  into  her  system  and  devise  means  to  build  up  the  country.  The 
wise  counsels  of  the  professors  and  teachers  prevailed ;  and  the  King  deter 
mined  to  educate  the  whole  people.  They  said  to  a  man  who  would  not  send 
his  son  to  school :  "You  are  responsible  for  bringing  this  human  being  into 
existence.  You  have  no  right,  sir,  to  raise  him  in  ignorance  and  vice,  so  that 
he  will  become  a  pest  to  society.  But  you  shall  send  him  to  school.  He 
shall  have  reasonable  opportunities."  The  law  so  required  and  what  has 
been  the  result?  That  little  kingdom  that  the  great  conqueror  swept  over 
almost  without  resistance,  has  since  risen  to  be  one  of  the  first  powers  upon 
the  earth,  and  has  humbled  his  successor  and  driven  him  from  the  throne. 
Why  was  it  that  the  Prussians  were  more  powerful  than  the  French  in  the 
late  struggle?  Military  men  assign  many  reasons.  The  universities  of 
France  are  of  as  high  order  as  those  of  Germany.  But  the  mass  of  the  peo 
ple  of  France  are  not  educated  as  in  Germany.  Hence,  in  that  great  contest 
the  French  people  did  not  have  the  benefit  of  all  the  powerful  intellect  of 
France  developed  for  the  struggle.  Germany  did.  Under  her  system,  when 


780  APPENDIX. 

a  poor  boy  is  found  mentally  to  possess  a  glittering  diamond,  which  it  is 
only  necessary  to  polish  that  it  may  sparkle,  he  is  taken  up  and  educated 
accordingly.  If  he  develops  a  genius  for  chemistry,  they  put  him  through 
the  university  and  make  him  a  chemist  of  the  highest  order.  If  another  is 
found  adapted  to  the  military,  they  give  him  every  advantage  to  make  him 
a  grand  military  commander.  If  he  has  capacity  for  medicine,  he  is  thus 
educated  to  a  high  degree  for  that  profession.  So,  if  another  is  found 
adapted  to  law,  or  another  to  architecture.  And  so  on.  And  what  has  been 
the  result?  When  the  great  struggle  began,  Prussia  had  all  her  brightest 
jewels  in  intellect  polished.  She  had  a  man  ready  for  every  position,  and 
competent  for  every  duty.  Whenever  you  educate  the  whole" American  peo 
ple,  all  the  bright-eyed  boys  up  in  these  mountains  and  down  in  the  wire- 
grass  who  to-day  may  be  wholly  unconscious  of  their  powers,  with  the 
opportunities  they  have  at  school,  will  soon  begin  to  find  that  they  have  men 
tal  powers,  and  you  cannot  keep  them  down.  And  when  educated  the  gov 
ernment  will  get  the  benefit  of  this  power. 

I  said  soon  after  the  war,  and  have  never  taken  it  back,  that  if  I  were 
dictator  of  Georgia,  I  would  issue  a  million  of  dollars  in  bonds,  put  them  in 
the  treasury  of  Georgia  and  draw  the  interest  annually  for  your  University 
and  its  branches.  I  would  make,  in  addition  to  the  branches  we  already 
have,  two  more,  one  in  the  eastern  and  one  in  the  western  part  of  the  State. 
I  would  make  the  University  all  that  could  be  required,  and  then  advance  the 
public  schools  till  all  these  bright  jewels  could  be  seen  by  their  sparkling. 
We  would  then  know  how  to  find  them.  I  would  put  them  forward  in  the 
schools  and  in  the  Universities;  and  what  do  you  think  would  be  the  result 
within  a  few  years  V  Talk  about  the  expense — seventy  thousand  dollars  per 
annum — what  is  it?  Why  not  a  mill  on  the  dollar  of  our  taxable  property. 
Soon  it  will  be  only  half  a  mill.  Why  not  pay  it  to  promote  the  education 
of  our  people  and  produce  such  a  result?  Nothing  could  be  wiser  ;  nothing 
could  redound  so  to  the  wealth,  prosperity  and  glory  of  Georgia.  You  would 
draw  to  you  first  the  youth  of  adjoining  States ;  then,  as  you  build  up  higher 
and  higher,  they  would  come  in  all  around  from  Virginia  to  Texas,  and  from 
the  Ohio  to  the  Atlantic.  You  would  find  youths  of  every  State  at  your  Uni 
versity  spending  not  thousands,  but  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  a  year 
in  Georgia,  and  thus  advancing  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  our  State.  I 
say,  then,  let  us  educate  the  mass  of  our  people,  and  let  us  see  to  it  the  col 
ored  man  has  as  fair  a  chance  as  the  white  man.  That  was  our  compact 
with  them  at  the  end  of  the  war,  when  we  established  our  school  system  and 
a  college  for  each  race.  Let  it  be  carried  out  in  the  utmost  good  faith. 

Well,  you  may  ask  what  is  best  for  us  to  do  at  the  present  time  in  our 
national  affairs.  In  my  honest  opinion  the  best  course  to  pursue  to  preserve 
•constitutional  government,  the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  and  to  develop  our  interest,  is  to  have  a  change  of  administration  and 

Eut  such  a  man  as  General  Hancock  in  power  at  the  head  of  the  government. 
Applause.]  I  say  it  in  no  partisan  sense.  I  believe  that  the  interest  of  this 
whole  country  requires  it.  And  you  have  this  great  point  to  encourage  you. 
During  the  reconstruction  period,  when  military  power  was  dominant  here, 
when  men  were  sent  down  clothed  with  arbitrary  power,  holding  the  desti 
nies  of  life  and  death  in  their  hands,  General  Hancock  was  sent  with  that 
power  to  New  Orleans  to  exercise  it  in  Louisiana  and  Texas.  What  was  the 
result  ?  While  there  clothed  with  all  the  plenitude  of  military  power,  with 
the  right  under  the  law  to  do  just  as  he  pleased  in  this  matter,  subject  only 
to  the  will  of  the  President,  who  left  everything  to  him,  he  refused  to  per 
mit  the  supreme  power  to  be  military  ;  but  placed  the  civil  over  the  military. 
[Applause.]  Can  you  not  trust  a  man  in  times  like  these,  who  could  act  thus 
in  times  like  those  ?  I  think  you  may.  [Applause.] 


INDEX 


Abbott  £  Bro.,  483. 

Beauregard,  Gen.,  203,  218, 

Abolition  Slavery,  414. 

222,  224. 

Agriculture  Dept.,  495. 

Bee,  Gen.  B.,  224. 

Akerman,  A.  T.,  54. 

Bell,H.  P.,  186. 

Akiu,  W.,  52,  108,  109,  440. 

Benning,  H  L.,  39,  60,  61. 

Alabama,  168,  172,  173,  184, 

Berrien,  I.  W.  M.,  52. 

205,  320,  432. 

Berrieu,  J.  M.,  43,  44,  52, 

Ala.  &  Chat.  R.  R  ,  467. 

105. 

Alexander,  J.  R.,  52,  65,  66. 

Berrien,  T.  M.,  52. 

Alexander,  P.  W.,  439. 

Bigham,  B.  H.,  54. 

Alexander,  T.  W.,  52. 

Billups,  J.  A.,  54. 

Allen,  A.  A.,  37. 

Black  John,  115. 

Allen,  T  ,  484. 

Blair,  F.  P.,  446. 

Amendment,  421,  435,  443, 

Blecklev,  L.  E.,  54. 

444,  462. 

Blockade,  237. 

Anderson,  J.  W.,  102. 

Blodgett,  Foster,  481,  483. 

Anderson,  Major,  203. 

Bonds,  State,  251,  465. 

Andrew,  J.  O.,  49. 

Bonham,  Gen.,  224. 

Andrews,  G.,  80,  81,  456. 

Boring,  J.,  49. 

Anthony,  S.,  49. 

Boundaries  of  State,  5. 

Area  of  State,  4. 

Bower,  L  E.,  52. 

Area  of  C.  S.,  207. 

Boynton,  Jas.  S.,  589. 

Area  of  U.  S.,  207. 

Bragg,  Gen,  211. 

Argument  in  Florida,  507. 

Brantley,  W.  T.,  49. 

Arkansas,  172,  197,  200,  206, 

Breckenridge,  J.  C.,  92,  1  98. 

432. 

Broadhead,  Jas.  A.,  446. 

Arms  Seizure,  183. 

Brothers,  Georgia,  51,52. 

Arnold,  W.,  49. 

Brown,  Charles  M.,  99,  569. 

Atlanta,  320. 

Brown,  Elijah  A.,  99. 

Avery,  W.  L.,  470. 

Brown,  Franklin  P.,  100. 

Axson,  L,  50. 

Brown,  J.  R.,  52,  97. 

Brown,  Joseph  E  ,  37,  52, 

Bacon,  I.  T.,  52. 

67,  68,  69,  70,  88,  89,  91, 

Bacon,  R.  I.,  52. 

138,   220,  257,  259,  325, 

Bailey,  D.  J.,  38,  82,  102. 

330,  344,  348,  355,  359, 

BaileV,  S.  T.,  53,  64. 

360,  364,   371,  387,  388, 

Bainbridge,  C.  &  C.  R.  R., 

392,  397,  398,  400,  403, 

467. 

408,  409,  425,  428,  436, 

Baker,  Gen.,  235. 

454,  469,  480,  481,  484, 

Baker,  J.  S.,  49. 

488,  501,  507,  521,   524, 

Ball,  J.  M.,  483. 

529,   531,  561,   562,  564, 

Bank  Cases,  61. 

586,  591. 

Banks,  119-128. 

Brown,  Jos.  M.,  99. 

Banks,  H  ,  483. 

Brown,  Julius  L.,  99,  488. 

Barnett,  S.,  498. 

Brown,  Mackey,  95. 

Barney,  J.  W.,  52. 

Brown,  Sallie/99. 

Barney,  T.  I.,  52. 

Brunswick  &  Albany  R.  R., 

Bartlett,  G.  T.,  54. 

468. 

Bartow,  F.  S.,  53,  179,  185, 

Buchanan,  H.,  54. 

224. 

Buchanan,  Pres.,  198. 

Buckner,  Gen.  S.  B.,  232. 

Bull,  O.  A.,  37. 

Bull  Run,  222. 

Bullock,  R.  B.,  146,  443, 
444,  451,  453,  459,  463, 
467,  470,  473,  475,  48K 
485. 

Burch,  R.  S.,  54. 

Butler,  I).  E.,  439. 

Butler,  Gen.,  217. 

Cabaniss,  E.  C.,  52. 
Cabbages,  313. 
Calhoun  Academy,  96. 
.Calhoun,  J.  M.,  52. 
Cameron,  S.,  484. 
Campbell,  D.  C.,  1 86. 
Campbell,  D.  G.,  42,  59. 
Campbell,  J.  H.,  49. 
Candler,  M.  A.,  315. 
Capers, 'Gen.,  246,  250. 
Cartersville  £  VanWert  R. 

R.,  468. 
Celia,  315. 
Cemeteries,  17. 
Central  R.  R.,  252,  484. 
Chandler,  A.,  49. 
Chandler,  T.,  153. 
Chappell,  A.    H.,   53,    64, 

440. 

Charities,  18,  568. 
Charleston  Mercury,  236. 
Charlton,  R.  M.,  53. 
Chastain,  E.  W.,  53. 
Cheatham,  Gen.  F.,  233. 
Cherokee  R,  R.,  468. 
Chinese,  562. 
Chisholm,  E.  D  ,  54,  102. 
Choice,  Wm.  A.,  116. 
Christian  Sabbath,  16®. 
Church,  A.,  49. 
Churches,  16. 
Cities,  13,  14. 
Civil  Service,  562. 
Clark,  Gov.  John,  34,  38. 
Clark,  R.  H.,  54,  102,  160. 
Clark,  W.  W.,  53. 
Clayton,  W.  W.,  102. 
Cleghorn,  Capt.,  179. 
Climate  of  State,  8. 


782 


INDEX. 


Clinch,  D.  L.,  34. 

Cobb,  H.,  39,  43,  51,  66,  68, 

71,  72,  76,  78,  80,  83,  91, 

105,   131,   135,   185,   187, 

194,  424,  448. 
Cobb  T.  R.  R.,  67,  68,  160, 

185. 

Cobb,  T.  W.,  42,  59. 
Cochran,  A.  E.,  39,  102. 
Code  of  Ga.,  159. 
Cole,  E.  W.,  484. 
Coif  ax,  S.,  447. 
Colinsworth,  J.,  49. 
Collards,  315. 
Colleges,  19,  20,  21. 
Colley,  J.,  49. 
Collier,  J.,  52,  483. 
Colquitt,  Alfred    H.,   497, 

499,  521,  522. 
Colquitt,  P.,  219. 
Colquitt,  W.  T.,  43,  44,  71, 

73. 

Common  Schools,  146. 
Cone,  F.  H.,  43,  64. 
Cone,  P.,  55. 
Confederate    Constitution, 

190,  194. 

Confederacy,  181. 
Congress,  Prov.,  184,  190. 
Conkliug,     Senator,     525, 

564. 

Conley,  B.,  464,  475. 
Conna'lly,  Mary  V.,  99. 
Conscription,  249,  355. 
Constitution  of  State,  412, 

441,  497. 

Constitutionalist,  86. 
Contracts,  412. 
Controversy,    Brown    and 

Davis,  261,  355. 
Convention,  State,  71,  104, 

411,  434,  439,  443,  449, 

497. 

Cook,  G-,  484. 
Cook,  Phil.,  439. 
Cooper,  M.  A.,  34,  55,  82, 

92. 
Correspondence,  320,  355, 

398 

Cotton  Exposition,  520. 
Cotton  Money,  562. 
Counties  of  State,  4. 
Cow,  313. 
Cowart,  R.  J.,  53 
Crawford,   G.  W.,  34,  39, 

77,  103,  185. 

Crawford,  M.  J.,  40,  194. 
Crawford,  N.  M.,  49 
Crawford,  W.  H.,  40,  42, 

59,  95. 
Crittenden,  J.  C.,  198. 


Crook,  L  W.,  54. 
Culpepper,  C.,  48. 
Gumming,  H.  H.,  52. 
Gumming,  William,  52. 
Gumming,  J.  B.,  464,  496. 
Currency  Bonds,  473. 
Cuyler  R.  R  ,  55,  252. 

Dabney,  W.  H.,  52. 

Bade  Coal  Co.,  488,  489, 
503. 

Daniel,  W.  C,,  186. 

Davis,  J.,  49,  187,  217,  227, 
236,  257,  259,  267,  312, 
318,  355,  359,  360,  365, 
371,  388,  392,  436. 

Dawson,  A.  H.  H.,  53. 

Dawson,  J.  E.,  49. 

Dawson,  W.  C.,  34,  43,  63. 

Debt,  National,  562. 

Debt,  War,  412. 

DeGraffenreid,  B.,  52. 

DeGraffenreid,  W.  K,  52. 

Delano,  J.  S.,  484. 

Delaware,  186,  197. 

DeLyon,  L.  S.,  53. 

Dinsmore,  W.  B.,  484. 

Dobbins,  M.  G.,  483. 

Dobbins,  W.  B.,  483. 

Dodd,  P.,  483. 

Donation  to  State  Univer 
sity,  577. 

Dooly,  J.  M.,  42,  59. 

Dougherty,  C.,  34,  43,  51. 

Dougherty,  R.,  51. 

Dougherty,  W.,  51,  60,  61. 

Douglass,  E.  L.,  52. 

Douglass,  M.,  52. 

Doyall,  L.  T.,  54. 

Duncan,  J.  P.,  50. 

Dunnegan,  J.,  55. 

Early,  Gen.,  320. 
Edam,  S.  C.,  52. 
Education,  146,  562. 
Elam,  W.  D.,  52. 
Elliott,  S.,  49. 
Elzey,  A.,  182. 
Embassy  to  England,  196. 
Estill,  J  H.,  578. 
Evans,  Gen.,  234. 
Evans,  J.  E.,  49. 
Examiner,  Richmond,  236. 
Ezzard,  Wm.,  53. 

Fannin,  I.,  52. 
Featherston,  L.  H.,  53. 
Ferrell,  B.C.,  53,  102. 
Few,  I.,  49. 

Fielder,  Herbert,  313,  495. 
Fleming,  W.  B.,  37,  53. 


Florida,  172,  173,  184,  206> 

506. 

Floyd,  Gen.  J.  B.,  218. 
Floyd,  J.  I,  51. 
Floyd,  S.,  51. 
Forces,    State,    245,     258, 

263. 

Forrest,  Gen.,  320. 
Forsyth,  Jno.,  38,  42,  95. 
Fort,  Moses,  48. 
Fort  Pickens,  202,  210. 
FortPulaski,  178. 
Fort  Sumter,  185,  202,  210. 
Foster,  A.  G.,  63. 
Foster,  I.  R.,  255,  312,  317, 

418. 

Foster,  N  G  ,  40,  51. 
Fouche,  S.,  55. 
Fourteenth      Amendment, 

420,  435,  443,  462. 
Fullartou,  A ,  398,  399,  403, 

405,  408. 
Furlow,  T.  M.,  109,  439. 

Gardner,  J.,  55,  86. 

Gartrell,  J.  O.,  52. 

Gartrell,  L.  J.,  43,  52,  53, 
102. 

Geologist,  State,  158,  496. 

Georgia,  30,  320,  432. 

Georgia  Code,  159. 

Georgia  Hospital  Associa 
tion;  307. 

Gibson,  0.  C.,  51. 

Gibson,  W.,  51. 

Gilmer,  G.  R  ,  38. 

Glenn,  J.  W.,  49. 

Glenn,  L.  J.,  53,  439. 

Gold  Bonds,  474. 

Gordon,  John  B.,  443,  497, 
520. 

Gould,  W.  T.,  53. 

Graham,  J.,  439. 

Grant,  Gen.,  431,  444,  447, 
453. 

Grant,  J.  T.,  484,  488. 

Grant,  W.  D.,  488. 

Great  Seal  of  State,  486. 

Greeley,  Horace,  451. 

Green,  H.,  54. 

Gresham,  J.  L,  53,  439. 

Gresham,  Rev.  Jos.,  98. 

Guerry,  T.  L.,  55,  440. 

Hall,  G.  A.,  54. 
Hall,  J.  L,  466. 
Hall,  R.  S.,  52. 
Hall,  Sam.,  52,  54,  186. 
Hammel,  A.,  59. 
Hammond,  A.  W.,  53. 
Hammond,  D.  F.,  37. 


INDEX. 


783 


Hansell,  A.  H.,  51. 

Jackson,  Jas.,  37,  577. 

Hansell,  A.  J.,  51,  54. 

Jackson,  Jos.,  43. 

Haralson,  H.  A.,  43,45,  82. 

Jackson,  Stonewall,  224.        ] 

Hardee,  Gen.,  232. 

Jamison,  S.  Y.,  53. 

Hardeman,  R.  V.,  37. 

Janes,  T.  P.,  495. 

Hardeman,  T.,  54,  439. 

Jenkins,  C.  J.,  47,  72,  75, 

Harden,  E.  J.,  531. 

76,  77,  78,  411,415,416, 

Harper,  R.  G.,  67. 

420,    424,  432,  456,  472, 

Harris,  I.  L.,  53. 

473,496,  591. 

Harris,  J.  L  ,  54. 

Johnson,  H.  V.,  38,  47,  71, 

Harris,  J.  V.,  59. 

74,  76,77,78,  80,83,  119, 

Harris,  J.  W.,  55. 

131,   132,   135,  141,   156, 

Harris,  W.  A.,  54. 

411,  417,  424,   438,  440, 

Harris,  W.  G.,  43. 

590. 

Harrison,  B.  K.,  53. 

Johnson,  J.,   63,  410,   413, 

Harrison,  G.  P.,   102,  247, 

414,  416,417. 

250. 

Johnson,  President,  31  1,410, 

Harwell,  J.  M.,  483. 

416,  444. 

Hawkins,  W.  A.,  54. 

Johnson,  R.  M.,  53. 

Health  of  State,  9. 

Johnson,  W.  B.,484. 

Henderson,  J.,  49. 

Johnston,  Gen.  A.  S.,  232. 

Henderson,  T.  J.,  495. 

Johnston,  Gen.  J.  E.,   218, 

Hester,  R.,  54. 

222,318,320. 

Hightower,  T.  J.,  483. 

Jones,  C.  C.  Jr.,  497. 

Hill,  B.,  52. 

Jones,  J.,  49. 

Hill,  B.  H.,   67,  69,  81,  85, 

Jones,  J.  A.,  5  1,54,  56,102. 

88,    94,    109,    117,    185, 

Jones,  J.  J.,  54. 

424,  436,   439,  440,    448,    Jones,  S.,  51,  57,  61,  63. 

484,  497,  564,  591. 

Jordan,  C.S.,  417. 

Hill,  E.  Y.,  34,  51,  102. 

Hill,  Joshua,   51,  109,  461, 

Kenan,  A.  H.,  53,  102,  185. 

485. 

Kenan,  O.  H  ,  56. 

Hillyer,  J.,  43,  53. 

Kentucky,   168,    172,    197, 

Hillyer,  S.  G.,  49. 

200. 

Holmes,  A.  T.,  49. 

Key,  C.,  49. 

Holt,  H.,  63. 

Kiddoo,  D.  H.,  39. 

Holt,  W.  S.,  484. 

Kimball,   H.   I.,  467,  473, 

Holt,  W.  W.,  37. 

484. 

Hood,  Gen.,  318,  320. 

King,  J.  P.,  55,  484. 

Hospital  Association,  307.      King,  T.  B.,  53. 

Howard,  T.  C.,  55,  102.           King,  Wm.,  310. 

Hoyt,  S.  B.,  483. 

Knight,  N.  B.,  54. 

Hudson,  C.  B.,480,  501. 

Know  Nothings,  79,  81,456. 

Huger,  Gen.,  217. 

Kollock,  H.,  49. 

Hughes,  D.,  439. 

Hull,  H.,  43. 

Lamar,  G.  B.,  253. 

Hull,  W.  H.,  53,  66. 

Larnar,  H.  G.,  53,  86. 

Hutchings,  N.  L.,  52. 

Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.,  67,  68. 

Lamar,  Senator,  564. 

Indians,  562. 

Lane,  C.'W.,  50. 

Ingram,  P.,  54. 

Latham,  T.  A.,  56,  57. 

Internal    improvements, 

Law,  J.,  53. 

141,  145. 

Law,  W.,  53. 

Investigation,  417,  500. 

Lawton,  A.  R.,53,  179,  250, 

Irvine,  C.  M.,  49. 

528,  561. 

Irwin,  D.,  52,  106,  160,  443. 

Lawton,  W.  J.,  102. 

Iverson,  A.,  39,  63,  79. 

Lease,  State  Road,  480,  501. 

Lee,  Gen.  R.  E.,  218,  530. 

Jackson,  H.  R.,  53,  66,  67, 

Leesburg  battle,  234. 

182,  183,  245,  250,  530,    Legislature,  459. 

560.                                     1  Lester,  G.  N.,  52. 

Lester,  P.,  52. 

Letcher,  Gov.,  220. 

Letters,  319,  325,  345,  348, 
355,  359,  360,  365,  371, 
388,  392,  398,  400,  403, 
405,  447,  502,  570,  578. 

Leverett,  W.,  96. 

Lewis,  D.  W.,  53. 

Lewis,  Dr.  J.  W.,  98,  132, 
141. 

Lewis,  M.  W.,  54. 

Leyden,  A.,  483. 

Lincoln,  Prea.,  217,  320, 
410,  445. 

Liquor,  238. 

Little,  Dr.  Geo.,  496. 

Lloyd,  T.  E.,  53. 

Lochrane,  O.  A.,  54,  417. 

Longstreet,  A.  B.,  49. 

Longstreet,  Gen.  J.,  224. 

Losses,  war,  308. 

Louisiana,  172,  173,  186, 
206. 

Love,  P.  E.,  37,  102. 

Lovell,  J.  M.,  53. 

Lumpkin,  J.  H.,37,  40,  73, 
86,  87. 

Lumpkin,  W.,  38,  41. 

Lyon,  Gen.,  234. 

Lyon,  J.,  52. 

Lyon,  J.  R.,  54. 

Lyon,  R.  F.,  52. 

Mabry,  C.  W.,  54. 

Macon  &  Brunswick  R.  R., 

472. 
Macon  &  Western  R.  R., 

484. 

Magruder,  Gen.  J.  B.,  217. 
Mahone,  Senator,  562,  564. 
Malory,  C.  D.,  49. 
Manassas,  226. 
Mann,  A.  T.,  49. 
Manufactories,  15. 
Maryland,    172,    186,    197, 

200,  320. 

Mason  &  Slidell,  227. 
May,  B.,  484. 
McAllister,  M.  H.,  34,  76. 
McCane,  R.  W.,  54. 
McClellan,  Gen.,  217,  219, 

224. 

McCulloch,  Gen.  B.,  234. 
McDonald,  C.  J.,  34, 37,  39, 

71,  72,73,78,  79,  81,105. 
McDougald,  A.,  51,  63. 
McDougald,  D.,  51,  63. 
McDowell,  Gen.,  217. 
Mclutosh,  L.  H.,  255. 
Mclntyre,  A.  T.,  54. 
McKay  H.  S.,  53,  487. 


784 


INDEX. 


McKinley.C.  G.,  51. 

McKinley,  E.  D.,  51. 

McKinley,  W.,  51. 

McLester,  W.  W.,439. 

McMillan,  G.,  466. 

McMillan,  R.,  53. 

McNaught,  Wm.,  483. 

Meade,  Gen.,  433,  444. 

Means,  A  ,  49. 

Mell,  P.  H.,  49. 

Mercer,  J.,  59. 

Mercer,  G.  A.,  439. 

Mercury,  Charleston.  236. 

Meriwe'ther,  J.  A.,  43, 47. 

Merrell,  H.  F.,  51. 

Merrell,  W.  W.,  51. 

Message,  112,115,117,119, 
121,  123,  128,  135,  136, 
138,  143,  147,  152,  158, 
161,  164,  168,  245,  249, 
250,  253,  255,  263,  265, 
268,  271,  306,  309,  416, 
421,  475. 

Mexican  pension  speech, 
525. 

Military  administration, 
162 

Milledge,  J.,  53. 

Milledgeville,312. 

Miller,  A.  J ,  43, 46,  47, 102. 

Miller,  Dr.  H.  V.M.,54,81, 
461,  577. 

Milner,  J.,  53. 

Minerals,  10. 

Mississippi,  168,  172,  173, 
184,  186,  206,320,432. 

Missouri,  172, 197,  200,  206. 

Mitchell,  Wm.  M ,  577. 

Mobley,  J.  M.,  54 

Moore,  A.  B.,  185. 

Morgan,  H.,  52. 

Morgan,  J.  B.,  54. 

Morgan,  Gov.,  183. 

Morgan,  Gen.  J.  H.,  320. 

Mormons,  562. 

Morrill,  W.  C.,  484,  488. 

Morris,  T.,  54. 

Mosely,  Wm.,  49. 

Murphy,  C.,  52,  102. 

Myers,  E.  H.,  49. 

Nelson,  Gen.,  234. 

Netherland,  G.  M.,  480, 501. 

Neufville,  E.,  49. 

Newspapers,  22. 

Nicoll,  J.  C.,  36. 

Nisbet,  E.  A.,  52, 61,  62,63, 

64,103,  109,  174,  185. 
Nisbet,  J.  A.,  52. 
North   Carolina,    172,   186, 

197,  200,  206,  320,  432. 


North  Eastern  R.  R.,  500. 
Norwood,  Thos.  M.,  527. 
Nunnally,  A.  D.,  480,  482, 

501. 
Nutting,  C.  A.,  484. 

Oliver,  B.,  54. 
Ordinance  for  contracts, 

412. 

Ordinance  war  debt,  412. 
Ordinance  of   Secession, 

174,411. 
Ormond,  J.,  483. 
Orr,  J.  L.,  185. 
Overby,  B.  H.,  53,  80. 
Owens,  G.  S.,  52. 
Owens,  J.  W.,  52. 

Pardon  power,  113. 
Parks,  W.  J.,  49. 
Parole,  311. 
Parties  in  State,  33. 
Patterson,  Gen.,  222. 
Peace,  195,  198. 
Peeples,  C.,  53. 
Pennsylvania,  320. 
Perkins,  W.  C.,  52. 
Peters,  R.,  484. 
Pettus.J.  Q.,  186. 
Phillips,  C.  D ,  52. 
Phillips,  G.  D.,  55. 
Phillips,  Wm.,52,  182,  245, 

246. 

Pickens,  F.  W.t  185. 
Pierce,  G.  F.,  59,  480,  501. 
Pierce,  L.,  49. 
Pillow,  Gen.  G.  J.,  232. 
Piuchard,  J.  S.,  53. 
Plant,  H.  B  ,  484. 
Poe,  W.,  53. 
Polk,  Gen.L.,  233. 
Poor,  The,  242. 
Pope,  A.,  54 
Pope,  Gen.  J.,  432,  444. 
Population  of  State,  4, 205. 
Pottle,  E.  H.,  52,  439. 
Powers,  A.  P.,  38. 
Price,  Gen.  S.,  233. 
Pringle,  J.  A.,  54. 
Printup,  D.  S.,  54,  117. 
Productions  of  State,  9. 
Public  men  of  Georgians  1. 
Pulaski,  Fort,  178. 
Purse,  T.,  102. 

JRailroads,  11,  12,  141,  145. 
Railroad     Commissioners, 

498. 
Ramsay,  J.  N.,  43,  54,  102, 

219. 
Ray,  J.,  56,  59. 


Recognition,  196. 
Reconstruction,    410,   420,. 

428 

Reese,  Aug.,  52,  443. 
Reese,    Wm.    M  ,    52,  480, 

501. 

Renneau,  R.,  49.  • 
Report  Bond    Committee, 

470. 
Resolution,  24, 95,  440,  450,. 

483. 

Retrenchment,  161. 
Review  of  Parties,  455. 
Rice,  G.  D.,  52. 
Rice,  J.  H.,  52, 
Rice,  Sally,  95. 
Richardson,  C.  B.,  439. 
Richmond  Examw-r,  236. 
Rising  Fawn  Iron  Co.,  489, 
Rivers  of  State,  6. 
Rockwell,  W.  S.,  53. 
Roll  of  Troops,  257. 
Rosecrans,  Gen.,  217,  219. 
Ruger,  Gen.,  432. 
Rutherford,  J.,  53. 

Sabbath,     Christian,    160, 

239. 

Saffold,  T.  P.,  52,  417. 
Sanders,  B.  M.,  49. 
Sanford,  J.  W.  A.,  186. 
Salt,  241. 

Sav.,Fla.  £  W.  R.  R,,  499. 
Schley,  G.,  52. 
Schley,  J.,  52. 
Schlev,  W.,  40,  52. 
Schools,  19,  20. 
Schools,  Common,  146. 
Scott,  Daulap,  480. 
Scott,  Gen.,  211,  217. 
Scott,  T.  A.,  484. 
Screven,  Capt.,  179. 
Scrutchins,  T.,  483. 
Seago,  A.  K.,  483. 
Secession,    170,    174,    177, 

199,411,424. 
Seddon,  Jas.  A.,  319,325, 

330,  345-348. 
Seizure  Arms,  183. 
Semmes,  P.  J.,   180,  245, 

246. 

Senator  J.  E.  Brown,  524. 
Seward,  J.  L ,  41,  45. 
Seward,  W.  H.,413. 
Shackelford,  A.  J).,  102. 
Sherman,  Gen.,  310,  318, 

320. 

Shorter,  E.  S.,  42. 
Shorter,  J.  G.,  185. 
Silver  Question,  562. 
Simmons,  J.  P  ,  54. 


INDEX. 


785 


Simmons,  Thomas  J.,  466. 
Simms,  R.,  53. 
Slavery,  71,  230,  414. 
Smith,  Gen.  G.VW.,  318. 
Smith,  J.  M.,  54. 
Smith,  Gen.  Kirby, 223,320. 
Smith,  L.  B.,  54. 
Smith,  Gov.,  463,  464,  495, 

498. 

Societies,  22,  23. 
Soil  of  State,  9. 
South  Carolina,  168,  172, 

184,  185,   186,   200,   206, 
320,  432. 

South  Ga.  &  Fla.  R.  R.,  472, 

Southern  R.  R.  and  Steam 
ship  Association,  490. 

Southwestern  R.  R.,  484. 

Spaulding,  R.,  102. 

Spear,  A.  M.,  54. 

Spear,  E.,  50,  560. 

Speeches,  525,  529,  560, 
562. 

Speer,  Emory,  560. 

Spurlock,  J.  M.,  102. 

Stafford,  S.  S.,  54. 

Stark,  J.  H.,  37. 

Starnes,  E.,  53. 

State  Bonds,  250. 

State  Convention,  71 

State  Forces,  245,  256. 

State  Geologist,  158. 

State  Road,  88. 

State  University,  152,  156, 
577,  586. 

Steel,  J.  D.,  102. 

Stell,  J.  D.,  55 

Stephens,  A.  H.,39,  47,  51, 
64,  71,80,82,  83,92,  100, 

185,  236,  417    424,  450, 
452,  484,  497,  589. 

Stephens,  L.,  51, 67,  68,102, 

449,  452. 

Stewart,  J.  A.,  439. 
Stocks,  T.,55. 
Stone,  Gen.,  234. 
Sturgis,  J.,  63. 
Styles,  W.  H.,  38,  86,  87. 
Suroter,  Fort,  185. 
Supplement,  495. 
Supreme  Court,  61, 62. 

Talmage,  S.  K.,  49. 
Tanner,  W.  J.,  483. 
Tariff,  562,  565. 
Tatnall,  Com.,  184. 
50 


Taylor,  Gen.  Dick,  3 12,3 16. 
Tax,  War,  263. 
Temperance,  80. 
i  Tennessee,   168,  172,    186, 

197,  200,  206,  248,  320. 
Terry,  Gen  ,  433,  462. 
Texas,  168,  172,   173,  186, 

432. 

Thomas,  G.  E.,  63. 
Thomas,  T.  W.,  37,  53. 
Thompson,  Gen.  Jeff.,  233. 
Thornton,  B.  E  ,  54. 
Thornton,  V.,  49. 
Thoward,  S.  P.,  54. 
Tidwell,  M.  M.,  54. 
Tilden-Hayes  Election,5     . 
Timber  of  State,  10 
Toombs,   R.,  39,57,  71,  80, 

82,    105,    184,    229,    316, 

318,  424,  448,  587,  591. 
Towns,  14. 
Towns,    G.  W.,  34,  38,  43, 

77,  102,  103,  104,  131. 
Tracy,  E.  D.,  51,  52. 
Tracy,  P.,  51,  52. 
Trammell,  L.  N.,  464,  498. 
Transfer  Troops,   181,248, 

249. 

Treasury  Notes,  253. 
Trippe,  R.  P.,  40,  53, 102. 
Trippe,  T.  H.,  37. 
Troops,  208,  256. 
Troup,  G.  M.,  34,38,75. 
Tucker,  H.  H.,  49. 
Tucker,  J.  A.,  53. 
Turner,  A.,  49. 
Tyler,  Jno  ,  198. 

Underwood,  J.  W.  H.,   53, 

65. 

Underwood,  W.  H  ,  56,  59. 
University  of  Georgia,  152, 

156,  577,  569. 

Vason,  D.  H.,  52. 

Vason,  W.  J.,  186. 

Veto  Power,  111,  115,  117, 

121,  128. 
Virginia,  168, 172, 197,  200, 

217,320,  432. 
Vote  on  Secession,  174.177. 
Vote  for  U.  S.  Senator,  561. 

Waddell,  I,  49. 

Waitzf elder  &  Co.,  419, 484. 

Walker,  D.  A.,  465. 


Walker  Iron  &  Coal  Co., 

503. 
Walker,  Gen.   W.   H.   T., 

245,  250. 

Wallace,  Campbell,  498. 
Wallace,  J.R,  483. 
Wallace,  W.  S  ,  54. 
Walters,  W.  T.,  484. 
War  Contracts,  412. 
War  Debt,  412. 
War  Losses,  308. 
War  Tax,  263. 
Ward,  J.  E.,  53. 
Warner,  H.,  39,  52,  81,  86, 

87,  487,  591. 
Warner,  J  C.,  489. 
Warner,  O.,  52,  54. 
Warren,  Eli,  48,  51. 
Warren ,  Lott,  48,51. 
Water  Power  of  State,  7. 
Wayne,  Gen.,  246, 314, 316. 
Wayne,  J  M.,  36. 
Wellborn,  M.  J.,  63. 
West  Virginia,  206. 
Western    Atlantic    R.   R., 

88,  103,    130,    473,    480, 
490,  501,  503. 

Whitaker,J.  I,  255,  418. 
White,  A.  J.,  483. 
White,  C.,  59. 
White,  T.  W.,  186. 
Whittle,  L.  N.,  588. 
Williams,  C.  J.,  180. 
Williams,  H.,  53. 
Williams,  Gen  J.  S.,  234. 
Willingham,  C.  H.  C.,  439. 
Wilson,  Gen,  311. 
Wilson,  J.  S.,  49. 
Wingfield,  J.,  52. 
Wofford,  W.  B.,  55,  102. 
Wofford,  W.  T.,  54 
Worrell,  B.  S.,  51. 
Worrell,  E.  H.,  38,  51, 102. 
Worrell,  J.,  51. 
Wright,  A  ,  49. 
Wright,  Ambrose  R.,  54. 
Wright,  Augustus  R.,   53, 

65,  185,  186,  194. 
Wright,  G.  J.,  51. 
Wright,  W.  F.,  51. 
Wyley,  B.  F.,  483. 

Yancey,  W.  L.,  196. 

Zollicoffer,  Gen.,  232. 
Zouave,  214. 


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